This week I watched a documentary (The age of Aluminum) about something I already thought I knew about, Aluminum. So I started questioning practice members in my office this week, “does anyone else know about aluminum.” The short answer is NO. The possible links that are being researched are a little scary. Things like Alzheimers, brest cancer, and allergies are just some of them.
5 Unsuspecting Things With Aluminum In Them:
1. Antiperspirant- aluminium zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly , aluminium zirconium trichlorohydrex gly, Aluminium chloride, aluminium chlorohydrate, and aluminium–zirconium are the most common types of aluminum in antiperspirants. How they work is that the aluminum makes a bond with the electrolytes in the sweat and it forms a gel plug in the sweat gland duct. The worry is that it is possible that aluminum in leaching into the surrounding tissues, especially breast tissue which it is closest to. Research being done in vitro (out of the body) show that breast cells exposed to aluminum will grow tumors. The aluminum lobby says, “this is bogus” but to me it sounds a lot like what the tobacco lobby used to say about lung cancer. ALTERNATIVE: use deodorant (aluminum free) or magnesium oil.2. Vaccines– I know there is much controversy over vaccines and our health. But one incontrovertible fact is that vaccines have aluminum in them as something called an adjuvant which “improves the immune response” of those who receive the vaccine. Well here’s something I didn’t know before, aluminum hydroxide is used to MAKE animals allergic to things so we can study them. So, to put it another way, when we inject these animals with aluminum, it makes them allergic to eggs, wheat, soy, or whatever they choose to introduce at the same time. This Articleis one example of this. There is also some speculation into how vaccines can be related to dementia (read more on number 4). ALTERNATIVE: don’t get vaccines..
3. Cookware– My grandfather used to tell my mother, never let something sit too long in an aluminum pot. He was sort of ahead of his time, a chiropractor and in love with health knowledge. Tons of cookware is made with aluminum. Probably not such a great idea now that we know that aluminum is toxic. I think of it similarly to pewter. People used to get lead poisoning from using pewter for cooking, now it is made with tin instead of lead, so it goes to show that metal can leach out of cookware. ALTERNATIVE: Stainless steel or Cast Iron, also avoiding cooking with aluminum foil and whenever possible buy your beverages in glass bottles.
4. Antacids– Some antacids are made with aluminum like Gaviscon. Check out these side effects. Aluminum toxicity is a real problem. Some people cannot process it as well as others and it has been related to Alzheimer’s (or Alzheimer’s like symptoms) and even Autism spectrum disorder. Aluminum is classified in this articleas an excitotoxin (meaning exciting neurons to death). ALTERNATIVE: a different antacid whose ingredients don’t have aluminum like Tums or changing your eating habits to include less or no sugar and low carbohydrate/high protein and fat drastically reduces or eliminates heartburn (this is very true for me).
5. Baking Powder– Who would have thought something as simple as baking powder lurking in our pantry could increase our exposure to aluminum. In normal baking powder one of the ingredients is sodium aluminum sulfate. ALTERNATIVE: Aluminum-free baking powder, it is sold in most grocery stores now.
So those are the 5 ways my family avoids aluminum toxicity. I’m sure we all still have some exposure like from eating out at restaurants and things we may not be able to control. But in general, we follow the alternatives listed above and I’m hoping that my kids will have reduced chance of sickness as they get older.
Yours in health,Dr. Beth Bagley
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