A high-salt diet helped gut bacteria fight cancer in lab mice. This appears to be due to an interaction between the gut microbiome and normal immune cells.

We all know very well how dangerous salt is to health, or rather its high level in the diet. High salt levels increase the risk of developing high blood pressure, which is the biggest risk factor for stroke. Now it has been shown that a diet rich in salt limits the growth of tumors in experimental mice. This was when gut bacteria were present to stimulate immune T cells.

The findings raise new questions about the role of diet and gut microbiota in the development of malignancies in humans. This isn’t the first study to link the diet to higher levels of salt and reduced tumors. But now the authors have demonstrated the unique mechanistic role of salt-induced changes in the gut microbiome as a key phenomenon underlying the observed anticancer effect. The experiments were conducted at the University of Tennessee, where the effects of salt on cancer have long been studied.

Previously, some scientific studies linked high levels of salt in the diet to the development of autoimmune diseases. This suggests that salt directly stimulates immune cells. Meanwhile, tumors are known to only grow in an immune-suppressing environment. Therefore, stimulating it will slow down the growth of the tumor, which occurs in the course of laboratory tests.