billp@azure.UUCP (11/15/83)
The following article appeared in Science News, October 1, 1983, Page 213.
Because of its importance it is submitted to net.misc as well as net.cooks and
net.med. Follow-up discussion should be in net.med.
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Aluminum cutback to prevent senility
A possible preventive against senility (senile dementia or Alzheimer's
disease) is being proposed by a Washington, D.C. toxicologist. The technique
involves reducing levels of aluminum in one's diet, since there is increasing
evidence that aluminum can accumulate in the brain and cause several kinds
of dementia, including the senile type (SN:11/6/82,p.292).
Armond Lione, a toxicologist and president of Associated Pharmacologists
and Toxicologists in Washington, D.C., writes in FOOD CHEMISTRY AND TOXICOLOGY
(Vol.21,No.1), that nonprescription drugs containing substantial amounts of
aluminum include a number of antacids, buffered aspirins, anti-diarrheal
products, douches and hemorrhoidal medications. Foods that contain ample
amounts of aluminum include many household baking powders, individually wrapped
process cheeses, pancake mixes, frozen doughs and self-rising flours as well as
some pickled cucumbers. Aluminum cookware, he has found, can also add to
people's daily aluminum intake, especially when salty, acidic or alkaline foods
are cooked in it.
Although no studies have yet shown whether aluminum reduction can prevent
senility, Lione told SCIENCE NEWS, some scientists are now trying to see
whether reducing the aluminum intake of senile patients can counter their
disease.
-J. A. Treichel
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Reprinted with permission from SCIENCE NEWS, the weekly newsmagazine
of science, copyright 1983 by Science Service, Inc.
Bill Pfeifer
Tektronix