Aluminium could be poisoning our brains and causing Alzheimer’s, professor claims


  • Professor Chris Exley argues aluminium posioning could cause Alzheimer’s
  • Aluminium builds up in the brain until the ‘toxic threshold’ when it can’t cope
  • This will bring on early onset of Alzheimer’s and make the condition worse 
  • The metal compound is now found in almost everything we eat and drink
  • Found in tea, cakes, bread, wine, cosmetics and drugs like aspirin
  • Builds on previous work which found link between aluminium and cancer 

Madlen Davies for MailOnline

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Aluminium builds up in the brain causing contamination that leads to Alzheimer’s, Professor Chris Exley claims

Aluminium found in food, cosmetics and medicines could be poisoning our brains and causing Alzheimer’s disease, a professor has claimed.

Aluminium builds up in the brain, eventually causing contamination that may cause Alzheimer’s disease, Professor Christopher Exley, of Keele University has argued.

The metal compound is found in most processed foods, tea, wine, fizzy drinks, cosmetics and drugs like aspirin.

Professor Exley said the very fact that studies have revealed aluminium deposits in the brain should serve as a warning that we are being contaminated.

He said: ‘The presence of aluminium in the human brain should be a red flag alerting us all to the potential dangers of the aluminium age.

‘We are all accumulating a known neurotoxin in our brain from our conception to our death.

‘Why do we treat this inevitability with almost total complacency?’

His latest report builds on his previous work, in which he suggested there was a link between the aluminium found in deodorants and cancer.

Aluminium is the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust, and is naturally found in food because plants absorb it from water and the soil.

While 50 years ago we may have ingested small amounts of aluminium from vegetables and the pots they were cooked in, today it is added to almost everything we consume.

Aluminium sulphate is added to water to make it more clear, and it is added to cakes and biscuits as a raising agent.

It is also found in most processed foods, food colouring, tea, cocoa, malt drinks, wines and fizzy drinks.

 Aluminium is now found in almost everything we eat and drink, from bread and cakes, to drinks, cosmetics like toothpaste, talcs and suncream and drugs like aspirin and antacids

Cosmetics, talcs, toothpaste, suncream and antiperspirants contain aluminium, as well as drugs such as aspirin, antacids and vaccines.

The body excretes aluminium, but if more is ingested than the body can excrete, it is deposited in the bone, brain, liver, heart, spleen, and muscle.

Professor Exley argues the human brain is both ‘a target and a sink for aluminium’ when it enters the body.

WOMAN DIED FROM BRITAIN’S WORST POISONING FROM ALUMINIUM SULPHATE

Carole Cross, 59, died in 2004 from a rare and aggressive form of Alzheimer’s disease usually associated with much older people suffering from the condition.

She had been living in the Camelford area of north Cornwall in July 1988 when the poisoning occurred.

She was one of 20,000 customers affected when a relief lorry driver mistakenly added 20,000 tons of aluminium sulphate to the drinking water at the Lowermoor treatment works.

Her husband, Dr Doug Cross, believes her exposure to high levels of aluminium during the incident caused her death and at her inquest a coroner ruled there was ‘a very real possibility’ this was the case. 

At some point, the aluminium accumulated in the brain will reach a ‘toxic threshold’ and the affected area of the brain will not be able to cope, he said.

If the same part of the brain is suffering from other conditions, then reacting to the presence of aluminium will make the condition worse, he added.

He concluded that aluminium could fuel early onset on Alzheimer’s, a condition affecting memory, and make the disease worse.

He said: ‘In this way aluminium may cause a particular condition to be more aggressive and perhaps to have an earlier onset – such occurrences have already been shown in Alzheimer’s disease related to environmental and occupational exposure to aluminium.’

Reducing exposure to aluminium and removing it from the body could prevent Alzheimer’s disease, and further tests should be carried out to test the link, he concluded.

His report was published in the journal Frontiers in Neurology.

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