Natural sea salt consumption confers protection against hypertension and kidney damage in Dahl salt-sensitive rats

Abstract

Although sea salts are widely available to consumers nowadays, whether its consumption over refined salt has any real health benefits is largely unknown. This study was conducted to compare hypertension-inducing propensity of natural sea salt (SS) to refined salt (RS) in a well-established animal model of hypertension. Five groups of male Dahl salt-sensitive rats were fed rat chow diet supplemented with various amounts of salt for 15 weeks. The groups were: control (CON, n = 10), 4% RS (RS4), 4% SS (SS4), 8% RS (RS8), 8% SS (SS8) (n = 12 for each group). After 15 weeks, both SS4 and SS8 groups had significantly lower systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) compared to RS4 and RS8 rats, respectively. RS8 rats had markedly higher SBP and DBP compared to all other groups. Echocardiography just prior to sacrifice showed abnormalities in RS4, SS8 and RS8 hearts, while CON and SS4 hearts displayed normal measurements. Plasma renin and aldosterone levels of high salt groups were lower than those of CON, and serum electrolytes were similar amongst all groups. Abnormal kidney pathology and high glomerulosclerosis index scores were seen in RS4 and RS8 rats, but SS4 and SS8 kidneys showed relatively normal morphology similar to CON kidneys. Our findings show that consumption of natural sea salt induces less hypertension compared to refined salt in the Dahl salt-sensitive rat.

High‐salt intake reduces renal tissue levels of inflammatory cytokines in mice

“…Although it is generally perceived that a HS diet is usually associated with the induction of higher biomarkers of inflammation, most of these findings are observed in population studies in which HS diets are often coded for subjective food associated with more fat and protein‐rich diets, which could be skewing some of these results (Zhu et al., 2014). An interesting recent study also suggested that consumption of refined salt, but not natural sea‐salt, induces hypertension and cause abnormal kidney pathology in Dahl salt‐sensitive rats (Lee et al., 2017). Thus, there exists a complex relationship between salt intake and immunity development in the human body.…”

Insights into the pulmonary vascular complications of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction

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Alleviation of Metabolic Disturbance by Substituting Kanjang High in Bacillus for Salt through Modulation of Gut Microbiota in Estrogen-Deficient Rats

“…Although their relationship remains controversial, a high salt intake induces hypertension in salt-sensitive persons. It has been reported that different salt types influence metabolic disturbances differently [32]. For example, bamboo and solar salts have less hypertensive effects because they contain higher mineral contents, such as potassium and magnesium [32].…”

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