Confirm aluminum's role in causing Alzheimer's disease

A link between human exposure to aluminum and Alzheimer's disease has been suspected for over half a century and a recent research may confirm that the metal does play a role in causing this devastating brain disease.

Chris Exley, a professor in bioinorganic chemistry at Keele University in Britain, revealed the new findings from his latest study on medical-blogging website The Hippocratic Post.

Many scientists say aluminum can not be blamed for causing Alzheimer's disease because there is no enough evidence.

However, Exley said: "The latest research from my group, published in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology, makes this link (between exposure to aluminum and Alzheimer's disease) even more compelling."

"In my view, the findings are unequivocal in their confirmation of a role for aluminum in some if not all Alzheimer's diseases," he added.

Scientists have already known that individuals who developed Alzheimer's disease in their late sixties and older accumulated more aluminum in their brain tissue than individuals of the same age without the disease.

Exley's research shows that Alzheimer's disease has a much earlier age of onset in individuals who have been exposed to unusually high levels of aluminum in their daily lives.

The research also finds that the levels of aluminum in brain tissue from individuals with familial Alzheimer's disease are similar to those from individuals who died of an aluminum-induced encephalopathy while undergoing renal dialysis.

Meanwhile, Exley and his team used fluorescence microscopy to provide stunning and unequivocal images of aluminum in brain tissue from Alzheimer's disease donors.

"These new results should encourage everyone and even those who have steadfastly maintained that aluminum has no role in the disease to think again," Exley said.

As aluminum is widely used in our daily life, he suggests that people should take all possible precautions to reduce the accumulation of aluminum in our brain tissue through our everyday activities and start to do this as early as possible.

source: Xinhua