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• Posted April 17, 2026

Memory Problems? Your Salt Intake Could Make Matters Worse, Study Says

Reaching for the salt shaker could have long-lasting implications for your memory and brain health, a new study says.

Higher sodium intake appears to affect episodic memory, the type of memory used to recall personal experiences and specific events from your past, researchers report in the June issue of the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

This effect – which could cause one to forget anything from where they parked the car to their first day of school – occurred mainly among men, researchers found.

No such associations were observed among women in the study, researchers said.

“The male participants also exhibited higher blood pressure, which is influenced by sodium intake, but further investigation is definitely required into sex-specific approaches and how sodium intake could be incorporated as one modifiable lifestyle factor aimed at delaying Alzheimer’s disease onset,” senior researcher Samantha Gardener, a post-doctoral research fellow at Edith Cowan University in Australia, said in a news release.

For the new study, researchers assessed the salt intake of more than 1,200 people over a six-year period, of whom 41% were men.

Participants’ brain function was assessed at 18-month intervals using a battery of cognitive tests, researchers said.

Results showed that men who started out with higher sodium intake had a faster decline in their episodic recall.

The study was not designed to explain this association, and cannot draw a direct cause-and-effect link between sodium and memory, researchers noted.

Gardener said that sodium might contribute inflammation in the brain, damage to blood vessels and reduced blood flow to the brain.

“Our findings provide early evidence of a link between higher sodium intake and cognitive function, but more research is needed to fully understand how and why this relationship exists,” Gardener said.

“There is some indication from previous studies that high sodium may contribute to processes in the brain associated with cognitive decline; however, further investigation will be critical to determine the underlying mechanisms and inform future dietary recommendations aimed at reducing dementia risk,” she added.

The U.S. recommends that people consume less than 2,300 milligrams per day of sodium, either in their food or as added salt.

By comparison, researchers noted that about 2,000 milligrams of sodium can be found in one teaspoon of table salt; three to four slices of pizza; two burgers; 10 ounces of salted peanuts; and 5 to 6 ounces of deli meat.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more on sodium in Americans’ diets.

SOURCE: Edith Cowan University, news release, April 14, 2026