Cindy Fuller > wrote in message >...
> In article > ,
> (Davio McDavitt) wrote:
>
> > Poor Kim sems to have commited an unforgivable sin by bringing up the
> > subject of Alminyum and Alzymers.
> >
-----------------------snipped for convenience----------------
(?) confers an
> > incompetence in dealing with aluminum. I for one will start believing
> > in a link if the molecular biologists findings are repeated.
> >
> > McDavitt
>
> I AM a scientist. I briefly studied aluminum in grad school. I can
> also spell. The link between aluminum in drinking water and Alzheimer's
> disease was first suspected in the late 1970's, when people who were
> getting hemodialysis in areas with high levels of aluminum in the water
> developed dementia. Once the link was realized, dialysis centers
> treated their water to get rid of the aluminum and incidence of the
> condition decreased. In addition, some patients with kidney failure
> were taking aluminum-containing antacids to reduce their absorption of
> phosphorus, which could cause bone disease. The fraction of aluminum
> that got absorbed was implicated in a different type of bone disease.
> Nowadays, kidney failure patients get calcium-containing antacids to
> reduce phosphorus absorption from the gut. This has also reduced the
> incidence of aluminum toxicity.
>
> A major distinction needs to be made here. Folks with kidney failure
> cannot rid their bodies of many toxins, including aluminum. If they go
> on hemodialysis,their blood gets treated three times a week to flush out
> the toxins that the kidneys can't. The dialysis requires large amounts
> of water, much more than mere mortals could drink in a day.
>
> For fun, I just looked for recent articles (2000 and later) on aluminum
> and dementia on PubMed. I only saw one "large scale" study (2700
> subjects at baseline). They found a two-fold increase in risk of
> dementia when water aluminum content was greater than 0.1 part per
> million, but found no dose effect (the more aluminum, the higher the
> risk). Compare this to smoking, where there is a 12-20-fold increase in
> risk of lung cancer with a dose effect. Many of the other studies I
> found involved dosing rabbits and rats with far greater amounts of
> aluminum than healthy people would take in.
>
> I require a higher threshold of proof to believe in a link between
> aluminum and Alzheimer's disease in people without kidney failure who
> don't work in aluminum smelting plants.
>
> Cindy
Again grateful for the enlightening information from a real scientist
and I have learned from the posting.
I still think that it is irresponsible to add aluminum based raising
agents and other such additives to our food when we are all living
longer and it does seem that aluminum buils up in our heads and older
folk (like me) have deteriorating kidneys.
I will continue eating organic when I can afford it and have tossed
out my aluminum pans.
McDavitt