A Link to Alzheimer's

Given the evidence, we suggest to those researching Alzheimer's that copper may offer an important consideration.

As of 2017, the Alzheimer's Association website continues to state "At this time, there is no treatment to cure, delay or stop the progression of Alzheimer's disease".  While there may be no 'cure', there is certainly enough evidence to suggest that progression can be delayed - if medical research chooses to look at the contribution copper plays in this epidemic, and if the public becomes educated on daily lifestyle influences that are affecting their copper levels. Unfortunately, just as with the Pill or IUD, discussion of copper is almost all but ignored, in this case as evidenced by not one single mention of copper in this otherwise excellently written and comprehensive 84 page report on A.D....even though we know the following:

We know that copper antagonizes zinc, and we know that zinc deprivation causes cell death in the hippocampus, where memories are recorded. “In Alzheimer's disease, the hippocampus is one of the first regions of the brain to be affected, leading to the confusion and loss of memory so commonly seen in the early stages of the disease.” ~Dr. Ananya Mandal.   At the same time, excess copper causes neuronal toxicity while zinc deficiency causes neuronal damage [47].  Alzheimer’s is characterized by degeneration and/or trauma of neuronal structures [48].

Dr. Rashid Dean, PhD, a research professor in the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Department of Neurosurgery, has shown in his study that “over time, copper’s cumulative effect is to impair the systems by which amyloid beta is removed from the brain.  Amyloid beta is a main component of the amyloid plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients” [49].   Amyloid beta is a small protein clipped off a larger one by the beta secretase enzyme.  The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal concluded in 2013 that “Copper appears to be one of the main environmental factors that trigger the onset and enhance the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by preventing the clearance and accelerating the accumulation of toxic proteins in the brain.” [49]

It could be argued that the rise in the prevalence of Alzheimer’s rates, which really is a 20th century phenomenon, loosely corresponds with the rise in rates of copper toxicity. Dr George J. Brewer, MD, offers the following, I would suggest accurate, comment: “Scientists these days like to talk about the complexity of AD. They formulate drugs or agents designed to lessen the amyloid-beta burden in the brain or to attack biochemical aspects of the neurofibrillary tangles. [I have] long suggested there is a simpler line of attack: prevent AD by eliminating ingestion of inorganic copper.  This concept, however, has yet to enter the conversation of the scientific community…It is our belief that the leaching of copper from copper plumbing into the drinking water is a major causal factor in the AD epidemic.” [50,60]   To further corroborate this, Sparks and Schreurs, in a published 2003 study [51, 52], found that the addition of only 0.12 parts per million of copper to the drinking water of rabbits greatly enhanced the AD-type pathological changes in the brain, along with marked decrease in performance of previously learned tasks.  They also later found that copper in drinking water at even 1/10 the U.S. EPA limit destroyed the blood-brain barrier receptors (LRP receptors) responsible for clearing amyloid beta from the brain, resulting in the hallmark accumulation of amyloid plaques. "It is clear that copper (II) is extremely toxic. It is as toxic to the brain as lead, but in a different way. Lead acts quickly to cause damage, including brain damage. Copper (II) acts over many years to cause cognition loss."[60]