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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reprinted with permission from SCIENCE NEWS, the weekly newsmagazine of science, copyright 1983 by Science Service, Inc. Bill Pfeifer Tektronix