Is There a Connection Between Aluminum and Alzheimer's Disease?

Scientists are speculating about a link between aluminum exposure and Alzheimer's, according to U.S. News & World Report . "I think that what is pretty well established is that if you have too much aluminum in your brain, that's not healthy," says Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center's Douglas Scharre. "Aluminum can be a neurotoxin, and if you ingest it or get it into your brain, it can cause a dementia-like condition." Analysis of the brains of people who had aluminum toxicity revealed abnormal structures that bore a close similarity to the neurofibrillary tangles of tau proteins that are a telltale symptom of Alzheimer's in the brain. However, Scharre notes the aluminum tangles are somewhat different from those observed in Alzheimer's. If aluminum infiltrates the brain and becomes snarled in an amyloid plaque, it is more difficult for the brain to purge it as it normally would remove a toxin. Scharre suspects this partly explains why postmortem analysis of brains with Alzheimer's often finds higher concentrations of heavy metals and other toxins. "It doesn't make sense that a toxin is the cause of Alzheimer's because it runs more in families than in local areas where there's higher exposure to aluminum or other toxins," he adds.