Emerging evidence suggests that a high-salt diet alters the gut microbiome, particularly in animal models of salt-sensitive hypertension, but there is little human data. Blood levels of SCFAs can be considered an indicator of the health of the gut microbiome. The increased SCFA levels they found were consistently associated with lower blood pressure and increased blood vessel flexibility. “Sodium is a factor in both sexes but the impact in relationship to the gut microbiome seems more in females. The gut microbiome can have 200 times more genes than the 20,000 gene human genome and weighs up to five pounds.

Source: Hindustan Times June 10, 2020 09:31 UTC