Researchers at the National Institutes of Health are experimenting with sodium nitrite—a common hot dog preservative—as a treatment for a variety of ailments such as sickle cell anemia, heart attacks and brain aneurisms. Nitrite may be able to help problems with low oxygen, which can contribute to some of the problems mentioned above.
"The idea it's bad for you has not played out," said one researcher of the oft-maligned preservative. "The fact it was linked to hot dogs gave it a bad name."














