Conclusion of the Case of
the Cloaked Assassin
Holmes and Watson, have methodically solved the case of the “Cloaked
Assassin” by reaching the following conclusions:
·
Aluminum in alum is the
cause of AD in the case of strange death.
·
Aluminum is the only
suspect capable of causing AD and has both means and motive to cause AD.
·
Aluminum causes the two
hallmarks of AD:
o AB-plaques
o NFTs
·
Aluminum causes two symptoms
of AD:
o Mitochondrial disease
o Memory impairment
Watson, we need to inform Lestrade over at Scotland Yard so the police
can regulate this evil monster before more harm is done.
Before leaving on his
mission, Watson turned and asked Holmes: Why isn’t aluminum regulated like other toxic
chemicals?
Holmes replied: “Even though aluminum adversely influences more than 200
biological reactions and has various neurotoxic effects on the mammalian
central nervous system, it has not been regarded as posing a health hazard64. As a consequence, aluminum compounds are used
in food additives, food processing, water purification, pharmaceuticals, and
inoculations65,66. These factors may account for why, in the U.S. by
the year 2002, 2.7 million people had AD11 and worldwide by the year
2005, 24 million people had AD67. “
The controversy
surrounding aluminum being a cause of AD has impacted the regulations regarding
aluminum exposure. In 2010 the World
Health Organization (WHO) lowered the provisional
tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of aluminum per person from 7 mg/kg of body weight to
1 mg/kg based upon new data68.
In both 1998 and 2003 WHO stated:
“The
positive relationship between aluminum in drinking-water and AD … cannot be
totally dismissed.” World
Health Organization 1998 and 2003
Since 2010, the European Aluminum Association with support from the
aluminum industry has participated in the Codex process, submitting biased
reviews of the scientific literature in order to have the new aluminum limit re-assessed64. In response to this lobbying by the aluminum
industry a joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee
on Food Additives recently established a PTWI of 2 mg/kg body weight,
superseding the previous WHO PTWI of 1 mg/kg body weight69.
The initial response of
government agencies to commonly used substances found to be toxic by scientific
researchers usually favors the industries producing the substances70. For example, in 1979 when lead exposure in
children was found to be correlated with low IQ, the credibility of the
researcher was questioned by psychologists hired by the tetraethyl lead industry.
These psychologists publically accused the researcher of scientific misconduct70. The parallel between lead and aluminum is
very strong as they are both neurotoxins with powerful industrial lobbies
backing their continued use. The only difference is that lead has a much
longer history than aluminum (see Chapter 8 for the history of lead poisoning).
Watson looked discouraged and said “If it can’t be better regulated is
there any hope for individuals to lower the aluminum levels in their bodies and
possibly prevent AD?
Holmes suggested: “One method to lower your body burden of aluminum and
possibly prevent AD is to routinely ingest or inject a metal chelator or
complexing agent. Ideally this agent
will only attach itself to aluminum and thereby facilitate the removal of
aluminum from the body.”
In 1991 McLachlen, et al. demonstrated for the first time that a
chemical called desferrioxamine (DFO), when given by intramuscular injection 5
days a week for 24 months, led to a 50% decrease in the rate of decline of AD
patients’ daily living skills71.
In 1998 Savory, et al. demonstrated that DFO could reverse the formation
of NFTs in white rabbits from New Zealand that had been previously injected
with aluminum24. DFO removes aluminum from the aluminum/PHFt complex and allows PHFt to be degraded reversing the
formation of aluminum-induced neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs)24. The
problems with DFO are the number of required injections and its ability to
remove not only aluminum but also the required element iron from the body.
A more ideal candidate for preventing
or reversing AD would be a complexing agent for aluminum that can be taken
orally and does not complex iron. Such a
candidate has been found to be the dissolved mineral orthosilicic acid (OSA)
that will be discussed in Chapters 5, 6, and 7.
This concludes the case of the cloaked assassin.
