July 26/London/Globe and Mail -- Researcher Todd Alexander and his team of experts have just discovered a critical link between sodium and calcium after completing a study using animal lab models and cells as test cases.

Their findings, published in the American Journal of Physiology, show that both calcium and sodium appear to be regulated by the same molecule in the body.

Alexander explains, "When the body tries to get rid of sodium via the urine, our findings suggest the body also gets rid of calcium at the same time. This is significant because we are eating more and more sodium in our diets, which means our bodies are getting rid of more and more calcium. Our findings reinforce why it is important to have a low-sodium diet and why it is important to have lower sodium levels in processed foods."

Simply put, eating a lot of salt will cannibalize the calcium in the body, ultimately increasing the risk of osteoporosis. When consuming the salt, it also pulls the calcium out of the body with it, via urine. High levels of calcium in the urine can lead to the development of kidney stones.

In essence, eating a lot of salt will decrease the amount of calcium in the body (a huge factor in the development of osteoporosis) and increase the level of calcium in urine (a huge factor in the development of kidney stones). A lose/lose situation all around.

Up until now, it was known that high-sodium diets were unhealthy but there was never a proven link between calcium and sodium.