Excessive dietary sodium intake is associated with active atopic dermatitis (AD) and increased AD severity, according to a study published in . JAMA Dermatology.1
Researchers explained that lifestyle and environmental factors contribute to the prevalence and activity of Alzheimer's disease. However, the role of specific exposures in promoting the onset and persistence of Alzheimer's disease remains poorly understood. Therefore, identification Specific changeable exposure Important for patients and their caregivers.2
revealed in past research diet as a potential major factor in the onset and persistence of Alzheimer's disease.3 More specifically, fast food consumption increased young people's risk of Alzheimer's disease by 20% and their risk of severe Alzheimer's disease by 70%. Therefore, excessive sodium intake, often found in fast food, may be associated with Alzheimer's disease.
Because data on this association is lacking, researchers set out to investigate the potential association between high levels of sodium intake and the prevalence, severity, and activity of Alzheimer's disease at the population level. A cross-sectional study was conducted.1
Researchers have associated dietary sodium intake with active atopic dermatitis (AD) and increased AD severity. |Image credit: EdNurg – Stock.adobe.com
To conduct the study, the researchers used: UK Biobanka population-based cohort of over 500,000 participants aged 37 to 73 years from the National Health Service in England, Wales and Scotland.4 For each patient, we analyzed primary care records and data collected at visit assessments from March 31, 2006 to October 1, 2010.1;At the evaluation visit, patients underwent clinical measurements, completed a questionnaire, and provided a spot urine sample.
The primary exposure is 24-hour urinary sodium excretion, which represents approximately 90% of the 24-hour dietary sodium intake. Researchers calculated each patient's 24-hour dietary sodium intake using the International Collaborative Study on Salt, Other Factors, and Blood Pressure (INTERSALT) equation, which takes into account BMI, age, and urinary concentrations of sodium, creatinine, and potassium. I calculated the amount.
Additionally, the primary outcome was AD. Researchers identified AD patients using an algorithm that required at least one relevant clinical read code and two different AD treatment prescription dates. They considered the latter of the two prescription dates to be the AD diagnosis date. Researchers classified patients as having active AD if their diagnosis date was before the assessment visit and they had at least one clinical or prescription AD code within 2 years before or after the urine sample collection date.
By default, they classified AD patients as having mild AD. However, researchers considered people to have moderate Alzheimer's disease if they received at least two prescriptions for strong topical corticosteroids or topical calcineurin inhibitors. They classified patients prescribed systemic immunotherapy as having severe Alzheimer's disease.
After adjusting for possible Alzheimer's disease risk factors such as gender, age, and race, multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate grams of 24-hour urinary sodium excretion, Alzheimer's disease, and active Alzheimer's disease. We investigated the relationship between The researchers also used an ordinal logistic regression model to assess the association between estimated 24-hour urinary sodium excretion and Alzheimer's disease severity, adjusting for the same covariates.
They validated their results using publicly available data from the US-based National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Within this database, AD was measured by self-report in a patient survey, and sodium intake was measured using a 24-hour dietary recall questionnaire. The researchers used a logistic regression model to estimate the association between Alzheimer's disease and sodium intake and compared it with the UK Biobank study.
Researchers initially identified 221,964 patients in the UK Biobank who had completed spot urine sample collection and had available primary health records. However, 6,132 patients with missing data or negative INTERSALT values were excluded. Consequently, the study population consisted of 215,832 patients, the majority of whom were female (54.3%) and Caucasian (95.2%). The mean (SD) age of the population was 56.52 (8.06) years. Researchers identified 10,839 (5.0%) patients with AD, of whom 4,813 (44.4%) were classified as having moderate AD and 320 (3.0%) as having severe AD. Of this subpopulation, 1,282 individuals (11.8% of AD patients) had active AD.
Furthermore, the mean estimated 24-hour urinary sodium excretion was 3.01 (0.82) g/day. The results showed that each 1g higher in estimated 24-hour urinary sodium excretion was associated with a higher probability of Alzheimer's disease (adjusted OR). [aOR]1.11; 95% CI, 1.07-1.14; P < .001), active AD (aOR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.05-1.28; P < .001) and increased AD severity (aOR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.07-1.15).
Finally, the NHANES validation cohort consisted of 13,014 patients. Of this cohort, 1493 reported AD in the past year and 794 reported current AD. The mean dietary sodium intake was 3.45 (0.73) g. More specifically, mean dietary sodium intake was 3.47 (0.61) g for those with current Alzheimer's disease and 3.44 (0.74) g for those without. Similar to the UK Biobank results, a 1 g/day increase in dietary sodium intake was associated with an increased risk of current AD (aOR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.01-1.47) and a small increase in past-year AD risk. A significant association was found in the increase in aOR (aOR). , 1.14; 95% CI, 0.97-1.35).
Researchers acknowledge its limitations. One is to use a single spot urine sample to estimate 24-hour urinary sodium excretion. It only records dietary intake over the past 24 hours and is not the best measure of long-term sodium intake. Despite these limitations, the researchers suggested areas for future research based on their findings.
“Our study opens the possibility for future research into dietary sodium restriction as a cost-effective, low-risk, and widely available intervention in Alzheimer's disease,” the authors concluded. .
References
1. Chiang BM, Ye M, Chattopadhyay A, Halezeroglu Y, Van Blarigan EL, Abuabara K. Sodium intake and atopic dermatitis. JAMA Dermatol. Published online June 5, 2024. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2024.1544
2. Kim RW, Barta K, Begorka WS, et al. Qualitative analysis of the impact of atopic dermatitis on caregivers. Br J Dermatol. 2022;187(6):1038-1041. doi:10.1111/bjd.21828
3. Elwood P, Asher MI, Garcia-Marcos L, et al. Does fast food cause asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema? Global findings from the third phase of the International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Children (ISAAC). rib cage. 2013;68(4):351-360. doi:10.1136/thoraxjnl-2012-202285
4. Sudlow C, Gallasher J, Allen N, et al. UK Biobank: An open-access resource for identifying the causes of a range of complex diseases in middle-aged and older adults. PLoSMed. 2015;12(3):e1001779. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001779
