Aluminum
The
last three decades have seen a steady increase of unwelcome forms of aluminum in our
environment and diet. Many junk and fake foods contain additives, for
example raising agents in muffins and donuts - and most water utilities
use aluminum sulphate to clarify drinking water. Other source include
antacids, buffered aspirin and anti-perspirants. Colored candies almost
always have aluminium enhanced food colors.
E541 -
Neurotoxic Additives? Dementia?
Aluminum (European spelling Aluminium) 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 under
normal conditions 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 many of the other metallic poisons. The danger
is one that only manifests itself over long periods of time. It is therefore
prudent to avoid consumption. Avoidance is currently the best way of
protecting 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. One of 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
One can take
steps to minimise the effects of aluminium in the environment. A
sustained, three pronged attack is the most effective
response;
- Avoiding it,
- Blocking its uptake with supplements (calcium,
magnesium, iron)
- Eating
foodstuffs that help to eliminate it from your
system. Fruit on its own, green vegetables and some algaes.
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.
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.
Reconstituting
orange juice with aluminium treated drinking water is not recommended;
Judie Walton, an Australian researcher found that brain uptake could be
increased tenfold by the presence of fruit acids. Aluminum compounds can be as toxic as lead under certain conditions.
One series of
tests designed to find out if lead caused ADHD came up with the finding
that many of the children suffering from attention deficit disorders had
higher than average levels of aluminium in their hair.
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. Recent research has
identified aluminum fluoride as 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.
Aluminium additives
The following
additives contain aluminium compounds: E173, E520, E521, E523 E541,
E545, E554, E555 E556, E559. 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. The caking agents added to salt can be aluminum
compounds. The common ones are E544, E545 and E546.
The use 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!
Another obvious and easily avoided source is aluminum cooking pots and
pans, this can be quite easily remedied by using enamelled, stainless
steel and cast iron pots. Cooking in earthenware and glass containers
is another option. There is no need to throw out all of your aluminium
pots, it is OK to fry food in aluminium pans - and intact Teflon, non-stick
coatings will effectively prevent any of the aluminum from reaching
the food.(not that not everyone believes that Teflon is harmless, but
that is another story - Ed)
Pregnant women
also those who are breast feeding their children should avoid all
sources as should those on slimming and weight loss diets.
Apparently when iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc levels drop, the
uptake of aluminium worsens. Taking mineral supplements seems
to be a good idea, particularly for vegetarians, absorption is
dramatically reduced by the presence of iron in the body. As
it is cumulative, slow acting and extremely persistent, older people
are at particularly at risk.
Until
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 simply by drinking sulfur containing spring
water such as "San Pellegrino". Beans and garlic are known to release
detoxifying sulfur compounds. The sulfur detox has been shown to remove
mercury and arsenic and other toxic metals which act in conjunction
with aluminium. (Aparently the sulfur compounds are effective with most
heavy metals but not aluminum - Ed)
Some
are more susceptible than others, we mentioned some groups in the
previous paragraph but there is a sizable proportion of the population
who have a genetic predisposition to accumulate aluminum, Down Syndrome
sufferers are such a group and another group are people who have the
genetic defect most commonly associated with Alzheimer's; a DNA
sequence disruption on chromosome 21.
If you suffer from a bone disease such as osteomalcia or other form of
bone softening disease it is recommended that you contact your water
utility to find out how much is in the tap water supplied.
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 behavioural problems.
Unfortunately
in the USA there is 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. Check out the references below
Despite the
noise and doubts generated by powerful vested interests there is more
than enough evidence to justify avoiding it in our diet.
If you follow
some of the links at the foot of this article you will find research
that shows that aluminum is twice as effective as cadmium in producing
the neurofibrillary tangles that are characteristic of Alzheimer's
Disease. There is also a paper that describes tests of a substance,
aluminium fluoride which is present in drinking water. Minute
quantities, as little as 0.5 parts per million were found to result in
the formation of beta amyloid proteins, characteristic of Alzheimer's
Some Hints and Tips on avoiding aluminum in food -
Updates --
Update - July Still adding Aluminum additives
Two more Aluminum containing food additives; E1452 and E598.
Update - BBC 15th December 2005
Disease link to water poisoning
"A post-mortem test on a woman who drank water during the Camelford
water poisoning incident has found abnormally high levels of aluminium
in her brain. It is the strongest evidence yet of a possible link
between the poisoning and a disease similar to Alzheimer's.
Water in the Cornish town was contaminated with 20 tonnes of aluminium
sulphate in 1988. Hundreds of people became ill after the
toxic chemical was put into the wrong tank at a treatment
works.
West Somerset Coroner Michael Rose released the post-mortem examination
results on Thursday. He asked leading neuropathologist Prof Margaret
Esiri to examine the woman's brain and spinal cord following her death
in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, in February last year".
Update -- 6th November
2004
In the UK the uptake of aluminium from cereal products has tripled in
the last three years.
Allegedly UK based quality
food stores Marks and Spencer's has baked items on their shelves which
contain aluminum raising agents. Attempts to regain market share are
probably responsible for the drop in standards.
Update
-- 17th November 2003
Food colors are changing and some of the newer dyes appear to be more
natural, however they are frequently produced using an aluminum treatment
to enhance and brighten the color. The new dyes contain small amounts
of substances that are likely to accumulate in the brain.
A dangerous new fad is using Alum crystals to rub under arm areas to
inhibit perspiration. Even some apparently reputable health food stores
stock them, claiming falsely that they do not have the type of aluminum
that gets in to the body. Ask if they are from Bauxite and the assistant
will usually agree but usually they will be quite unaware that Bauxite
is the principal source of aluminum and every bit as harmful as the
antiperspirant sprays.
Update
-- 10th October 2002. As fewer food companies use aluminum additives
the manufacturers of the additives are looking for markets in developing
countries. Chinese dumplings are one outlet, beware of the trip to the
Chinese restaurant. It is not only Monosodium Glutamate that you have
to look out for. (Incidentally some researchers have identified neurotoxic
properties in MSG -see Mikhail B. Bogdanov, Richard J. Wurtman
and others)
Tips and queries on the Aluminum
Problem submitted by reader
Papers
Varner JA, et al. (1998). Chronic administration of aluminum-fluoride
and sodium-fluoride to rats in drinking water: Alterations in neuronal
and cerebrovascular integrity. Brain Research 784: 284-298.
This paper found evidence that levels of aluminium fluoride as low as 1
part per million had adverse affects on brain development in rats
https://biomedpharmajournal.org/vol12no2/amelioration-of-aluminium chlorombin-rats/...