For many people with high blood pressure and heart disease, reducing salt consumption can be vital for overall health. Despite knowing the potential side effects from eating too much salt, people seem to have a tough time cutting it out, but according to a new study that identified a gene linked to hypertension and salt cravings, there might be a way to reduce these urges.
For this study, the researchers at the University of Edinburgh/British Heart Foundation Center for Cardiovascular Science set out to examine the brain's role in controlling one's appetite for salt in mice models. They experimented on one group of mice by removing a gene that could be found in cells that are located in the brain. The researchers knew that the gene was associated with blood pressure in humans, but they did not know what the mechanisms behind this link were.
The researchers compared salt cravings in the altered mice group to the cravings in the control group, which included mice that did not have the gene removed, by offering them a bowl of clean water and a bowl of saltwater. The researchers found that mice without the gene drank three-times more saltwater than the mice with the gene did. The altered mice also appeared to be more sensitive to salt.
The mice without the gene, as expected, developed hypertension. Once the saltwater was removed and the altered mice could no longer drink it, their blood pressure levels returned back to normal.
The findings suggest that since the gene appears to play a specific role in controlling people's appetite, it can be a target for future medicines aimed to curb salt cravings in heart disease and hypertensive patients.
"In the UK we routinely eat much more salt than our bodies need," said Dr. Matthew Bailey, the lead investigator of the study. "For most people this is bad for our heart, blood vessels and kidneys. Our study shows that we have a genetic drive to consume salty food. Understanding how this process works may help us reduce the amount of salt we eat and make it easier for people to follow low-salt diets."
The researchers will be studying an affordable heart disease drug that is currently used in some countries to see if it can be effective at helping patients limit their salt intake.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends people with or at risk for hypertension to adopt a healthier lifestyle, which includes eating less salt and more potassium. The CDC also advises people to maintain a healthy weight and to exercise regularly.
The study was published in the journal Circulation.