05:59:00
Scientists at the University of Wyoming found that a
high-salt diet can delay puberty and even impact your reproductive health.
For the study, researchers
fed rats diets with a variety of salt levels and monitored the effects.
Those that were fed a
high-salt diet (equivalent to three or four times the recommended daily
allowance for humans — which is surprisingly easy to ingest) had a significant
delay in reaching puberty than those that were fed a normal, low-salt diet.
Rats that had no salt in their diets also had a delay in reaching puberty.
Delayed puberty is linked
to reduced fertility, according to research from Italy’s National Institute of Health, as well as behavioral problems
and stress.
But it’s not just puberty
that’s directly affected.
Study author Dori
Pitynski says that she’s currently doing new research on why salt causes delayed puberty and believes that salt changes the levels
of reproductive neurotransmitters in the brain.
“By demonstrating salt can
affect puberty, then it is likely that salt can affect other reproductive
health,” she tells Yahoo Health.
These findings are troubling given that the average
American consumes way more salt than is recommended.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average
American ingests 3,400 milligrams of sodium a day.
But the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services recommends that people consume less than 2,300 milligrams of
sodium each day.
Those who have high blood
pressure, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease should have no more than 1,500
milligrams a day.
While rats experienced a
delayed onset in puberty, there’s no current data on salt intake and
reproductive health in humans, fertility specialist Wendy Chang, MD, scientific
director at the Southern California Reproductive Center tells Yahoo Health.
She calls the study
results “interesting,” especially since teens on average are hitting puberty
younger.
0 comments:
Post a Comment