Can A High-Salt Diet Aggravate Asthma?

Can eating too much salt take your breath away?

No one knows precisely how salt creates such havoc, but for his part, Mickleborough thinks using the information to reduce breathless episodes is most important. “In the Western world food is full of salt,” he notes. “Certainly, if you’re asthmatic or an exercised-induced asthmatic, you’ve got to stay away from fast foods and the salt shaker at the table.”

Bottom line: If you have asthma, you might breathe easier if you watch salt and avoid processed food (where over three-quarters of the salt we eat comes from).
—Rachael Moeller Gorman