ALUMINUM TOXICITY: PREVENT OR DETOX THIS CAUSE OF ALZHEIMER’S
By Deb Martin, Holistic Health Educator
May, 2014. Updated March, 2023
Want to maintain an alert and mentally-healthy brain and help prevent cognitive decline, including Alzheimer’s? Avoiding some– and welcoming other– specific products and foods into your life can help you maintain your mental acuity well into old age. This article will focus on avoiding aluminum, which studies show are far too abundant in our modern world. Aluminum—along with mercury, cadmium and lead– is neurotoxic, targeting your central nervous system, which can lead to serious immunological and neuro-degenerative disorders…such as Alzheimers.
What Kind of Trouble is Aluminum Causing?
The signs and symptoms of aluminum toxicity are highly similar to the symptoms of autism, ADHD, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurological diseases. Per a leading doctor in the healthy-living revolution, Dr. Mercola:
”Vaccine adjuvants can cause serious chronic brain inflammation. Aluminum targets your cerebellum and autonomic nervous system—the part responsible for biological processes over which you have no conscious control (breathing, blood pressure, balance, coordination, etc.). When you look at the MSDS sheet for aluminum, you will see symptoms strikingly similar to those in common neurological diseases, including memory problems, speech impairments and aphasia, dementia, depression, muscle weakness, motor disturbances, and other neurological difficulties. The list goes on and on.”
How Does Aluminum Get into our Bodies?
When tested in a lab, aluminum contamination has been found in a vast number of products on the market, from foods and beverages to pharmaceuticals. Here’s a list to avoid or limit:
- Foods such as baking powder, self rising flour, salt, baby formula, coffee creamers, baked goods and processed foods, coloring and caking agents
- Drugs, such as antacids, analgesics, anti-diarrheals, and others; additives such as magnesium stearate
- Vaccines—Hepatitis A and B, Hib, DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis), pneumococcal vaccine, Gardasil (HPV), and others
- Cosmetics and personal care products such as antiperspirants, deodorants (including salt crystals, made with alum), lotions, sunscreens, and shampoos
- Antiperspirants containing aluminum chloride, aluminum chlorohydrate, or aluminum-zirconium compounds
- Aluminum products, including foil, cans, tins, and water bottles
- Toothpaste containing aluminum oxyhydroxide
- Aluminum laminated pouch drinks
- Aluminum cookware
How to Detoxify & Ban Aluminum from your Body
There are a number of potent chelators you can use to detoxify aluminum. For serious Alzheimer’s disease, the following chelating (detoxing) agents can be helpful:
- Silica-rich water, such as Fiji water, which contains 83 Mg of silica per liter. Research published in 2013 showed that drinking up to one liter of a silicon-rich mineral water daily for 12 weeks effectively excreted aluminum via the urine, without detrimental effects on essential metals such as iron and copper. According to the authors: “We have provided preliminary evidence that over 12 weeks of silicon-rich mineral water therapy the body burden of aluminum fell in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and, concomitantly, cognitive performance showed clinically relevant improvements in at least 3 out of 15 individuals.”
- Melatonin: Research shows that melatonin–the sleep chemical– has a metal binding role and is a useful supplement in the treatment of neurological disorders in which oxidative stress is involved, which includes Alzheimer’s. Melatonin can travel freely across all cellular barriers, facilitating the removal of toxic metals such as aluminum. It also appears to suppress the oxidative activity of aluminum in your brain. Foods such as nutrient dense, raw cacao provide the precursor Seratonin which helps you create your own Melatonin…at the appropriate dosage level for you. (I’ve taken Melatonin pills which made me quite woozy—too strong!)
- Anything that raises your Glutathione. Your body synthesizes glutathione (a potent antioxidant) from three amino acids: cysteine, glutamate, and glycine. Raw fruits and vegetables, particularly cacao, avocado, asparagus, grapefruit, strawberries, orange, tomato, cantaloupe, broccoli, okra, peach, zucchini, and spinach are rich in the precursors glutamate and glycine. Dietary sources of cysteine include eggs, meat, red peppers, garlic, onions, Brussels sprouts, whey protein, and wheat germ. Add to that list wine, tea, extra virgin olive oil and raw cacao.
- Sulfur: Optimizing your dietary sulfur is also essential, as your body needs sulfur to manufacture its number one weapon against aluminum overload: glutathione. Anecdotal reports indicate that cacao detoxifies mercury because it is so high in sulphur.
- Cilantro: Cilantro “acquires” heavy metals from the tissues (the phytochemical is called linaloo), and glutathione binds to them (in bladder and bowel) to pull out them out of the body.
Acquire Sulfur thru Food, injection or infusion – NOT Glutathione Supplement Capsules: Since glutathione is so effective for detoxification, you might think you should take glutathione supplements. However, studies have found that taking glutathione in oral supplements have practically no effect on its levels in the blood. On the other hand, the same studies show that by boosting our intake of the glutathione precursors (the amino acids that build glutathione within the body), this can naturally support your body to produce more glutathione. I of course, say, keep the fruits and veggies and raw cacao coming, in appropriate volume and their cleanest forms. Eating foods that boost your Glutathione levels is one of the best ways to detoxify. For a quick glutathione boost, see our Acupuncture Physician for a shot. No need for an appointment (it takes only 5 minutes). Please call in advance so we know you are coming.
Other helpful treatments for improved glutathione metabolism include:
- Exercise: Exercise affects your adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels needed to help produce glutathione (more later on exercise!)
- Optimize your vitamin D levels through sun exposure: There’s some evidence vitamin D increases intracellular glutathione levels
- Epsom salt baths
- MSM supplementation
- The supplement N-acetyl L-cysteine (NAC) may also be useful. NAC is the rate-limiting nutrient for the formation of the intracellular antioxidant glutathione
- Curcumin: Research suggests that curcumin has a protective effect against aluminum-induced damage by modulating the extent of oxidative stress. It also decreases beta-amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer’s, delays neuron degradation, chelates metals, decreases microglia formation, and has an overall anti-inflammatory, antioxidant effect. Studies have shown that curcumin can help improve memory in Alzheimer’s patients. Curcumin is not recommended if you have biliary tract obstruction (as it stimulates bile secretion), gallstones, obstructive jaundice, or acute biliary colic.
- Exercise: Another important way to naturally increase your glutathione levels is to exercise. Exercising is really the king when it comes to natural detox. It not only boosts your glutathione levels, the main substance involved in detox, it also helps you get rid of toxins through sweat and deep breathing.
In Summary
Evidence is clear and growing that aluminum does have a role in neuro-degenerative issues such as cognitive impairment and diseases such as Alzheimer’s. It is no surprise, therefore, that people with aluminum toxicity have many of the same symptoms as people with dementia, Parkinson’s, ADHD, autism, and other neurological diseases. Aluminum targets exactly these areas of your brain and nervous system.
The best way to protect yourself is to be knowledgeable and careful about your choices in food and personal products, and minimize your use of vaccines and other drugs that are often contaminated with aluminum. Drink good water such as Kangen water and, if bottled, Fiji water is best to help detoxify your system because it contains silica! Exercise several times a week. Consume glutathionej-rich foods daily. Do these, and Life is Better!
Note: Much of the data and studies cited in this article are from Dr. Joseph Mercola’s research team.
Serving the Greater Fort Myers area
To Our Health,
David Martin, AP, DOM & Deb Martin, Holistic Health Educator
Lotus Blossom Clinic
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