Excessive salt intake may trigger eczema symptoms

Researchers have found that people with the skin condition have higher levels of sodium in their urine, suggesting that excessive salt intake may be linked to eczema.

Over 200 million people Eczema affects many people around the world and is a skin condition that causes dry, cracked, itchy skin. Common causes include irritants in soaps and detergents, as well as environmental and food allergens. Previous studies have shown that: Frequent fast food consumption linked to increased risk of severe eczema For the children.

To see if salt plays a role, Katrina Abuaballah Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) looked at urine sample data from more than 215,800 adults who took part in the UK Biobank study, more than 10,800 of whom had eczema.

The researchers used each participant's urine sample to estimate urinary sodium excretion over a 24-hour period. About 90% of dietary sodium is excreted in the urine.This waste product therefore provides a relatively reliable way of measuring a person's salt intake.

Overall, study participants were estimated to have excreted an average of 3.01 grams of sodium in their urine over a 24-hour period. Typically around 2.5 grams per dayThis is the equivalent of 6 grams of salt, or 1 teaspoon.

The researchers found that for every gram of sodium excreted, participants were 11 percent more likely to be diagnosed with eczema, and their risk of ever developing eczema at any one time increased by 16 percent.

The team acknowledges that a single urine sample may not accurately reflect an individual's typical salt intake, but in another part of the study, the researchers looked at the daily diet of a different group of more than 13,000 U.S. adults and found further correlations between high salt intake and eczema.

In previous studies, Sodium activates immune system cells“The immune system responds to allergens and irritants in a way that triggers several inflammatory pathways,” Abuaballah said. People with eczema have an overactive immune response to allergens and irritants, which causes skin inflammation and subsequent symptoms.

Although the study suggests a link between high urinary sodium levels and eczema, team members say more research is needed to prove that the former causes the latter. Brenda Chanalso at UCSF.

“It's too early to say whether lowering sodium in the diet can reduce the severity or risk of developing eczema,” he said. Karsten Flor At King's College London.

Abuaballah said her team will soon begin enrolling participants for a National Institutes of Health-funded study that will look at the relationship between dietary sodium, sodium levels on the skin, and eczema severity.