Research headed by Professor Christopher Exley at Keele
University has shown that regular drinking of up to 1 litre a
day of Spritzer, a silicon-rich mineral water, removes aluminium
from the bodies of people with Alzheimer’s disease and in some
individuals offered clinically-significant protection against
cognitive decline.
There has, for several decades, been a substantive link between
Alzheimer’s disease and everyday exposure to aluminium, a known
neurotoxin. However, there has yet to be a similarly substantive
experimental test of this link in people with Alzheimer’s disease.
The researchers at Keele concluded that the most rigorous test of
‘the aluminium hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease’ would be to reduce
the body burden of aluminium in individuals with AD and to
investigate if this impacted upon their condition in any way.
The most effective and non-invasive way to reduce an individual’s
overall exposure to aluminium is to include in their everyday diet a
silicon-rich mineral water. Spritzer, a mineral water from Malaysia,
contains 35 mg/L (ppm) total silicon and when individuals with AD
were asked to drink 1L of this water each day over a period of 12
weeks their body burdens of aluminium, measured as urinary
excretion, were significantly reduced over this relatively short
period of time.
In parallel with the reduction in body burden of aluminium were some
remarkable affects upon cognitive function in the individuals with
AD. Eight out of 15 individuals with AD showed no deterioration in
their cognitive abilities over the 12 week period of the study.
Three of these 8 actually showed clinically-relevant improvements in
their cognitive function over the period of the study.
In this first preliminary test of ‘the aluminium hypothesis in
Alzheimer’s disease’ it has been shown that long term drinking of
silicon-rich mineral waters, such as Spritzer, can reduce an
individual’s everyday exposure to aluminium and lower their body
burden of this unwanted neurotoxin. Early indications are that in
individuals with AD the lowering of the body burden of aluminium may
benefit cognitive function.
Professor Exley has commented that while these results are clearly
preliminary they are a first step in a much needed test of ‘the
aluminium hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease’ and a longer term study
is now warranted.
The research will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal
of Alzheimer’s Disease Volume 33, No. 2 and is available as PrePress
at the following link;
http://iospress.metapress.com/content/92280q5860p8543m/?p=2db4f12a01a448e2aa07bd8fe090c0ef&pi=11
Correspondence should be addressed to; Professor C Exley, The
Birchall Centre, Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University,
Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK. Email: c.exley@keele.ac.uk
SOURCE: Keele University
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