colin@aesat.UUCP (Colin Davidson) (03/22/86)
Is there such a thing as a line eater?
The following article appeared in the 'Science and Technology'
section of the March 21, 1986 edition of 'The Economist' weekly
magazines, on pages 84 and 86. This magazine is a fairly
reputable one. I release, having been a passive net user for
over a year, that this subject has already been done to death
at least once before, and I appologize for 'stirring the pot'
(pun intended) again. Nevertheless, the article adds a new slant
to the previous discussion, in the calcium connection, as well as
coming to a different conclusion to the 'medical lobby', and I
would be interested in some constructive discussion of this
article. I hope you find it interesting and informative.
On current trends, 2m Americans will have Alzheimer's disease in
the year 2000. Alzheimer's is the commonest form of dementia, in
which symptoms of extreme senility appear at a much earlier age
than is usual. In most cases, the victim dies within ten years of
the first appearance of the symptoms. It is a mysterious disease,
which seems at times to have hereditary, infectious and environmental
characteristics.
Like Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia, Alzheimer's is a
malfunction of the brain's neurotransmitters - the chemicals that
relay signals between nerve cells. Most researchers now think that
the neurotransmitter changes in Alzheimer's are effects, not causes,
of the disease. The search for causes is focused on the tangles of
nerve fibres called senile plaques that are found in the brains of
victims.
A few years ago doctors noticed that some patients undergoing
long-term dialysis developed Alzheimer's-like symptoms at an early
age. It looked as if the responsibility could be laid on aluminium
in the tap water used to clean dialysis machines. The clue was
pursued and post mortems revealed aluminium deposits in the brains
of people who died with Alzheimer's.
Dr James Edwardson and his coleagues in Newcastle General Hospital
in Britain now think they have evidence that the aluminium is cause
and not symptom. They used nuclear magnetic resonance to pinpoint
precisely where the aluminium is in the brain. They found it, as
aluminium silicate, right in the centres of the plaques, implying
that aluminium triggers the formation of the plaques.
Whence the aluminium? In Japan and Guam, surveys have shown an
abnormally high incidence of dementia in people suffering from
calcium deficiency, in areas where the soil is abnormally poor in
calcium but rich in aluminium.
Dr Edwardson hypothesises that the body of an old person suffering
from calcium deficiency tries to compensate bi becoming abnormally
ready to absorb calcium and mistakenly absorbs aluminium, which
resembles calcium chemically. Other factors, genetic or viral, make
some people's brains vulnerable to damage by aluminium absorbed in
this way.
This hypothesis has the great merit of being testable. If it is
true, doctors would expect to find a high incidence of Alzheimer's
disease among people with calcium deficiency, as shown by brittle
bones. The Newcastle team has taken a look at old people admitted
to hospital with broken femurs and calcium deficiency, and discovered
that 30% of them are suffering from dementia. This, they say, is more
than can be explained by the assumption that demented people are more
liable than others to fall and break a leg.
Quite simple precautions suggest themselves. Avoid digestion
tablets containing soluble aluminium; avoid vegetables grown in
aluminium-rich soils; and avoid cooking acid foods - e.g., apples,
rhubarb and spinich - in aluminium saucepans.
--
. . . . . . Colin Davidson
. . . x . . {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!aesat!colin
. o x * . . (416) 821-9190
. . o x x . AES Data Inc.
. . o . . . 1900 Minnesota Ct.
. . . . . . Mississauga, Ont. CANADA L5N 3C9
Disclaimer: If I knew what I was doing, I wouldn't do it. Even if I
did, I wouldn't be responsible.
All expressed opinions are hereby assigned to the public
domain.