New findings confirm the metal plays a devastating role in brain disease.
Crucial facts:
- Chris Exley is a professor in bioinorganic chemistry based at Keele University
- A link between Aluminium and Alzheimer’s has existed for many years
- But a lack of evidence has caused the scientific community to remain unsure
- However, his new research confirms the metal plays a role in cognitive decline
In the medical blogging website The Hippocratic Post, Professor Chris Exley reveals his findings from his latest study. There has been a strong link between human exposure to aluminium and the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease for half a century or more. However, there is still no consensus in the scientific community about the role of this neurotoxin in this devastating brain disease. In my view, the findings are unequivocal in their confirmation of a role for aluminium in some if not all Alzheimer’s disease.
Underlying theory:
It is already a known fact that the Aluminium content in late-onset or sporadic Alzheimer’s disease is significantly higher than is found in age-matched controls. So, individuals who develop Alzheimer’s disease in their late sixties and older also accumulate more aluminium in their brain tissue than individuals of the same age without the disease.
In people with an early-onset form of Sporadic Alzheimer’s disease have been diagnosed with higher levels of Aluminium who have been unusually exposed to high levels of aluminium in their everyday lives.
Additionally, people who have died with a diagnosis of Familial Alzheimer’s disease also exhibited highest levels of aluminium. In my view, the findings are unequivocal in their confirmation of a role for aluminium in some if not all Alzheimer’s disease.
Familial Alzheimer’s and aluminium:
It is an early onset form of the disease with first symptoms occurring as early as 30 or 40 years of age. It is extremely rare, accounting for 2-3% of all cases of Alzheimer’s disease. This disease is caused by genetic mutations associated with a protein called amyloid-beta, a protein which has been linked with the cause of all forms of Alzheimer’s disease. This new research suggest that these genetic predispositions are in some way linked to accumulation of Aluminium in brain tissue.
Ageing is the main risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and aluminium accumulates in brain tissue with ageing. Environmental or occupation exposure results in higher levels and an early onset of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease.
Aluminium is accepted as a known neurotoxin, for example being the cause of dialysis encephalopathy, and its accumulation in human brain tissue at any age can only contribute to any ongoing disease state or toxicity. We should take all possible precautions to reduce the accumulation of aluminium in our brain tissue through our everyday activities and we should start to do this as early in our lives as possible.