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Originally Posted by Dalesbred
There’s another quite far out there theory about the link between Alzheimer’s and aluminium, which I report here without comment as it’s quite controversial. Geo-engineering, that is, spraying fine aluminium particles into the atmosphere to deflect the sun’s rays and reduce global warming; Spain and other governments have admitted doing this for a number of years. The question is, do the particles fall to earth, to then enter the soil, taken up by plants, eaten by livestock... is Alzheimer’s due in part to aluminium poisoning? Down the rabbit hole I go😊!
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I'd heard the aluminum theory decades ago. Of course it hadn't progressed to the point of spraying fine aluminum particles into the air, because no one was really talking about global warming, which makes me curious as to how many years the spraying of aluminum particles to deflect heat from the sun has supposedly been going on.
The theories I heard back then had to do with the aluminum salts in deodorants/antiperspirants, which eventually resulted in people using deodorant "rocks"... which are essentially nothing more than the same aluminum salts in rock form (but without the fragrances, and moisturizing properties in antiperspirants).
Then I started hearing about cooking in aluminum pots and pans being a problem as it would leech aluminum into your food. Recent information seems to indicate it's really only a problem for acidic foods (such as tomato sauce).
All that to say that I'm not sure aluminum has anything to do with dementia or Alzheimer's at all.
My mother had dementia/Alzheimer's.
Her skin was too sensitive to use antiperspirants - she used a pinch of baking soda as her deodorant, so there goes the aluminum salts in deodorants theory.
Over the years, she had many different types of pots and pans - there were only a very few pots and pans that were aluminum - most were stainless steel. But she never ever cooked anything that was acidic like tomato sauce. (her digestive tract was extremely sensitive to vegetables, especially tomatoes)
If we go with the excessive carb theory of dementia/Alzheimers though, that fits my mom to-a-T. Lots of starches and sugars in her dit. No whole grains though, since her digestive system couldn't tolerate the fiber, but a good bit of fruit (usually peeled because the skins upset her digestive tract). Some veggies, but always cooked-to-death, because they were easier on her stomach. Lots of plain boiled potatoes (no skins), and white rice. Very little fat (another thing that her very sensitive digestive system didn't tolerate). She used to eat a reasonable amount of protein - until her doctor told her that she was eating far too much protein, then she cut back to the pitiful amount they recommended, and filled in with... you guess it, more carbs.
Her recipe file had several recipes in it for what she called "breakfast cake" - It was sort of like a carrot cake, only it had shredded zucchini instead of carrots in it. Lots of sugar, and some dried fruit. She did not frost her breakfast cake though, since that was too much fat (and would psychologically make it seem too much like she was eating dessert for breakfast), but the cake itself was loaded with sugars.
She used vegetable oils and margarine almost exclusively, with quite a bit of vegetable oil in those breakfast cakes. Very little butter in her diet, and rarely ate eggs, especially after the cholesterol theory of heart disease became more well known.
You also need to consider that she was almost 80 when she started to show the first minor signs of mental degeneration (she was still sharp as a tack in most ways though), was in her mid-80's before it became obvious her mental abilities were really going downhill, and passed away shortly before she would have turned 93, which is approximately the same age as her sisters were when they died, and about 5 years older than her mother was when she died.
I feel like I can pretty much rule out any aluminum connection to her dementia.
But I'm also
not absolutely certain about the carb and seed oil connection to Alzheimer's - I mean a lot of people from previous generations developed the same kind of mental incapacitation if they lived long enough to reach the age when my mother started to show signs of mental decline.
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I think people developing EARLY Alzheimer's is much more concerning.
A cousin of mine developed Alzheimer's in his early 50's, and died from that when he was 67.
He was also a long time vegetarian. Or perhaps he was what we now call vegan. He was several years older than me, and I don't think I saw him more than once after he reached adulthood, so I don't know whether he ever used eggs and dairy (which would have at the very least provided him with some complete proteins).
I just have vague memories of one time when he was pontificating about the excellent benefits of eating raisins while he was eating them by the handful, so for all I know, he may have been eating an all-raisin diet at that time.
Dementia to double by 2040, driven by poor lifestyles
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