Mineral Water to Prevent Alzheimer's Disease?

Teresa Neumann : Oct 17, 2012
Professor C. Exley – Keele University

It's all about getting rid of aluminum in the brain and early indications are that in individuals with Alzheimer's Disease the lowering of the body burden of aluminum may benefit cognitive function.

(United Kingdom)—Research headed by Professor Christopher Exley at Keele University has shown that regular drinking of up to 1 liter a day of Spritzer, a silicon-rich mineral water, removes aluminum from the bodies of people with Alzheimer's disease and in some individuals offered clinically significant protection against cognitive decline.

There has, for several decades, been a substantive link between Alzheimer's disease and everyday exposure to aluminum, a known neurotoxin. However, there has yet to be a similarly substantive experimental test of this link in people with Alzheimer's disease. The researchers at Keele concluded that the most rigorous test of ‘the aluminum hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease' would be to reduce the body burden of aluminum in individuals with AD and to investigate if this impacted upon their condition in any way. (Photo: Alamy/Daily Mail)

The most effective and non-invasive way to reduce an individual's overall exposure to aluminum is to include in their everyday diet a silicon-rich mineral water. Spritzer, a mineral water from Malaysia, contains 35 mg/L (ppm) total silicon and when individuals with AD were asked to drink 1L of this water each day over a period of 12 weeks their body burdens of aluminum, measured as urinary excretion, were significantly reduced over this relatively short period of time.

In parallel with the reduction in body burden of aluminum were some remarkable affects upon cognitive function in the individuals with AD. Eight out of 15 individuals with AD showed no deterioration in their cognitive abilities over the 12-week period of the study. Three of these 8 actually showed clinically relevant improvements in their cognitive function over the period of the study.

In this first preliminary test of ‘the aluminum hypothesis in Alzheimer's disease' it has been shown that long term drinking of silicon-rich mineral waters, such as Spritzer, can reduce an individual's everyday exposure to aluminum and lower their body burden of this unwanted neurotoxin. Early indications are that in individuals with AD the lowering of the body burden of aluminum may benefit cognitive function.

Professor Exley has commented that while these results are clearly preliminary they are a first step in a much-needed test of ‘the aluminum hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease' and a longer-term study is now warranted.

The research will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Volume 33, No. 2.