
Aluminum Should Now Be Considered a Primary Factor in Alzheimer’s Disease - diyseguy
http://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease-reports/adr170010
======
nilved
Is The Aluminum Hypothesis Dead?
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4131942/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4131942/)

~~~
gwern
That seems to refute most of OP's points and bring up a lot of contradictory
evidence that OP doesn't include at all.

------
iandanforth
Red-flags:

\- A journal name I don't recognize

\- A single author from an institution that I don't recognize

\- Use of absolute terminology 'unquestionably'

\- Implied vague relationships between large biological systems 'sweating'
reduces chances of Alzheimer.

~~~
stoshe
Yeah, they totally seem legit...

[http://i.imgur.com/FlCnduG.png](http://i.imgur.com/FlCnduG.png)

~~~
jk4930
They publish in Latin. That shows you how old and established they are.

------
alakin
There is a genotype called ApoeE-e4/e4 which increases risk by 11x.
[https://snpedia.com/index.php/APOE](https://snpedia.com/index.php/APOE)

Interestingly the only differences between Apoe4 and a neutral, very common
variant called ApoE3 is one amino acid at position 112. The small variance
appears to account for most of the negative effect of the ApoE4 genotype.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28533891](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28533891)

------
pmontra
TLDR: "Aging is the major risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease though the
advent of Alzheimer’s disease within a normal human lifespan is suggested to
be brought about through human exposure to aluminum. Essentially without
aluminum in brain tissue there would be no Alzheimer’s disease."

~~~
kbenson
Wait, didn't aluminun used to be much more rare in the past, yet we still had
Alzheimer's cases? Or are we assuming things in the past were Alzheimer's
without good evidence?

Edit: Removed question about exposure, since it was answered in parent.

~~~
dwg
My understanding:

Aluminum exists naturally in soil and is absorbed into plants and the animals
that eat them. We have always been exposed aluminum in trace amounts via food.
Ones total exposure increases over their lifetime.

Over a century ago aluminum extraction became much cheaper and it started to
be used in various food additives, thereby increasing the amount of aluminum
we consume and the average total exposure over our lifetimes. If aluminum is a
primary factor in Alzheimer's, we would see an increase in incidence over that
time period as well.

~~~
majkinetor
That may be irrelevant if

\- there is more aluminium exposure today

\- there is higher digestion due to some other absorption promoter

------
strangattractor
More Redflags \- A paper that doesn't have any experimental data \- A single
author paper (nobody to collaborate with) \- A paper that uses many of the the
author's previous papers as references

------
michaelmu
Have there ever been studies linking the aluminum in antiperspirant to
development of Alzheimers?

~~~
Xeoncross
...or even aluminum foil wrapping those delicious foods like stuffed potatoes?

~~~
mamon
...or aluminum cans for drinks and tinned meat? although those seem to have
other metal covering them on the inside.

~~~
paulmd
Food/beverage cans are usually coated with BPA to prevent aluminum
contamination.

Mmmmmm, yummy.

------
NikolaeVarius
Note that this is an Editorial

~~~
HarryHirsch
An editorial in a journal that no one ever heard of by an author from an also-
ran university. In medical research you can really only trust meta-studies,
because attempts to find a simple cause for any complex disease are legion,
and usually wrong.

~~~
hueving
>from an also-ran university

Don't do this. An ad hominem against someone's employer is really lame when
you consider the fact that many people don't want to relocate due to family
obligations.

Using the author's previous research as a signal is reasonable but also lazy.

~~~
HarryHirsch
There is enormous pressure to publish these days, even at underfunded
universities. It distracts from the mission of the institution (are we
fundraising or teaching?) and gives all the wrong incentives to faculty.
Someone may wish to do a decent job teaching, it's a teaching college after
all, but is forced by the higher-ups to publish junk like this. Others may
even believe the crap they are doing is legit.

British ex-polytechnics have it especially bad, they were teaching
institutions and declared universities in 1992 and forced to compete for
funding with the established universities. (OK, Keele isn't an ex-poly, but it
was never good or adequately funded.)

You can't take everything serious that's printed, there is too much junk out
there, and then you have to go by heuristics, like journal or affiliation.
That's how the "invisible boot" works.

------
opportune
Have any of you guys ever written or read scientific papers before? This is a
pretty poorly written article and I'm surprised it has so many upvotes. It's a
bold headline, but the article itself makes many logical leaps that are pretty
sensational and unfounded.

Overall I'd say this is a pretty garbage article and that we shouldn't be
upvoting it so much / only reading the headline and accepting it as fact.

------
ef4
This is a no-name journal with no reputation (positive or negative) that I can
find. The aluminum hypothesis is widely rejected by mainstream researchers for
pretty good reasons. User nilved posted a link to a comprehensive paper
explaining why (go upvote them).

Please remember to be be skeptical of links like this. Being in "a journal" is
not a high bar.

------
rrggrr
CPAP humidifiers... the heating plate is aluminum, right? Think of all the
CPAP users absorbing Al through respiration.

------
CountSessine
Other than antiperspirant, are we exposed to aluminum in a form that our
bodies readily absorb? Is it ever used as a food additive?

~~~
reubenmorais
Aluminium from antiperspirants is not readily absorbed. We ingest a lot more
aluminium simply from our daily diets.

[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691500...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691500001186)

~~~
positr0n
Relevent sentences from the abstract:

 _At this rate, about 4 μg of aluminium is absorbed from a single use of ACH
on both underarms. This is about 2.5% of the aluminium typically absorbed by
the gut from food over the same time period. Therefore, a one-time use of ACH
applied to the skin is not a significant contribution to the body burden of
aluminium._

------
spoiledtechie
Is it just deodorant or can drinking out if an aluminum soda can or even tin
foil around food also cause such?

~~~
hammock
Aluminum cans are lined with BPA (polymer) .. not likely that this is a major
vector. See Table 1.3 here[1] for a discussion of some sources, although it
does not cover cans, pots and pans, or foil.

[1][https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=1076&tid=34](https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=1076&tid=34)

~~~
CountSessine
Great link!

From the table:

"An average adult in the United States eats about 7–9 mg of aluminum per day
in their food."

------
mccada
It is interesting how the editorial talks about perspiration being a natural
way for the body to excrete aluminum, while aluminum is the active ingredient
in most anti-perspirants. So we are effectively blocking the release of
aluminum by using aluminum.

~~~
euroclydon
Only in the arm-pits. There are plenty of other places to sweat when you're
hot.

~~~
seanp2k2
But still, this is part of why I go out of my way to use deodorant without
anti-perspirant. The idea of aluminum bits causing the pores to swell shut
doesn't sound like a good idea.

~~~
kinkrtyavimoodh
Without anti-perspirant I sweat a lot (which is not a problem) but it's the
stink it causes that makes me use them. Anyone has any tips?

~~~
jonah
Shave your armpits. No, seriously, no hair means less surface area for
bacteria to grow on.

~~~
kinkrtyavimoodh
I do shave them or keep them trimmed. Doesn't help much.

------
moo360
Okay, but what about Aluminium?

------
njx
How does cooking in aluminium vessels affect the body?

------
derrickgrant
Can someone tell the deodorant manufacturers please? It's very hard to find
aluminium free anti-perspirant in the uk

~~~
klodolph
We should be clear and distinguish deodorants in general from antiperspirants
specifically. Aluminum compounds are the only known effective antiperspirants,
you can ask for an aluminum-free antiperspirant but you'll get a product that
doesn't work very well (if at all). However, there are many options for
aluminum-free deodorants that aren't antiperspirants.

I thought it was well known that antiperspirants should be avoided because of
the aluminum.

~~~
sbov
They also ruin your shirts by causing discoloration.

------
2_listerine_pls
What are common sources of Aluminium?

~~~
mygo
deodorant

------
notadoc
Where is the presumed aluminum exposure coming from?

I recently read about a relationship between alzheimers and pesticides.

[https://www.nature.com/articles/srep32222](https://www.nature.com/articles/srep32222)

There is obviously much more to learn.

~~~
franciscop
Really interested here for my _far_ future health as I'm starting a project
with some CNC'd aluminum.

~~~
convolvatron
it would be good to get an opinion from someone who knows, but I'm pretty sure
elemental aluminum and its oxides aren't directly metabolizable?

~~~
franciscop
Well from the linked article I could understand it's an issue mainly for
prosthesis, but asking just in case.

------
blue1
what about aluminum-based antacids?

------
prodikl
dude... does this mean antiperspirant is going to increase my risk of
alzheimer's in the future?? what about aluminum cans and alumnium foil?

~~~
pc86
dude... there are a half dozen nearly identical comments on this thread that
give you the answer to your question.

