3 ms·

Based on the abstract, right now all they're saying is that there's a correlation in a study of less than 60 patients. That's going to lead to some significant

Based on the abstract, right now all they're saying is that there's a correlation in a study of less than 60 patients. That's going to lead to some significant additional studies, but anything definitive out of those is going to take time since part of what's being studied is slowly-increasing cognitive deficit. Size-wise, it's probably comparable to the significance of the studies a few years back showing that intestinal parasites (whipworms/helminths) are strongly correlated with reduced MS symptoms and relapses - last I heard there are ongoing studies in that area as well, but I don't know that I'd advocate going and getting wormy. Among the studies likely already in the starting phases: * Are similar accumulations and cognitive issues seen in non-MS study participants? Is this indicative of a wider-spread issue but happened to be noticed first in a population that's more actively studied? Does a college diet of ramen, canned goods and frozen pizza make you stupid? * Does a low-sodium diet impact the accumulation of sodium in brain tissues in patients with MS? Test participants generally? I'd expect preliminary work on this to happen by recruiting people already on medically-mandated low sodium diets, but a better-controlled study would take years. * Are there practices or treatments that are effective at lowering the sodium load in brain tissue, or is what's there basically "locked in" in a format that's semi-permanent? Using another reactive metal as an example, is this the equivalent of calcium chloride that washes away or is this blobs of cement mucking things up? * (half joking) Are intestinal parasites correlated with lowered sodium in the brain? That's not to say it's a bad idea to reduce sodium intake, because reducing sodium is almost certainly great for your health not just because of lower sodium but because that reduction is probably accomplished in part by switching from highly-processed foods preserved with salt to fresher foods.

kevinalexbrown 10y ago
> right now all they're saying is that there's a correlation in a study of less than 60 patients Sort-of. Many recent studies had already suggested a role of sodium accumulation in brain tissue loss in MS. Previous work had also shown significant sodium accumulation in regions where there was no apparent cell death, suggesting that cell-death does not drive measured sodium concentrations. What's cool about this result is 1) that sodium measurements from the brain are better indicators of cognitive defects than actual death of brain cells. 2) Abnormal sodium accumulation occurred in neocortex, which is the first place you'd suspect cognitive impairment to originate. That's a correlation across patients, and brain areas, suggesting at the least that NaMRI is a good tool for early MS detection. I doubt it's dietary sodium. Likely, sodium accumulation occurs when normal processes are disrupted. I wouldn't expect increased sodium in your diet to lead directly to increased sodium in selective areas of the brain (could be wrong here).
- fencepost 10y ago
  Argh, I completely blew past noting that what they weren't saying was that sodium was the problem, that it was quite possible that the sodium buildup was the result of other problems that were the problem. Thanks for clarifying.
Mz 10y ago
That's not to say it's a bad idea to reduce sodium intake Without knowing what's going on, we have no idea if reducing sodium would help or would make things worse. I have a genetic disorder. People with it are prone to getting osteoporosis at early ages, yet there are also people with the condition who actively avoid calcium because calcium build up in the cells is known to precede cell death and they fear that. I think they have it backwards and our cells hoard calcium (as well as glutathione) because it is protective against worse things. That's not anything I can prove and I don't have literature to point to at the moment to readily back up the general line of thought here. But build up of salt in the tissues is not proof that the salt is causative. It may be in reaction to some other process that is the real problem and as long as we do not understand the process here, jumping to such conclusions is incredibly problematic. It might be a nice thing to do a study on though to see if cutting salt slows mental deterioration in MS patients.

kevinalexbrown 10y ago

> right now all they're saying is that there's a correlation in a study of less than 60 patients Sort-of. Many recent studies had already suggested a role of sodium accumulation in brain tissue loss in MS. Previous work had also shown significant sodium accumulation in regions where there was no apparent cell death, suggesting that cell-death does not drive measured sodium concentrations. What's cool about this result is 1) that sodium measurements from the brain are better indicators of cognitive defects than actual death of brain cells. 2) Abnormal sodium accumulation occurred in neocortex, which is the first place you'd suspect cognitive impairment to originate. That's a correlation across patients, and brain areas, suggesting at the least that NaMRI is a good tool for early MS detection. I doubt it's dietary sodium. Likely, sodium accumulation occurs when normal processes are disrupted. I wouldn't expect increased sodium in your diet to lead directly to increased sodium in selective areas of the brain (could be wrong here).

fencepost 10y ago
Argh, I completely blew past noting that what they weren't saying was that sodium was the problem, that it was quite possible that the sodium buildup was the result of other problems that were the problem. Thanks for clarifying.

Mz 10y ago

That's not to say it's a bad idea to reduce sodium intake Without knowing what's going on, we have no idea if reducing sodium would help or would make things worse. I have a genetic disorder. People with it are prone to getting osteoporosis at early ages, yet there are also people with the condition who actively avoid calcium because calcium build up in the cells is known to precede cell death and they fear that. I think they have it backwards and our cells hoard calcium (as well as glutathione) because it is protective against worse things. That's not anything I can prove and I don't have literature to point to at the moment to readily back up the general line of thought here. But build up of salt in the tissues is not proof that the salt is causative. It may be in reaction to some other process that is the real problem and as long as we do not understand the process here, jumping to such conclusions is incredibly problematic. It might be a nice thing to do a study on though to see if cutting salt slows mental deterioration in MS patients.