(Source: File Photo)In mice, the high-salt diet reduced the resting cerebral blood flow by 28 per cent in the cortex and 25 per cent in the hippocampus brain regions involved in learning and memory. “We discovered that mice fed a high-salt diet developed dementia even when blood pressure did not rise,” said Costantino Iadecola, Professor at the Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. “This was surprising since, in humans, the deleterious effects of salt on cognition were attributed to hypertension,” Iadecola added. It appears to counteract the cerebrovascular and cognitive effects of a high-salt diet,” explained Giuseppe Faraco, Assistant Professor at the varsity. The results illuminate a potential future target for countering harmful effects to the brain caused by excess salt consumption.

Source: Indian Express January 17, 2018 12:31 UTC