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Scientists: Salt deficiency triggers mechanisms similar to heroin addiction
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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As shown by a joint study of American and Australian scientists, salt is addictive, and in the case of a deficiency of this substance, the same genetic and neurological mechanisms are triggered as with nicotine, heroin or cocaine addiction, Daily Mail writes citing the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to experts, we are talking about the "ancient instinct" embedded in the brain, which reflects the importance of salt for the human body. According to Professor Derek Denton of Melbourne University, "in this study, we showed that such a classic instinct as the thirst for salt provides a neural organization that serves addiction to opiates and cocaine."
Along the way, a "very significant evolutionary mechanism" was discovered (the tabloid again quotes Denton), whose essence is that the signal about entering the body of salt reaches the brain much faster than there after the assimilation by the digestive system with the bloodstream will the substance itself get into, namely, for about ten minutes. This makes animals, including humans, less vulnerable to predators, researchers are convinced.
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