A high-salt diet may negatively affect cognitive function by causing a deficiency of the compound nitric oxide, which is vital for maintaining vascular health in the brain, according to a new study in mice from Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.
When nitric oxide levels are too low, chemical changes to the protein tau occur in the brain, contributing to dementia. In the study, published Oct. 23 in Nature, the investigators sought to understand the series of events that occur between salt consumption and poor cognition and concluded that lowering salt intake and maintaining healthy blood vessels in the brain may “stave off” dementia.
Accumulation of tau deposits has been implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s disease in humans.
“Our study proposes a new mechanism by which salt mediates cognitive impairment and also provides further evidence of a link between dietary habits and cognitive function,” said lead study author Dr. Giuseppe Faraco, an assistant professor of research in neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Read more at Cornell University
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