Industrial Uses: Processed Foods, Paper Products, Beverage Cans, Foil and Cookware
Personal Care Products: Deodorants, Antacids
Purpose:
Aluminum is a metal, the third most common element in the environment and a toxin in the body.
| Alzheimer’s disease is now the 4th leading cause of death among the elderly, behind heart disease, cancer and stroke. A half century ago it was virtually unheard of! | |
| The World Health Organization conducted studies on chemical pollution and the elderly… “There is a suspected link between Alzheimer’s disease and the toxicity of aluminum… autopsies have found high concentrations of the metal in the brain of people who had suffered from the disease.”
“The fluoride/aluminum association is of particular importance as it relates to Alzheimer’s Disease. The body does not readily absorb aluminum, by itself. However, in the presence of fluoride ions, the fluoride ions combine with the aluminum to form aluminum fluoride, which is absorbed by the body. In the body, the aluminum eventually combines with oxygen to form aluminum oxide or alumina. Alumina is the compound of aluminum that is found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. In the brain, protein binds to the alumina resulting in plaques and tangles which are the hallmarks of this terrible disease.” For more information on fluoride toxicity in this book see “sodium fluoride” in this chapter and the “fluoride myth” under Drinking Water in Zone #3. |
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| “Aluminum-containing antiperspirants are designed to be absorbed, and studies show that regular use of these products can raise the risk of Alzheimer’s by as much as three-fold. (also)…municipal water supplies treated with alum (aluminum sulfate)…at least 7 studies show that people drinking water high in alum are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s” (U.S. News & World Report, March 17, 1997 v122n10p77(1). | |
Dr. Daniel Perl, Director of Neuropathology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, suggests “….avoid aerosol antiperspirants. Aluminum in aerosol may be more readily absorbed into the brain through the nasal passages.” [University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter, April 1993 9(7) p.1(2)].
According to government sources from June 2003, “The FDA is concerned that people with renal dysfunction (20 million Americans, 1 in 9 adults) may not be aware that the daily use of antiperspirant drug products containing aluminum may put them at higher risk because of exposure to aluminum in the product. The FDA considers it prudent to alert these people to consult a doctor before using or continuing to use these products on a regular basis”
However, there is a difference in opinion in the medical community over contraindication of aluminum-containing antiperspirants in kidney patients. Dr. Sherrard is a national expert on the effect of aluminum on kidney function. He has published over 40 papers on aluminum toxicity and kidneys and is Senior Research Advisor at the Northwest Kidney Centers. He has been part of the scientific community’s quest to study aluminum toxicity since the 1970’s. He states that the FDA warning is based on the false assumption that toxic amounts of aluminum may be absorbed through the skin.
His research group has studied several hundred patients with aluminum toxicity and they discovered that every patient became toxic from one of two sources: (1) they were getting aluminum from oral antacids containing aluminum or (2) from aluminum contaminated water used to prepare the dialysate fluid which flows through the artificial kidney to purify the blood. They did not find aluminum containing antiperspirants as a problem in any patient.
He states that the FDA requires this alert on antacids containing aluminum as a reminder to kidney patients that aluminum should be avoided.
-Northwest Kidney Centers, Press Briefing, December 9, 2004.
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