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ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE IS, AT LEAST IN PART, A COPPER-2 TOXICITY DISEASE

G.J. Brewer

J Aging Res Clin Practice 2015;4(4):247-252

Developed countries have a raging epidemic of Alzheimers disease, with prevalence around 20% by age 70. Good evidence indicates this epidemic is new, with an Alzheimer’s-like dementia being rare prior to 1900. Prevalence of Alzheimer’s in undeveloped countries is still quite low, around 1%. These sets of facts strongly indicate that environmental change is causing the epidemic in developed countries. It is hypothesized here, with very good evidence, that the new environment change in developed countries is ingestion of inorganic copper, copper-2, from drinking water and supplement pills. There is good evidence that copper toxicity plays a major role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s, with the size of the free copper pool intimately tied to cognition and cognition loss. Studies in AD animal models show that tiny amounts of inorganic copper in drinking water greatly enhance Alzheimers-type pathology and memory loss. Studies in humans show that those ingesting supplement pills containing copper, if they also eat a high fat diet, suffer rapid loss of cognition. Drinking water copper, and pill copper are both divalent copper, or copper-2. A recent study shows that food copper is primarily copper-1. There is an intestinal transport system specific for copper-1, and this copper goes to the liver, and is put into safe channels. Because mammals, including humans, ingested only copper-1, their systems evolved to safely handle copper-1. With development came copper plumbing and supplement pill ingestion, and copper-2 is now ingested. Some of it bypasses the liver, ends up in the blood free copper pool, and is toxic to cognition.

CITATION:
G.J. Brewer (2015): Alzheimer’s Disease is, at Least in Part, a Copper-2 Toxicity Disease. The Journal of Aging Research and Clinical Practice (JARCP). http://dx.doi.org/10.14283/jarcp.2015.80

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