Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/NQxpwpddiYs   Those pretzels, chips, and pasta sauce may weaken your immune defenses against bacteria and viruses including CoVid19.  Immunologists at Germany’s University of Bonn trace the effects of your liberal self-shaking on your host defenses.   When you eat abundant salt, your kidneys seek to flush it out to maintain a safe concentration around your cells.  In so doing, glucocorticoid steroid levels in your body rise, and these steroids suppress your immunity.  Their studies in both mice and men confirm this effect.   Given our current coronavirus epidemic, you can’t afford to given an advantage to invading viruses or bacteria.  Cut out the salty foods and gorge on fruits and vegetables as you social distance.    Katarzyna Jobin, Natascha E. Stumpf, Sebastian Schwab, etal. A high-salt diet compromises antibacterial neutrophil responses through hormonal perturbation. Science Translational Medicine, 2020 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aay3850   #covid19 #coronavirus #salt #immunit