A new study has recently revealed that salt accumulation in skin and tissue can help ward off infections.
Salt stores might be nature’s way of providing a barrier to microbial invasion and boosting immune defenses. The researchers found that salt increased the activation of infection-fighting macrophages, a type of white blood cell .
The researchers also tested the effect of an extremely high-salt diet in mice with persistent footpad infections. Salt stores at the site of the infection increased after consumption of the high-salt diet, and the infections cleared up.
The latest finding suggested that age-related salt accumulation by the skin might be a compensatory response to declining cellular barrier function and microbe entry.
