By offering an explanation as to how eating too much salt may contribute to the disease, a new study improves our understanding of what can trigger multiple sclerosis in some people.

Share on Pinterest Researchers found a high salt intake may raise the risk of MS for people genetically susceptible to the condition.

The study suggests that while high intake of salt may be a risk factor for multiple sclerosis (MS), it is likely to be so only in people with a genetic risk. Also, for some genetic risk groups, high salt intake is more likely to be a trigger for the disease in women than in men.

MS is a debilitating disease where the immune system attacks nerve tissue in the brain, spinal cord and optic nerve. Genetics and environment are thought to be risk factors, as is gender – incidence in women has roughly tripled in the last century.

Previous studies have hinted at high salt intake as one of the environmental risk factors for MS, but have not gone so far as to explain how it interacts with other factors and what the underlying disease mechanism might be.

Now, a new study from the University of Vermont in Burlington offers some answers, as Dr. Dimitry N. Krementsov, first author and immunobiology researcher, explains:

“We hope to provide a comprehensive understanding of how and why environmental factors interact with individuals’ unique genetic makeup to influence autoimmune diseases such as MS.”

For their study, the team used three genetically different groups of mice and fed them either a diet high in salt or a control diet with normal levels of salt. They then induced a disease called autoimmune encephalomyelitis in the mice – the closest mimic to MS in humans.

The results were different in the three genetic groups. In one group, both males and females fed a high-salt diet showed worse symptoms of MS.

In the second genetic group, only the females a high-salt diet showed worse symptoms of MS, while in the third group, high salt intake did not affect MS symptoms.