It has been suggested for many years that many people who suffer from Alzheimer's disease have been shown to have deposits of aluminum in their brains and the connection between aluminum and Alzheimer's disease has been fairly well-discussed and generally accepted as, at least, a contributing factor. Alzheimer's disease (AD) was unknown prior to the 20th century. The first case was published in 1907 by a German psychiatrist by the name of Alois Alzheimer. Textbooks on pathology up to 1938 did not mention any of the neurological changes that take place within the brain that cause Alzheimer's disease. The epidemic of Alzheimer's disease increased dramatically after 1950, Alzheimer's disease tends to be more prevalent in "developed countries"'. It was around 1950 that copper plumbing became widely used in "developed countries"; it is felt that the leaching of copper from copper plumbing is a major factor in the development of Alzheimer's disease. Many diseases have multiple factors and contributing causal agents so it may well be a combination of aluminum and copper.
This potential for copper to be a contributing factor in the development of Alzheimer's disease was supported by studies with laboratory animals in which the changes in the brains of the animals, fed copper in their drinking water, were exactly the same substance called amyloid-beta that occurs in Alzheimer's disease patients' brains. It was also shown that these laboratory animals had twice as much copper lining their blood vessels in their brains. The brain can remove this amyloid-beta with a protein called LRP (lipoprotein receptor related protein). This substance escorts the amyloid out of the brain. It was found during this research that copper damages the LRP and it stops working. Of interest, the US EPA allows 1.3 parts per million of copper in human drinking water which is over ten times the amount used in these animal experiments.
There are two basic forms of copper. One is organic copper, which is in the food we eat and is bound to food proteins. It is therefore metabolized by the liver and is safe. An inorganic copper is a salt of copper, which is the kind that is typically put in nutritional supplements and leaches into drinking water. It is not metabolized by the liver and increases the body's overall copper pool where it becomes available to cause toxicity; it generates reactive oxygen species (free radicals). Free radical damage is a major feature of the Alzheimer's disease of the brain.
Research has also shown that many people with Alzheimer's disease also are deficient in zinc and zinc supplementation is typically part of a comprehensive chelation therapy program.
As far as dietary sources of copper are concerned, red meat is a common source. Processed meats including hot dogs, sausage and bacon are also a source. Copper sulfate used as a bactericide and fungicide sometimes on meat and fat and meat products can also be a source. Copper sulfate has also been used as a fungicide, bactericide in crops of rice, wild rice, cherries, oranges, wine grapes, peaches, nectarines, walnuts, almonds, lemons, apricots and grapefruit. You can also have your water tested for copper. If you have your own water treatment system, reverse osmosis is about 99% effective in removing copper.
Chelation therapy chelates or removes toxic metals from the body, including minerals such as copper and aluminum. The use of chelation therapy to treat someone who has Alzheimer's disease may be helpful, depending upon how long the condition has been obvious. It will certainly be helpful in retarding early Alzheimer's disease and a major factor in decreasing the potential of its occurring in the first place.
Other research has shown that iron can also contribute to the brain changes that occur in Alzheimer's disease. Damage to DNA is involved in Alzheimer's disease and both iron and copper interfere with the activity of two enzymes that repair DNA damage.
In addition to decreasing your exposure to copper and inappropriate levels of iron, chelation therapy to remove them should be an essential part of treating existing and contributing to preventing the advent of Alzheimer's disease. The good news is something can be done about it, and as usual, with all chronic degenerative diseases, the sooner someone commences on an appropriate program the more effective it will be and the more long lasting the benefits.
Dr. Conrad G. Maulfair, DO
What Do Heart Disease, Diabetes, Arthritis and Cancer Have In Common?
Diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and cancer are the big 4. Three of them are considered chronic degenerative diseases; they are ongoing and worsen over time. The likely common denominator among these diseases, and for that matter accelerated aging, is a toxic body load of heavy metals. Yes, toxic metals! There is a mountain of medical evidence validating the fact that small amounts of toxic metals; lead, cadmium, mercury, uranium, arsenic and others contribute to the development of chronic degenerative disease.
There are thousands of scientific references about lead in bodies associated with vascular disease, elevated blood pressure especially. Cadmium in the air over 28 cities was found to be associated with the incidence of vascular disease in people living in those cities.
Aluminum (al) has long been associated with decline of mental functions including Alzheimer’s disease. Aluminum also damages the genetic material DNA. DNA besides being involved in genes is essential in everyday cellular function. Without proper DNA function the function of cellular activity deteriorates causing chronic degenerative diseases. Aluminum within cells will impair the cells energy production and therefore its health.
Arsenic is a well known metal poison. Arsenic can be introduced into the environment via pesticides and the glass and electronics industries. Its presence in human bodies has been shown to be associated with cancer, and peripheral vascular disease. Arsenic along with lead, cadmium, and mercury are neuro-toxic and associated with cardiovascular disease. Arsenic also affects glucose tolerance and type 2 diabetes. Arsenic is added to animal feed to fight parasites in chicken.
The less toxic metals we carry around the healthier we will be. What is the best thing to do? There are three things: decrease the amount of toxic metals you are exposed to by finding out where they come from and avoiding future exposures, seek out the proper testing of heavy metal toxic load in your body, and finally remove the existing metal load with intravenous chelation therapy.
There is much that can be done to enhance and maintain a high quality of life. Handling toxic metals is an essential part of the effort.
Conrad G Maulfair, Jr. D.O.
Maulfair Medical Center Medical Alert: Alzheimer's Disease Not Just Aluminum
It has been suggested for many years that many people who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease have been shown to have deposits of aluminum in their brains and the connection between aluminum and Alzheimer’s disease has been fairly well-discussed and generally accepted as, at least, a contributing factor. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) was unknown prior to the 20th century. The first case was published in 1907 by a German psychiatrist by the name of Alois Alzheimer. Text books on pathology up to 1938 did not mention any of the neurological changes that take place within the brain that cause Alzheimer’s disease. The epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease increased dramatically after 1950, Alzheimer’s disease tends to be more prevalent in “developed countries”. It was around 1950 that copper plumbing became widely used in “developed countries”; it is felt that the leaching of copper from copper plumbing is a major factor in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Many diseases have multiple factors and contributing causal agents so it may well be a combination of aluminum and copper.This potential for copper to be a contributing factor in the development of Alzheimer’s disease was supported by studies with laboratory animals in which the changes in the brains of the animals, fed copper in their drinking water, were exactly the same substance called amyloid-beta that occurs in Alzheimer’s disease patients’ brains. It was also shown that these laboratory animals had twice as much copper lining their blood vessels in their brains. The brain can remove this amyloid-beta with a protein called LRP (lipoprotein receptor related protein). This substance escorts the amyloid out of the brain. It was found during this research that copper damages the LRP and it stops working. Of interest, the US EPA allows 1.3 parts per million of copper in human drinking water which is over ten times the amount used in these animal experiments.
There are two basic forms of copper. One is organic copper which is in the food we eat and is bound to food proteins. It is therefore metabolized by the liver and is safe. An inorganic copper is a salt of copper which is the kind that is typically put in nutritional supplements and leaches into drinking water. It is not metabolized by the liver and increases the body’s overall copper pool where it becomes available to cause toxicity; it generates reactive oxygen species (free radicals). Free radical damage is a major feature of the Alzheimer’s disease of the brain.
Research has also shown that many people with Alzheimer’s disease also are deficient in zinc and zinc supplementation is typically part of a comprehensive chelation therapy program.
As far as dietary sources of copper are concerned, red meat is a common source. Processed meats including hot dogs, sausage and bacon are also a source. Copper sulfate used as a bactericide and fungicide sometimes on meat and fat and meat products can also be a source. Copper sulfate has also been used as a fungicide, bactericide in crops of rice, wild rice, cherries, oranges, wine grapes, peaches, nectarines, walnuts, almonds, lemons, apricots and grapefruit. You can also have your water tested for copper. If you have your own water treatment system, reverse osmosis is about 99% effective in removing copper.
Chelation therapy chelates or removes toxic metals from the body, including minerals such as copper and aluminum. The use of chelation therapy to treat someone who has Alzheimer’s disease may be helpful, depending upon how long the condition has been obvious. It will certainly be helpful in retarding early Alzheimer’s disease and a major factor in decreasing the potential of its occurring in the first place.
Other research has shown that iron can also contribute to the brain changes that occur in Alzheimer’s disease. Damage to DNA is involved in Alzheimer’s disease and both iron and copper interfere with the activity of two enzymes that repair DNA damage.
In addition to decreasing your exposure to copper and inappropriate levels of iron, chelation therapy to remove them should be an essential part of treating existing and contributing to preventing the advent of Alzheimer’s disease. The good news is something can be done about it, and as usual, with all chronic degenerative diseases, the sooner someone commences on an appropriate program, the more effective it will be and the more long-lasting will the effect be.
Dr Conrad G. Maulfair, D.O.
December 2014
Alzheimer's - What Can Be Done?
A visit to my childhood home in Minnesota to see my Mom and Dad recently brings the problems of aging a special emphasis in my life. The photos and memories of family, our big extended family, are so dear for me. I spent these days helping my Mom and Dad and reflecting on this generation that is fading and leaving us so fast. My Mom has had Alzheimer’s for a number of years and my Dad has taken care of her at home until recently. Their brothers and sisters, my aunts and uncles, have, in the main, died and these two dears ones are the last standing, or sitting in the case of my Mom.
They gave us the best of childhoods, protected from problems and left to run barefoot collecting toads and frogs, creating the surefoot club, and watching Disney and Lassie together on Sunday evenings was life for us, the boomers. Most of us had Moms at home, family dinners and numerous neighborhood friends growing up in the suburbs running wild and free with dinner at home every evening. We celebrated every holiday and birthday with our extended family, my Mom’s sisters and brothers who lived close by. That was 24-25 people for dinner with linens and china around the big tables and of course – at the kids’ table- red jello with bananas and fresh whipped cream. Yikes!
I am so thankful for this now and love the photos and linens and the Swedish Coffee pot Mom always used for those family dinners, but it was not always so. As a young woman I could not wait to leave and experience life apart from the protection of this life, I yearned for other cultures and for other places, bored with the security and sameness. The university and travel were a very bid deal to me. So here we are, finding ways to help these leaders who gave us so much and who are not doing so well these days and confronting the fact that our society has somehow misplaced these wonderful days, no longer offering our children carefree childhoods.
The one thing we could do for ourselves is prevent the horrible outcomes memory problems, Alzheimer’s, cause. People afflicted are very hard to care for and this is a problem many more families are facing as the disease is prevalent. Professionals working in the field do not have the answers as to why this disease develops; and of course drugs used to “treat” the problems are not effective. Seems funny to me that anyone who has a loved one who is loosing their mind would think that more toxins are the answer. The ones needing the drugs are the caregivers! Just kidding. My Mom is drug free and she has been since the onset. She does not have outbursts and she does not object to direction and control. Although she does not originate communication very often she can read out loud with her big print books. When you think about it, reading is just copying what you see and requires no original thought. She does tell you with her eyes what is happening and she can respond to pain, her fingers curling on one hand hurt when you try to uncurl them. When I was feeding her lunch last week she was gazing over my shoulder at someone at the next table who was acting up. She looked back at me with this impish expression in her eyes and we started to laugh, really laugh, and we actually had no idea why. Love that. We just laughed. It was good to be together.
If all our sophisticated medical science cannot come up with the reason why the brain becomes “tangled” physically and people with Alzheimer’s just continue to worsen until they forget how to swallow and then forget how to breathe, perhaps toxins and their effects should be considered as a factor. Medical science seldom looks at the effect of all the toxins we are exposed to contributing to disease. They study one or two and never consider the total exposures and what these chemicals could cause when combined. Remember Crisco and boxed cake mixes? Do you read the labels on “manufactured food”? We should all start because this disease takes the cake for creating trouble for everyone who loves you. Real trouble. I shudder to think of those who do not have strong family ties, it is gruesome. Why not take control of our lives and start to pay attention to the things that keep us healthy instead of looking for treatments after the fact. Nutrient dense organic foods could go a long way in helping supply your body with essential nutrients. Avoiding sources of contamination and utilizing chelation therapy to remove heavy metals makes sense to me. I am my mother’s daughter.