Aluminum, Antiperspirants and Alzheimer's

This post was written by Glenner Center intern and soon-to-be SDSU graduate Denise La.

There have been many questions regarding if aluminum or aluminum-containing antiperspirants leads to Alzheimer’s disease. Aluminum is pretty much everywhere. It is in the cans we drink out of, it is in the pans we cook with, and it is in products like antacids, sunscreen and antiperspirants. So what is the connection and how did this all begin?

According to a Washington Post article, the connection between aluminum and Alzheimer’s disease is less a myth than a longstanding scientific controversy. This scientific controversy began in 1965, when researchers made a discovery that injecting rabbits’ brains with aluminum caused them to develop neurofibrillary tangles, which are found in the brain cells of individual’s with Alzheimer’s disease. This finding created a rise in interest and research.

Eight years after the finding, a group in Canada studying brain tissue from deceased Alzheimer’s patients, discovered that there were two to three times more aluminum in certain parts of their brains than a normal brain with have. Other research include the 1997 study from England and Wales, and the World Health Organization survey in 2003, which both showed little to slim association between Alzheimer’s and aluminum.
Does aluminum and antiperspirants lead to Alzheimer’s disease? According to John Savory, a professor of pathology at the University of Virginia, “The truth is, nobody knows.”

Amy Borenstein, a professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida College of Public Health believes “If aluminum plays any role, it’s very small and there are many other, much more important risk factors to study.”
Overall, there is really little understanding about aluminum’s possible association with Alzheimer’s disease. Avoiding aluminum all together is not possible because it is everywhere. We are better off keeping our minds active and heart healthy in order to protect our brain.

The Physical Side of Alzheimer's Disease

We often write about the cognitive and psychological sides of Alzheimer's Disease and other dementia because they are the most prevalant and because they are disorders and diseases of the mind. But the brain controls our other functions and as Alzheimer's takes its mental toll, it also creates more physical limitations since the mind-body connection starts to deteriorate as the disease progresses. This makes everyday living more difficult and increases the risk of life-changing falls.

In yesterday's Washington Post, a reader asked about mobility issues and was told of a survey that demonstrated why an exercise routine is important  after a diagnosis. The research involved 210 patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's who lived in their home with a spouse.

"One group exercised at home with the help of a physiotherapist, with the exercises tailored to each person’s specific needs and abilities. The others exercised in groups of 10 at an adult rehabilitation center day-care program, with a mix of endurance, balance and strength-training exercises supervised by physiotherapists. The non-exercisers were given advice by nurses on nutrition and exercise.

"After a year, physical abilities had deteriorated in all groups, but the decline was slower among those who exercised, especially those who exercised at home, than it was for those who did not exercise, based on standardized scales. Also during the year, more falls were recorded for those who did not exercise than for those who did. The authors noted that less physical decline means less need for help day to day."

One reason we do daily, structured physical fitness exercises, modified for our participants, at each of our centers is to help with fall prevention and even keeping their legs and arms flexible enough so that changing clothes is not a serious ordeal. It's also a lot of fun with a group.

It takes work, and our centers are more than happy to help our caregivers with this responsibility. Do not choose the path of least resistence when it comes to exercise well into the progression of a disease.

Dementia Highest Cost Disease and Rising

Heard this on my way into work this morning and wanted to make sure everyone else reads and/or listens to this report from Marketplace, based on findings in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Essentially we now spend more money to "treat" dementia than we do the two other leading causes of death: cancer and heart disease.

According to the report, 75% of those funds are devoted to nursing home and in-home care, both of which have high costs attached to them because of the nature of the disease: it takes a lot of money to care for someone who cannot care for themselves any longer.

What the report doesn't mention is how underreported that expense is. In San Diego County, 80 percent of those diagnosed with dementia, particularly Alzheimer's, still live at home. If that's the case in other metropolitan areas around the nation, then that is an even more startling statistic, isn't it?

Dementia highest cost disease and rising: Report | Marketplace.org