APRIL 24, 2019 BY CHRISTOPHER EXLEY, PHD, FRSB
We are living in the Aluminum Age.1 In our school lessons on human history, we learned all about the Iron Age and the Bronze Age, but will schoolchildren in the future be taught about the Aluminum Age? I use this term to describe the period from the late nineteenth century—when we discovered how to make aluminum metal and its salts cheaply and efficiently—until the present day, when myriad aluminum-containing products pervade every aspect of our lives.
The advent of the Aluminum Age heralded the modern world we know today. Aluminum is a feature of our food, our drinks, our medicines, our cosmetics and our environment. So, in a “Gordon Gekko” sort of way, we might say that aluminum (like greed) is good! However, our expectation with all “good things,” including those containing aluminum, is that they also be safe—at least, as they say, when exposed “in moderation.”
We have been brought up to believe in authority and to respect the opinions of experts and expert committees. In turn, we expect learned bodies and societies to be committed to our well-being. All of these values may be evident for other facets of modern life, but they do not apply to, nor have they been applied to, human exposure to aluminum.2 Many will be incredulous to learn that in the Aluminum Age, there are no health-based standards or regulations relating to human exposure to aluminum. Nor are there laws protecting us from aluminum in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the cosmetics we use, the medicines we need, the supplements we take or—I could go on. Aluminum is everywhere, and the result of living in the Aluminum Age is that every one of the cells that make up our body includes at least a few atoms of aluminum.
BODY BURDEN Why should we be concerned that we are accumulating aluminum in our bodies as we age? The answer is that while the aluminum industry has long perpetuated the myth that aluminum is benign, nontoxic and even safe, nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, there are few more biologically reactive metals than aluminum. The biologically reactive form of aluminum is its free metal ion, known as Al”3+(aq). Aluminum is bound strongly by oxygen-based functional groups in biochemistry; one example would be the phosphate groups in ATP—the energy currency of our body. Essentially, aluminum (as Al”3+(aq)) is so reactive that we expend energy simply coping with its presence in our body. If there wasn’t any aluminum in our body, all of us would have so much more natural energy.
ALUMINUM AND THE BRAIN If feeling a little more tired than usual was the only repercussion from our body burden of aluminum, we might tolerate this state of affairs in exchange for all of the advantages of modernity brought about by the Aluminum Age. However, what happens to our brain cells and our neurons, which are struggling to cope with burgeoning amounts of aluminum? I have written elsewhere about neurons’ role as the longest-lived cells of the human body; with their biochemical advantages, neurons can be viewed as “an ostensibly immortal cell line” that has enabled human beings to live longer.3 Unfortunately, the lifespan of neurons also predisposes them to a lifetime accumulation of aluminum. With constant exposure to aluminum, can we tolerate the early loss (death) of this important immortal cell line?
When aluminum loads exceed the body’s excretory capacity, they form deposits and accumulate in tissues. In Alzheimer’s disease, aluminum accumulates in brain tissue to an extent that the brain’s coping mechanisms begin to fail. Think of your brain aluminum burden (while you still can) as a catalyst of the aging process that is bringing about age-related and eventually catastrophic changes in brain chemistry, well ahead of what should be your normal longevity.4 At a time when we are all living longer, and some dream of living forever, it is noticeable that advancing age is not ushering in better health. We may be living longer—but we are living unwell. In the Aluminum Age, it would seem all but futile to aspire to a healthy older age.
NUMBER-ONE THREAT I have highlighted the role of aluminum in Alzheimer’s disease, but aluminum is everywhere throughout the body and is more than capable of contributing to most chronic diseases, including diabetes, autoimmunity, multiple sclerosis and other neurological conditions. To many, it seems fanciful to suggest that human exposure to aluminum is the number-one threat to human health in the twenty-first century, but thirty-five years of thinking about and researching aluminum at the highest level tell me otherwise.
ALUMINUM AND AUTISM Ordinarily, I am somewhat of a skeptic when I am alerted to new health issues purportedly associated with human exposure to aluminum. One recent example would be aluminum and autism. While various studies suggested a link between aluminum and autism—primarily via the aluminum adjuvants in vaccines—at first, I could not easily see a biological mechanism to support such a link. We knew that the accumulation of aluminum in brain tissue toward a toxic threshold occurred over a period of decades, so how might this relate to autism in infants? We had to test this link. We did so by obtaining brain tissues from individuals who had died with a diagnosis of autism. We then measured how much aluminum was in the brain and, significantly, where any aluminum was located in the brain.
The rest, as they say, is history. To summarize, we found extraordinarily high amounts of aluminum in autism brain tissue, and we made the unique observation that the aluminum was associated with a variety of inflammatory (non-neuronal) cells originating both in the brain (for example, the microglia) and outside of the brain (such as lymphocytes).6 The latter provided a mechanism to link aluminum adjuvants to the rapid accumulation of aluminum in brain tissue and, potentially, to autism. Our data—hard science—on aluminum and autism changed my mind; I now had to consider that aluminum could play a role in autism and that aluminum administered as adjuvants in vaccines could be a significant contributing factor.7 I am now, apparently, an “anti-vaxxer,” as they say—simply for following the science.
PRECAUTION NEEDED The science that links human exposure to aluminum with disease is now stronger and more robust than at any other time in history. Perhaps this is why research funding for this science is now rarer than the proverbial hen’s teeth. (Do we, by chance, have industry and governments running scared of the science?) Our group is dependent upon philanthropy to continue our research. (If there are any philanthropists reading this and interested in possibly contributing to our research, please get in touch by email [in bio].)
Until the epiphany comes—when all begin to agree that we have been horribly complacent about human exposure to aluminum—we need to adopt a precautionary approach in trying to protect ourselves against the potential ravages of aluminum. I do this in part by avoiding almost all processed foods and drinks, but mainly I use our most important scientific contribution to date. In brief, that contribution is that silicon is the Earth’s natural antidote to aluminum.
Our research includes clinical trials involving healthy volunteers, individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and people with multiple sclerosis.8 These trials have shown that silicon-rich mineral water facilitates the removal of aluminum from the body in the urine. You drink the mineral water, and you pee aluminum. It is that simple, and it is completely safe. Every day, I try to drink at least one liter of a silicon-rich mineral water—that is, a mineral water where the stated content of silicon (as “silica” on the bottle) is above thirty milligrams per liter (ppm).
Do not think of this as a one-off “detox” program, however. It is a philosophy for living in the Aluminum Age and for giving yourself the best possible protection against the toxicity of aluminum—protection that no government or other body is likely to afford you in the near future.
