Salty Skin

It's both painful and insulting to rub salt in a wound. But a new study shows that salty skin can [actually:definitely] ward off infections, at least in mice fed a high-sodium diet. That's according to a study in the journal Cell Metabolism.We tend to think of dietary salt as a health threat. And it is. Too much sodium has been linked to high blood [pressure:sugar] and an [increased:immediate] risk for heart attack and stroke.But we also crave salty snacks and store the accumulated sodium in our bodies, [particularly:noticed] in the skin.A clue to explaining this paradox came when [researchers:scientists] noticed that mice that were attacked by a cage mate wound up with an unusually large amount of sodium at the site of the bite. They then found high sodium levels in people at the locations of [bacterial:harmonal] skin infections.So the researchers fed mice a high-sodium diet. And found that the dietary salt boosted the [activity:practice] of immune cells in the animals' skin, which gave them a leg up when it came to healing their wounds.The findings could lead to treatments that would help us assault infections without having to resort to pretzels, potato chips or pickles.