Salty Diet Might Help Trigger MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis

Studies found it activated cells in the immune system, resulting in form of MS in rodents

March 6, 2013 RSS Feed Print

Should consumers who are concerned about autoimmune disease switch to a low-salt diet, even before tests in humans have been done?

"If I had an autoimmune disease, I would put myself on a low-salt diet now," Hafler said. "It's not a bad thing to do. But we have to do more studies to prove it."

O'Shea agreed. "But the extent to which salt is important, I think we don't know. These papers show it experimentally, but we still can't be sure," he said.

More information

To learn more about low-salt diets, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.