Aluminum (European spelling Aluminium) is found in very low levels in our natural environment. It is not heavy but light, which is one reason it is one of the main components of the earth's outer and lighter crust as compared with the more dense deeper parts of the planet. Aluminum is part of many of the rocks you see everywhere you go. It was not extracted as a metal from its ore for wide use until recently, when electric power was used for its refinement.
Aluminum when taken inside the body is harmful to all life forms. It damages all types of tissue. Aluminum is a protoplasmic poison and a pernicious and persistent neurotoxin. No living systems use aluminium as part of a biochemical process. It has a tendency to accumulate in the brain and bones. It is considerably less toxic than mercury, arsenic, lead or cadmium, but it is much more common in our environment, it also appears to be more persistent than most of the others. The danger is one that only manifests itself over long periods of time.
Generally our "normal" dietary intake of aluminum is about 3 to 5 mg per day, of which only a very small amount is absorbed by the body's tissues. The aluminum to which we are exposed comes from many sources, and most of these are under our control.
In patients having Alzheimer's disease the brain is somewhat shrunken and, on postmortum examination, a definite loss of nervous tissue is noted. Examination of the brain tissues under a microscope reveals small bundles of material called senile plaques, scattered throughout the tissues. The more plaques that are present, the worse is the mental condition of the patient. Chemical analysis reveals the presence of the metal aluminum at the core of each plaque and within many of the cells found in the plaques. Evidence is accumulating to indicate that aluminum may be involved in the formation of the plaques, and it is therefore a prime suspect as the initial cause of the disease. Aluminum is twice as effective as the poisonous metal cadmium in producing the neurofibrillary tangles that are characteristic of Alzheimer's Disease.
Five population studies now link Alzheimer's disease to aluminum in drinking water. As early as 1885, aluminum was shown to be toxic to the nervous tissues of animals. Aluminum can also produce a degeneration of the nervous tissues in cats and rabbits that resembles in some ways that seen in the brains of human patients with Alzheimer's disease. Patients with diseased kidneys accumulate large amounts of aluminum in their bodies from medications and from kidney-machine solutions that have been used until recently. This accumulation results in a severe mental deterioration.
Experiments conducted at Toronto University have shown that those Alzheimer's Disease patients given treatment to remove aluminum from their system experience an immediate reduction in the rate of deterioration. Feeding even relatively small amounts of some aluminum salts to laboratory animals results in brain tissue damage identical to that found in Alzheimer's patients.
Most of our daily intake of aluminum is eliminated by healthy kidneys. However, some individuals seem to absorb aluminum more readily, or are less able to eliminate it; these people, who cannot be identified before symptoms begin, are most likely to suffer from Alzheimer's disease.
Between 1979 and 1987 there was a thirteen-fold increase in the number of deaths from Alzheimer's disease in the United States. It appears that this increase represents the increase in exposure to aluminum that has happened to people in our society.
Aluminum is biochemically attracted to stick to the phosphates that form an active part of our DNA -- the molecules that encode our ancestral memory and give us the instructions for making and replacing all the molecules in our body. The key to understanding why aluminum may be a particularly toxin is that it binds tightly. Even though lead and mercury or heavy and sticky, they do go through a process of turn over, in which appropriately sticky chelators can grab them and send them all to the kidneys and liver for detoxification. Not so with aluminum. Once it sticks to DNA it is there until the death of the cell carrying the DNA. Concern for the health of your permanent cells may make you mindful of staying away from aluminum.
The presence of Aluminum in drinking water is starting to be looked at in Canada and Australia, most utilities in Europe and the United States do exceed the recommended level of 100 microgrammes per litre, some by as much as sixty times!
Much of our tap water has had aluminium fluoride added to help fight tooth decay and/or aluminum sulfate added to clarify it.
Aluminum fluoride is a particularly nasty substance, shown to cause the deposition of amyloid proteins (the proven cause of the tangled brain cells in most dementia cases) in the brains of rats when they are given drinking water with only 0.5 to 1 parts per million concentration.
Until (and unless) the water utilities get the level of aluminium down to recommended levels it is prudent to use untreated spring or mineral water for drinking and cooking. Few of us are wealthy enough to spend two months in the year at a health spa, however you can help eliminate toxic metals including aluminum simply by drinking sulfur containing spring water such as "San Pellagrino".
It is therefore prudent to avoid the consumption of aluminum in the diet in order to protect you and your family from the serious, long term damage that can result from ingestion. Pregnant and lactating women, the young and the elderly are at risk. The most effective way of preserving your mental acuity in to your later years appears to be eliminating the sources of aluminum in the diet.
You may try to block its uptake by using supplements containing calcium and magnesium. We do not recommend supplements containing iron unless recommended by a health professional -- they can cause their own problems.
You can add foodstuffs to your diet that will help to eliminate aluminum from your system. Add sulfur-rich foods such as cabbage, beans and lentils, onions, garlic, asafetida (alt. sp. asafoetida) and egg yolks.
The last three decades have seen a steady increase of aluminum in our environment and diet. Many junk and fake foods contain additives, for example raising agents in muffins and donuts. Colored candies almost always have aluminium enhanced food colors.
Another obvious and easily avoided source is aluminum cooking pots and pans (from which acid foods deliver significant amounts during cooking).
Your choice of every-day cookware is important. Glass, earthanware and porcelain are relatively nonreactive with foods. Metal cookware does react with the acids in foods and the metal ions thereby released gain access to your body. In the case of copper, iron, and stainless steel cookware the metals are actually essential trace elements, and therefore make a valuable nutritional contribution if they are not absorbed in excess.
Certainly not every one of the multitudes of us who have been fed for a lifetime on foods cooked in aluminum pots and pans will end our days in this world as severely mentally deficient patients. Aluminum is only one strongly suspected culprit. Scientists believe that other factors, yet to be identified, are involved in the interactions that allow the body to suffer this form of degeneration.
Thankfully, there is no need to immediately rid yourself of your aluminium cookware even though aluminum can be hazardous to your health. It is thought to be OK to fry food in aluminium pans with intact Teflon non-stick coatings since it will provide some protection.
Aluminum contaminated consumables are now very common. Being aware of the sources is the first step in elimination. Removing aluminum from your diet can be quite easy if a gradual approach is taken.
Some scientists are particularily worried about inhaled aluminum because autopsy studies have shown a high proportion of senile plaques in the olfactory (smelling) lobes of the brain. Spray antiperspirants would be a likely product for this concern.
Dust, water, and even unprocessed foods contain aluminum that may be difficult to avoid. But aluminum in antacids, cosmetics, many medicines, food additives (for example, some brands of baking powders, and highly absorbable aluminum maltol used in instant chocolate mixes), cans, kitchenware, and utensils can be easily avoided. A very popular antacid, Amphojel, consists of aluminum hydroxide.
Antacids quite often contain aluminum trisilicate as does buffered aspirin. Foods containing aluminium based additives include dry cake mixes, pastries and croissants made from frozen dough, processed cheeses, some donuts and waffles, check muffins for E541 (sodium aluminum phosphate), and food coloring. The list of substances containing aluminium salts is quite depressing, it even includes toothpaste!, especially tooth whitening products.
The principal symptom of aluminum poisoning is the loss of intellectual function; forgetfulness, inability to concentrate, and in extreme cases, full blown dementia. It is also known to cause bone softening and bone mass loss, kidney and other soft tissue damage, in large doses it can cause cardiac arrest.
Many of those who have gone on to low aluminum diets have reported a reduction in irritability, headaches and significant improvements in memory and ability to concentrate. Parents reported improvements in children suffering from behavioral problems. One series of tests designed to find out if lead caused ADHD came up with the finding that children suffering from attention deficit disorders had much higher than average levels of aluminium in their hair.
There is no proven method for detoxifying aluminum and ridding it from your body. Some clain that chelating works but the "jury is still out" and there is little agreement about its value among the health professional experts."
However, two years of investigation were reported in the Lancet in 1991 using an aluminum chelating agent, desferrioxamine, to slow the progress of Alzheimer's disease.
Unfortunately in the USA there is quite a strong and vocal effort by interested parties who use extremely well funded and organised lobbying and proxy organisations to present aluminum compounds as harmless minerals, however is is not all gloom and doom as there are now many independent researchers who are doing their own tests to establish the toxic effects of the metal.
It may ease your confusion in any debate over the relative safety of any toxic substance if you keep your focus on private health policy, while others debate the health and economic trade-offs of public policy. Public health policy is aimed at statistically average people. Whoever you may be, you are not a statistical average. You are you!