Avoiding Toxic Aluminum

Toxic metals in our environment can produce a slow degeneration of our nervous system, including damage to the brain. The toxic effects of aluminum, the third most common element on earth, have been associated with dementia and brain inflammation, and perhaps put us at risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

In addition to environmental sources containing aluminum, including drinking water, thousands of products are made from aluminum — from the engine in your car to food packaging. If you check the ingredients on medications, you will see that most contain an aluminum additive. For more information on food additives and the damage they can cause to your body, read my newsletter " Food Additives: What You Eat Can Kill You."

Until recently, the main food source containing aluminum was baking powder. Biscuits, pancakes, and most baked goods have added aluminum. You can buy aluminum-free baking powder, but that version is rarely used by food processors. Salt previously contained added aluminum to prevent caking, but it has been removed from most brands. Sea salt, however, still contains aluminum.

Some natural products, such as black tea, also have very high aluminum levels. The tea plant selectively extracts the aluminum from the soil and concentrates it in the leaves. (Green tea has far less aluminum, and white tea has very little.)

The No. 1 food source for aluminum is soy products. Soybeans naturally have very high aluminum levels along with high glutamate levels. Americans have been convinced by a clever marketing campaign to consume massive amounts of soy, including the most commonly used formula for babies.

If this is not bad enough, soy also has very high manganese levels and fluoride levels, both known neurotoxins. So soy foods and drinks have quite a neurotoxic mixture: aluminum, glutamate, fluoride, and manganese.

Even the American Academy of Pediatrics expressed concern about the neurotoxic level of some of the metals in soy baby formula. Studies that looked at aluminum absorption in babies exposed to aluminum found that infants absorb a considerable amount of aluminum from ingested products.

A great number of processed foods, medications, and drinks are loaded with aluminum. And because aluminum is added to drinking water, our plant foods are accumulating (bioaccumulating) the aluminum, so that over time the levels will continue to rise, just as we have seen with fluoride.

It is important to check all labels on foods and medications. If you see aluminum, don’t buy the product. For more tips choosing foods, read my special report "How to Avoid Poisonous Foods."

The following natural substances can reduce inflammation and remove harmful metals from the body.

• Bee Propolis. Several studies have shown that bee propolis (a flavonoid-rich, resinous substance that bees collect from tree buds) can counteract the damaging effects of aluminum. Rats given aluminum plus propolis or propolis alone demonstrated an elevation in antioxidant enzymes and a return to normal blood lipid profiles. Propolis has also been found to have powerful anti-inflammatory properties.

• Ascorbic Acid. In another study, male New Zealand rabbits were given aluminum chloride and varying doses of ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Researchers found that vitamin C significantly reduced the level of free radicals generated by the aluminum and returned total lipid and cholesterol levels to normal.

• Chelators. A chelator is a substance used to remove excess metal from the body. The traditional pharmaceutical treatment for aluminum overload is desferrioxamine, a chelator that is administered either intramuscularly or via IV. Unfortunately, this can cause painful swelling at the site of the injection and has a number of serious side effects.

A newer agent, called Feralex-G, appears to be superior and can be taken orally. Recent studies have shown that, unlike most other aluminum chelators, Feralex-G can remove aluminum that has bound to the cell nucleus. (Aluminum tightly binds to the nucleic acid of DNA; this causes much of its toxicity.)

Combining vitamin C with Feralex-G significantly improves removal of aluminum from the cell nucleus, a process called shuttle chelation.