Aluminum and Alzheimer
The toxicity of aluminum (in British English: aluminium) is much discussed in literature and in the Internet. It has been
claimed that aluminum is a factor that contributes to Alzheimer's disease [1], since
a high content of aluminum is found when brain tissue from dead patients is analyzed. The metal forms
and slowly (during decades) builds up hardly soluble complex compounds with proteins, which
build in into nervous tissue and form plaques. Even though the aluminum
industry (for obvious reasons...) denies it, there is a large body of evidence
which sustains this.
A heavy piece of evidence comes from dialysis.
In the late 1970es there were some cases of
“dialysis dementia” in which it was found that a major factor was a high content
of aluminum ions in the water used for preparing the dialysate solution [1-4].
When one switched to aluminum free water, young cases turned out to be
reversible. These cases were since little talked about and one may have the
impression that the aluminum industry has tried to keep the issue down. Little
became known about this in the public, but it was known mainly in
professional circles.
It is quite apparent
that we very slowly build up such hardly soluble aluminum complexes throughout
decades and that this could finally – most probably in combination with other
factors – at the end be an essential factor in the development of Alzheimer’s
disease. The source of this ingested aluminum is to a large extent using cooking
pots and utensils made out of the metal and drinking beverages out of aluminum
cans!
Therefore:
Throw out all aluminum pots, pans,
utensils and tools from your kitchen and replace them with such
made of steel, enameled iron or cast iron (tools may also be replaced with
wooden or plastic tools). Also replace aluminum espresso
cookers with steel ones!
Don’t use electric hot-water decanters
unless you know that the heating part (or tube) is made of steel (in most cases it is
made of aluminum)!
For the same reason: be careful with
coffee machines! The flow-through heater is usually an aluminum tube!
Don’t drink beverages in
aluminum cans! (A thin varnish on the inside is insufficient protection,
rather comparable to a dialysis membrane... Its main function actually is to
prevent a very slow loss of carbon dioxide through microporosities in the
aluminum and not to protect the beverage!) If you pay attention, you do
feel the difference in taste between a canned beverage and the same in a
bottle. The former is a little more “metallic”. Coca-Cola is known to
contain a certain amount of phosphoric acid, which can be expected to
dissolve some aluminum.
Be careful with beverages (especially
fruit juices), which come in cardboard boxes, since the boxes often have an
aluminum layer on the inside! (Fruit acids definitely dissolve some of
the aluminum.)
Avoid draft beer since it usually
comes in aluminum barrels. I prefer to order bottled beer.
Avoid using aluminum foil in cooking!
Don’t use antiperspirants, which
contain aluminum chloride (most of them do)!
Don’t take antacids
that contain aluminum compounds (many do – better ones have, e.g.,
magnesium carbonate)! (And I personally would certainly avoid such having a
histamine H2-receptor
antagonist, since it involves an unnecessary and unnatural physiological
attack on the mucosa of your stomach, which knocks out the secretion of HCl
in stead of neutralizing the acid.)
“Commercially
processed foods such as cake and pancake mixes, frozen doughs and
self-rising flour are sources of dietary aluminum, so their ingestion should
be minimized. Watch for and avoid sodium aluminum phosphate, an ingredient
in baking powder. Pickles and [processed] cheese should also be avoided.” (Quoted from
[5]).
Study the contents
of packages stated on their labels!
It would be good if
you could make the dentist avoid giving you a temporary aluminum crown while
waiting for the gold or porcelain one.
Various aluminum
silicates (sodium aluminum silicate and others) are used as anticaking agents in table salt, sugar,
certain flours and
other powdered nutrients to make them pour neatly from the package without
forming lumps. Elevated aluminum values have been found in various
sweets and in chewing gum. Such aluminum silicates are on the package often
misleadingly declared as
“silicic (or silicon) acid”.
Some good advice is
found
here and
here.
More information
here.
As concerns cheese, sodium aluminum phosphate is used as an emulsifying agent
(“melting salt”) when cheese is processed trough melting to make cheese-spread
(often also packed in aluminum foil!) or to form it to cheese slices.
Unprocessed cheese should be safe.
To day, however, there
is false cheese on the market, so called “analog cheese”! It is artificially
made from proteins, artificial flavors, fat and other things and no doubt has a
variety of chemical substances. If there are no holes in the cheese, it is
suspicious. And study the label! Accordingly, there is since long much
artificial yoghurt around. If on the package nothing is written about
Lactobacillus or Bifidus, I don’t
buy it. That “pasteurized milk” is mentioned, but nothing else, is no guarantee!
In such a case the milk is probably processed in artificial ways and not
fermented.
Psychosomatic
consideration
You don’t believe in
psychosomatics? I hope you will not have to learn about it the hard way... And I
sincerely hope that you will not have to forget all about it!
“About what?
... I don't remember the issue...”
References:
1.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1689721
2.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1568504&blobtype=pdf
3.
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/encephalopathy
4.
http://professionals.epilepsy.com/page/renal_des.html
5.
http://www.laleva.cc/environment/aluminium_alzheimer2.html
See also references here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_disease (at the end of the text).
Return to the main
page
The evidence from dialysis
The neglected medical science of psychosomatics is discussed
here. In the case of Alzheimer one possible
psychosomatic factor (which in that case combines with physical factors like
aluminum toxicity) is that the person at any price wants to forget
something in his or her life (of course unconsciously). Something he or
she is deeply ashamed of, has feelings of guilt for or heavily regrets.
Go tho
“Unconventional Thoughts about Kidney Problems and Dialysis”