Alzheimer's Disease

This particular disease did not exist 40 years ago. It was not in any medical textbook, it was not in any medical dictionary, it was not taught in any medical course. It only became a disease entity in the literature in 1979. Today it’s the number 4 killer of adults over the age of 65, behind cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. It’s Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s a physician-caused disease.

Some scientists have gone so far as to rename it. They call it diabetes type-3. An estimated 5.4 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and that number is expected to increase exponentially as the baby boomer generation enters their golden years. Around 35 million people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease worldwide; current projections, based on the rate at which the population ages, suggest that this will rise to 100 million by 2050. But if, as many scientists now believe, it is caused largely by the brain’s impaired response to insulin, the numbers could rise much further. In the US, the percentage of the population with diabetes type-2, which is strongly linked to obesity, has almost tripled in 30 years. If Alzheimer’s, or “diabetes type 3,” goes the same way, the potential for human suffering is incalculable.

Cholesterol should really be an essential nutrient, like Calcium, and Vitamin A and Vitamin C, Zinc, and so forth. You would only make 10% of your daily need. The other 90% you must get in your diet. People are good about restricting red meat, and chicken skin and dairy products, and so it is real easy to get cholesterol out of your life. And the physicians, the medical profession has created a whole family of diseases that are related to fat deficiency, essential fatty acid deficiencies, cholesterol deficiency.

Your brain is 75% pure cholesterol. And if give up cholesterol, and are painstakingly careful about eliminating cholesterol in your diet, what’s going to happen in about 10 to 12 years? You only make 10% of the body's needs, so you start losing that myelin, that insulating stuff out of your brain, again it makes up 75% of your brain weight, and you get Alzheimer’s Disease.

You can prevent Alzheimer’s Disease, you can reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s Disease to almost zero, if you eat a couple of eggs every morning for breakfast, not cooked in margarine or fried, you want to consume as much as 72 oz of red meat every single month. It sounds like a lot, but it’s just a quarter-pounder a day, and you want to supplement with all 91 essential nutrients, and when you get to the Vitamin E level you want to have at least 2,000 international units of Vitamin E, and you want 500 mcg of Selenium, and if you do that, even if you already have Alzheimer’s disease, you can honestly expect to have a significant amount of return of memory.

Insulin is the hormone which prompts the liver, muscles and fat to absorb sugar from the blood. Diabetes-2 is caused by excessive blood glucose, resulting either from a deficiency of insulin produced by the pancreas, or resistance to its signals by the organs' cells which would usually take up the glucose. The association between Alzheimer’s and diabetes-2 is long-established: type 2 sufferers are two to three times more likely to be struck by this dementia than the general population. There are also associations between Alzheimer’s and obesity and Alzheimer’s and metabolic syndrome-X (a complex of diet-related pathologies).

Research has found that the levels of both insulin and insulin-like growth factors in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients were sharply reduced by comparison to those in the brains of people who had died of other causes. Levels were lowest in the parts of the brain most affected by the disease. Insulin and insulin-like growth factor are produced not only in the pancreas but also in the brain. Insulin in the brain has a host of functions: as well as glucose metabolism, it helps to regulate the transmission of signals from one nerve cell to another, and affects their growth, plasticity and survival.

Also present in the brain is inflammation, stress caused by oxidation, the accumulation of one kind of brain protein and the transformation of another.

Alzheimer’s disease could be another catastrophic impact of the junk food industry, and the worst discovered so far. Our governments, as they are in the face of all our major crises, appear to be incapable of responding or unwilling to respond. A scarcely-regulated food industry can engineer its products – loading them with fat, salt, sugar and high fructose corn syrup – to bypass the neurological signals which would otherwise prompt people to stop eating. It can bombard both adults and children with advertising. It can use the freedoms granted to academy schools to sell the chocolate, sweets and fizzy drinks now banned from sale in maintained schools. It can kill the only effective system (the traffic light label) for informing people how much fat, sugar and salt their food contains. Then it can turn to the government and blame consumers for eating the products it sells. This is class war: a war against the poor fought by the executive class in government and industry.

In North America, approximately 10 percent of the population over sixty-five and 50 percent over eighty-five suffer from Alzheimer’s. It is associated with severe memory loss, impaired cognitive function, and inability to carry out activities of daily life. Alzheimer’s disease should be diagnosed only when all the other identifiable brain conditions are ruled out (brain tumor, alcoholism, vitamin B12 deficiency, mercury amalgam poisoning, depression, hypothyroidism, Parkinson’s, stroke, excessive prescription drug use, malnutrition, and dehydration). In truth, it is only at autopsy that a definitive diagnosis can be made, as the brain will show the identifying characteristics of Alzheimer’s: plaques and tangles in the nerve fibers, particularly in the cerebral cortex and hippocampal area.

Almost half the cases of what is assumed to be Alzheimer’s may in fact be dementias caused by such treatable conditions as simple dehydration, prescription drug intoxication, severe cerebral allergies to foods or chemicals, or chronic nutrient deficiencies. Drugs that worsen Alzheimer’s include chlorpromazine, antihistamines, barbiturates, psychotrophic drugs, and diuretics.

Coconut Oil

Alzheimer's appears to be a type of diabetes of the brain and it's a process that starts happening at least 10 or 20 years before you start having symptoms and it's very similar to type 1 or type 2 diabetes in that you develop a problem with insulin. In this case, insulin problems prevent brain cells from accepting glucose, their primary fuel. Without it, they eventually die. But there is an alternative fuel -- ketones, which cells easily accept. Ketones are metabolized in the liver after you eat medium chain triglicerides, found in coconut oil.

And while coconut oil is encouraging, there's something much more powerful. A team of biochemists at England's Oxford University, have developed a ketone ester that packs a punch ten times greater than coconut oil. It reaches quite considerably higher levels. And you can get whatever levels you want depending on how much you drink. The problem is, that it is cost-prohibitive to mass-produce it.

So until a high potency ketone ester is available to the general public, coconut oil is still a good ketone source. Just make sure it's pure, that it's non-hydrogenated. Avoid any hydrogenated oil, including coconut oil, because hydrogenated oils are the same thing as dangerous trans-fats. Check the list of ingredients for the word, "hydrogenated." Some people are afraid to eat coconut oil because they think it's bad for your heart. But it's actually very healthy.

Years ago, coconut oil was criticized for raising cholesterol. But scientists have since learned there are two kinds of cholesterol -- LDL, the bad kind, and HDL, which is very good for you. HDL, the good cholesterol, is the kind that coconut oil raises. So they put out the message that it increased serum cholesterol. But the truth of the matter is, it was helping the profile of the serum cholesterol. That never has been corrected in the public press, and that's the main reason people have misconceptions about it.

Not only does coconut oil improve cholesterol levels, the way it helps the brains of some Alzheimer's patients can even be extended to people with Parkinson's disease, ALS , epilepsy, dementia, even schizophrenia and autism. Coconut oil also kills bacteria, making it a natural antibiotic without the negative side effects. Because of that, it also helps defend against viruses like HIV and herpes. The coconut oil tends to keep the bacteria down so that if you're assaulted with a virus, your immune system can concentrate on the virus. It doesn't have to concentrate on 27 other bacteria that day.

Chemicals and Heavy Metals

Chemicals and toxic metals are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, especially mercury and aluminum. The Alzheimer’s-mercury connection has been made by Dr. Boyd Haley, a professor of chemistry and chair of the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky. Dr Haley proved that the tangles and plaques in the Alzheimer’s brain were identical to those produced by mercury poisoning. Mercury can be absorbed into the brain from dental amalgams, be acquired by taking vaccines and flu shots (preserved with mercury), or come from habitually eating fish contaminated with mercury. Magnesium, when it is available in the body, will help detoxify heavy metals, even ones as poisonous as mercury. Many Americans are exposed to aluminum through chem-trails, aluminum cookware, aluminum cans, aluminum-containing antacids, buffered aspirin, and antiperspirants, aluminum foil, and tap water high in aluminum.

Considerable research has proven that brain neurons affected in Alzheimer’s disease have significantly higher levels of aluminum than normal neurons. Alzheimer’s patients also have consistently low magnesium levels within the hippocampus, the area of the brain most damaged by Alzheimer’s. Aluminum is able to replace magnesium in certain enzyme systems in the body, mimicking its function but causing harm. Aluminum can also replace magnesium in the brain, which leaves calcium channels in the brain nerve cells wide open, allowing calcium to flood in, causing cell death.

Researchers found that people with Alzheimer’s have elevated amounts of aluminum, iron, and zinc, and have reduced amounts of alkali metals such as magnesium, calcium, and potassium, which neutralize the acidity from an acid-forming diet.

Blood-Brain Barrier & Magnesium

The integrity and function of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is mission critical for overall brain function. Changes in permeability often reflect alterations in blood-brain barrier transport systems. Toxicological causes of generalized changes in blood-brain barrier permeability include organic solvents, enzymes, and heavy metals. Some agents like mercury induce selective changes in BBB transport at very low doses.

Magnesium has been seen to attenuate increased blood-brain barrier permeability during insulin-induced hypoglycemia in animal studies. Magnesium has its important role at the BBB and researchers think that this metal protects brain tissue against the effects of cerebral ischemia, brain injury, and stroke through its actions as a calcium antagonist and inhibitor of excitatory amino acids.

Magnesium is essential in regulating central nervous system excitability, thus magnesium-deficiency may cause aggressive behavior, depression, or suicide. Magnesium calms the brain and people do not need to become severely deficient in magnesium for the brain to become hyperactive. A marginal intake overexcites the brain’s neurons and results in less coherence, creating cacophony rather than symphony, according to electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements.

Communication between cells in the brain depends on specialized molecular receptors that conduct charged particles, or ions, between the outside and inside of cells.

Memory and the overall functioning of our minds and brains happens to depend on proteins in our brains called NMDA (N-methyl-d-aspartate) receptors, which allow our neurons to communicate with each other. Different types of NMDA receptors perform varied functions. An understanding of the strategic importance of magnesium at these crucial NMDA receptor sites confirms the medical view that heavy magnesium supplementation would lead to better treatments for schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and stroke.

Magnesium depletion, particularly in the hippocampus, appears to represent an important pathogenic factor in Alzheimer’s disease. It is associated with high aluminum incorporation into brain neurons.

Among the recent studies concerning the difficult problem of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, numerous studies have revealed increased presence of aluminum (Al) in the brain tissue obtained from autopsies of Alzheimer’s disease patients.

Magnesium values are found to be significantly decreased in brain regions of diseased patients compared to the controls.

Alzheimer’s disease involves a defective transport process characterized by both an abnormally low Magnesium incorporation and an abnormally high Aluminum incorporation into brain neurons. The origin of this disturbance rests on an alteration of serum albumin, forming a species that has a greater affinity for Al than for Mg, in contrast to the normal protein that binds Mg better than Al.

Magnesium Oil Massage

One of the most luxurious medical treatments on earth is to receive magnesium massages on a consistent basis. Having at least an ounce of what is called magnesium oil rubbed all over ones body by either a trained or even untrained massage therapist is extremely healing. One can also do this oneself meaning cover ones body all over with the magnesium oil like one would sunscreen and go out in the sun and have some fun.

People living with cancer report that weekly massage improves their quality of life. They have more energy, are better able to perform daily activities, and have less psychological distress. Regular massage is an effective way of lowering stress hormone cortisol levels so we recommend magnesium oil massage for all cancer patients. Massage is unique in alternative cancer therapy because it is able to remedy feelings of isolation that many patients battling cancer. The experience of human contact is particularly important when facing a difficult diagnosis and massage can provide that unique experience to cancer patients, who often succumb to feelings of being overwhelmed by the nature of their diagnosis, family implications, and other difficulties associated with cancer treatments.

Magnesium oil, applied directly to the skin, alleviates chronic pain, muscle cramps, and in general makes our job of opening up and softening muscles and connective tissue much easier. Magnesium is a potent vasodilator, and smooth muscle relaxant.

One would not normally think that magnesium deficiency could increase the risk of cancer yet we find that just as severe dehydration or asphyxiation can cause death, magnesium deficiency can directly lead to cancer. We can readily see that magnesium deficiency leads to physiological decline in cells, setting the stage for cancer. Magnesium is a true cellular tonic!

Because magnesium is involved in so many processes in the body, once a deficiency develops, that deficiency can spiral out of control. A low magnesium level causes metabolic functions to decrease, causing further stress on the body, reducing the body’s ability to absorb and retain magnesium. A marginal deficiency can easily be transformed into a more significant problem when stressful events trigger additional magnesium loss.

In the extreme situations, stressful events trigger sudden drops of serum magnesium, leading to cardiac arrest. Magnesium is considered the “anti-stress” mineral. It is a natural tranquilizer that functions to relax skeletal muscles as well as the smooth muscles of blood vessels and the gastrointestinal tract.

Even a mild deficiency of magnesium can cause increased sensitivity to noise, nervousness, irritability, mental depression, confusion, twitching, trembling, apprehension, and insomnia. Magnesium offers a powerful way to treat depression; it helps us to better deal with stress because large amounts of magnesium are lost when a person is under stress. Anxiety and panic attacks are addressed by magnesium by keeping adrenal stress hormones under control so it really helps in dealing with stressful emergencies.

Regular massage is an effective way of lowering stress hormone cortisol levels that suppress immune system functioning and have been directly linked to premature death, depression, stress and cancer. These effects bring a sense of wellbeing and stimulate the immune system to fight the cancer better. One powerful way we can take massage onto the level of a powerful medical treatment is combining massage techniques with transdermal magnesium chloride treatments. The skin provides the best avenue into the body for many drugs. When it comes to magnesium we have a method in our hands that is similar in effect to intravenous magnesium treatments that are used to save people’s lives in emergency rooms. We just use the magnesium oil like we would massage oils, or create a special blend mixing them together.

Massage that alleviates pain, when used together with magnesium oil, will markedly and more rapidly increase overall pain relief, restore flexibility, promote healing and replace the deficiencies of this life-sustaining mineral than either could do alone. Though giving magnesium by injection is the quickest way of restoring normal blood and tissue levels of magnesium, it is expensive and painful and carries many risks. Transdermal Magnesium Therapy is inexpensive, safe, and a do-it-yourself-at-home technique that can replace uncomfortable injections.

Pharmaceuticals Drive Magnesium Levels Lower

Magnesium is a vital mineral whose lack leaves us open to not only damage from radiation but also damage from heavy metals and the thousands of chemicals to which we are commonly exposed. Without sufficient magnesium, the body accumulates toxins and acid residues, degenerates rapidly, and ages prematurely.

Because magnesium deficiency wreaks havoc with our cell physiology and worsens as we age, appropriate magnesium supplementation will not only help ensure we don’t age so fast but it also will prevent many of the major diseases we are facing today. Research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2002 showed that when the diets of 2,566 children ages 11-19 were studied, less than 14% of boys and 12% of girls had adequate intakes of magnesium.

When magnesium is deficient, things begin to die, but when our body’s magnesium levels are topped off, our body physiology tends to hum along like a racecar yielding higher performance along many physiological parameters. Most doctors do not want to acknowledge that magnesium deficiency can lead directly to cancer, thus to a significantly shorter life. The same goes for diabetes and heart disease—magnesium deficiency brings on these diseases.

Magnesium operates at the core of physiology offering us what can only be called scientific miracles in medicine. All of life collapses around its loss.

Almost all the prescription drugs currently taken by millions of people lead to a gradual depletion of vitamins and other essential cellular nutrients in the body. Anything that drives down magnesium levels is going to hurt us. Many pharmaceutical drugs drive magnesium levels into dangerous zones.

Surgery done without increasing magnesium levels is more dangerous than surgery done when magnesium is administered before, during and after surgery.

The most perfect medicine in the world is the one you have to have—no matter what—to continue your life. There are certain substances, all nutritional in nature, that provide essential lifelines to happy and fully functional cells. Though contemporary medicine does not want to admit the truth and reality about diseases and their causes, it is clear that nutritional law holds the key to the resolution of disease—not pharmaceuticals that are toxic and damaging to cellular environments.

Drug/Substance	Nutrients Depleted
Antibiotics	Vitamins A, B-12, C, E, K, Biotin, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium
Chelators	Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Zinc
Anticonvulsants	Vitamins B-2, B-12, C, F, K, Folic Acid, Calcium, Magnesium
Antidiabetics (Oral)	Vitamins B-2, B-12, C, D, Folic Acid
Antihistamines	Vitamin C
Aspirin	Calcium, Folic Acid, Iron, Potassium, Vitamins C, B Complex

Other Drugs or Substances That Cause Loss of Body Magnesium

The FDA is informing the public that prescription proton pump inhibitor (PPI) drugs may cause low serum magnesium levels (hypomagnesemia) if taken for prolonged periods of time (in most cases, longer than one year). Information about the potential risk of low serum magnesium levels from PPIs will be added to the WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS sections of the labels.

In 2009, approximately 21 million patients filled prescriptions for proton pump inhibitor (PPI) drugs that drive magnesium serum levels down. In approximately one-quarter of the cases reviewed, magnesium supplementation alone did not improve low serum magnesium levels and the PPI drugs had to be discontinued. This would not have been the case if researchers had been more knowledgeable about magnesium supplementation and how to more effectively administer it.

Hypomagnesemia is under-recognized and under-reported, yet clinically serious adverse events are commonly reported symptoms of hypomagnesemia. One of the hidden dangers of hypomagnesemia is that it produces impaired parathyroid hormone secretion, which may lead to hypocalcemia.

A low intake of magnesium increases the risk of developing and/or dying from cardiovascular disease or stroke. Thus increasing the magnesium intake from water is beneficial, especially for populations with an insufficient dietary intake of the mineral, which means everyone. Yet the American government chooses to put highly toxic fluoride in the public water systems instead of magnesium.

The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that drinking water contain 25-50 mg of magnesium per liter to prevent deaths from heart attack and stroke. American bottled water averages < 5 mg of magnesium (Mg) per liter, while bottled water in the rest of the world averages about 20 mg of magnesium per liter.

Americans are very deficient in Mg, as evidenced by the 23% shortfall from the RDI, yet the FDA and DOJ have covered up keeping silent about the millions of deaths indicated by over 50 epidemiological studies from nine countries. Recent studies clearly confirm that water-borne Mg is far, far better in preventing cardiovascular pathologies than food-borne Mg.

Ideally water should contain 100 mg of magnesium per liter. Normally one has to add pure magnesium chloride to one’s water supply to attain such optimal levels. You can just add a few sprays of Ancient Minerals magnesium oil to a little cup of water and chug it down; it can taste pretty strong but it makes an excellent nutritional supplement. You can add some cherry concentrate (which is itself high in minerals) to make it palatable.

People who have had magnesium injections for years to prevent spasms in their arteries and veins have been able to get off of the injections by consuming enough magnesium-rich water. When treating oneself for magnesium deficiency, which occurs easily from drinking magnesium-deficient water and eating a host of processed “white” foods, there is nothing like the transdermal approach to recover one’s cellular magnesium levels.

Drugs are generally synthetic, non-natural substances that we absorb in our bodies. Our bodies recognize these synthetic drugs as ‘toxic,’ just like any other non-natural substance. Thus, all synthetic drugs have to be ‘detoxified’ by the liver in order to eliminate them from our bodies. This detoxification process requires vitamin C and other cellular nutrients as cofactors. Many of these essential nutrients are used up in biological (enzymatic) reactions during this detoxification process. One of the most common ways for eliminating drugs from our bodies is called hydroxylation. The strongest ‘hydroxylating agent’ in our body is vitamin C, which is literally destroyed during this detoxification process. Thus, long-term use of many synthetic prescription drugs leads to chronic vitamin C depletion in the body, a form of early scurvy, and the onset of cardiovascular disease.

Magnesium Administration

Magnesium is poorly absorbed orally. The problem with oral magnesium is that all magnesium compounds are potentially laxative. Giving magnesium intravenously is the quickest way of restoring normal blood and tissue levels of magnesium, but the injections are just too painful to be considered for children and for long-term use in adults. They are also expensive because they have to be administered by a doctor or nurse. Transdermal magnesium chloride therapy is inexpensive, safe, and a do-it-yourself at-home technique that can replace uncomfortable injections in anything other than emergency room situations.

Transdermal Magnesium Therapy

Transdermal magnesium therapy speeds up the process of nutrient repletion in much the same way as intravenous methods in terms of intensity and speed of effect. Transdermal application of magnesium is superior to oral supplements and is in reality the best practical way magnesium can be used as a medicine other than by direct injection.

The skin is actually an amazingly complex organ and, by weight, the largest organ in the body. It covers, on average, some 22 square feet and weighs around nine pounds (roughly 7% of body weight). The skin is involved in dynamic exchange between the internal and external environments through respiration, absorption and elimination. It is highly permeable though it has the ability to maintain its important function as a bacteria-inhibiting barrier.

Dr. Norman Shealy has done studies on transdermal magnesium chloride mineral therapy where individuals sprayed a solution of magnesium chloride over their entire body once daily for a month and did a 20-minute foot soak in magnesium chloride also once daily.

Typical results before and after 4 weeks of foot soaks/body spraying:
Reference range:   33.9 – 41.9 (mEq/l) mg
Before soaking/spraying:   31.4 (mEq/l) mg
After soaking/spraying:      41.2 (mEq/l) mg

Transdermal administration of magnesium bypasses processing by the liver. Both transdermal and intravenous therapy creates “tissue saturation,” the ability to get the nutrients where we want them, directly in the circulation, where they can reach body tissues at high doses, without loss. Transdermal “magnesium oil” delivers high levels of magnesium directly through the skin to the cellular level, bypassing common intestinal symptoms, such as diarrhea, associated with oral use.

Because the magnesium oil can be absorbed easily through the skin many have found that they can get almost instant relief from the pains of arthritis by massaging a generous amount of magnesium into an area of discomfort or by taking a hot magnesium bath with sodium bicarbonate added.

This is not to say that magnesium oil cannot or should not be taken orally. Taking minerals in liquid form is the best solution for oral intake and Ancient Minerals is the purest medicine, being from a 250-million-year-old buried sea. You can drink it as well as use it transdermally and to take it up to bowel tolerance level because this will clean out the intestines. Taking magnesium oil orally is the very best medical solution for constipation.

Doctors should know that this magnesium oil can be added to IVs and is a better and certainly purer source of magnesium chloride than industrially-manufactured magnesium chloride, which tends to be much higher in heavy-metal contaminants.

Magnesium Oil Massage

Stomach Acid is Essential for Magnesium Absorption

Inefficient stomach digestion and intestinal absorption can lead to deficiencies of magnesium. When magnesium is deficient, magnesium absorption is hindered even more.

When you are under serious physical or even emotional stress, or you are on a salt-restricted diet, your body might not produce sufficient stomach acid, which is required for digestion and for chemically changing minerals into an absorbable form. Minerals are usually bound to another substance to make a mineral complex; for example, magnesium bound to citric acid creates magnesium citrate, and bound to the amino acid taurine, it makes magnesium taurate. When a magnesium complex hits the stomach, it needs an acidic environment to help break the two substances apart, leaving magnesium in the ionic form and ready for action in the body.

People with arthritis, asthma, depression, diabetes, gallbladder disease, osteoporosis, or gum disease are often deficient in hydrochloric acid. All of these conditions are also associated with magnesium deficiency.

The roiling and burning in the gut from sugary junk food and greasy fast food is being inappropriately blamed on too much stomach acid. In many cases, heartburn is due to sugar fermentation in the stomach and a backflow of pancreatic enzymes from the small intestine. When we are deficient in hydrochloric acid, the stomach cannot be sterilized by a low pH, so microorganisms that come in with the food can colonize the stomach and when carbohydrate is eaten, it is fermented by the yeast living in the stomach, creating gas, bloating, reflux, GERD, hiatal hernia, etc. By neutralizing normal stomach acids, antacids make it impossible for us to absorb minerals or digest our food properly. Our magnesium can be even further depleted if we use calcium carbonate antacids because the calcium they contain causes more magnesium to be excreted.

Calcium is entirely dependent on stomach acid to put it into solution. When it leaves the stomach’s highly acidic environment it enters the alkaline environment of the small intestine and precipitates out of solution unless sufficient magnesium is present. Without magnesium to keep it in solution, calcium quickly deposits in soft tissues throughout the body.

In the large intestine, it interferes with peristalsis, which results in constipation. When calcium precipitates out in the kidneys and combines with phosphorous or oxalic acid, kidney stones are formed. Calcium can deposit in the lining of the bladder and prevent it from fully relaxing, and therefore from filling completely with urine. This leads to frequent urination problems, especially in older people.

Calcium can precipitate out of the blood and deposit in the lining of arteries, causing hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis). It can coat and stiffen cholesterol deposits (plaque) in the arteries, leading to atherosclerosis. This, in turn, can cause blood pressure to rise as well as increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Calcium can even deposit in the brain, and is suspected of causing dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease.

Calcium can deposit in the lining of the bronchial tubes and cause asthma symptoms. Calcium in the extracellular fluid can surround cells in body tissue and decrease the permeability of the cell membranes. This makes it increasing more difficult for glucose (a large molecule) to pass through the cell membrane to be converted into ATP in the cells’ mitochondria. High glucose levels created by excess calcium may be misdiagnosed as diabetes.

Taking Magnesium with Prescription Drugs

You may experience a decreased need for your drugs as magnesium deficiency is corrected or as magnesium treats your symptoms or reverses your condition. In other words, the symptoms for which the drug was prescribed may clear up due to the magnesium, making the drug unnecessary or toxic and causing new symptoms. Patients and doctors should be on the alert for a shift in symptoms. Be sure to work with your physician to lower your medication doses safely.

Mercury and Alzheimer's Disease

According to Dr. Haley, Mercury(II) or Hg²⁺, is neurotoxic and when exposed to normal brain tissue homogenates, is capable of causing many of the same biochemical aberrancies found in Alzheimer’s diseased brain. Also, rats exposed to mercury vapor show some of these same aberrancies in their brain tissue. Specifically, the rapid inactivation of the brain thiol-sensitive enzymes tubulin, creatine kinase and glutamine synthetase occurs on the addition of low micromolar levels of Hg²⁺ or exposure to mercury vapor, and these same enzymes are significantly inhibited in AD brain. Further, extended Hg²⁺ exposure to neurons in culture has been shown to produce three of the widely accepted pathological diagnostic hallmarks of AD. These are elevated amyloid protein, hyper-phosphorylation of Tau, and formation of neurofibillary tangles.

The hypothesis is that mercury and other blood-brain permeable toxicants that have enhanced specificity for thiol-sensitive enzymes are the etiological source of AD. Included in this category are other heavy metals such as lead and cadmium that act synergistically to enhance to toxicity of mercury and organic-mercury compounds, like thimerosal that is found in vaccines and other medicines. This hypothesis is also able to explain the genetic susceptibility to AD that is expressed through the APO-E gene family. Specifically, a reduction of APO-E gene types carrying cysteines decreases the ability to remove mercury and other thiol-reactive toxicants from the cerebrospinal fluid. This increases brain exposure to thiol-reactive toxicants and the risk of AD.

Haley found that laboratory cultures of neurons, when treated with mercury, form the tangles and deposits observed when the brains of people with AD are autopsied. Structures, called microtubulin, inside neurons degenerate to form tangles. A soluble protein, called tubulin, becomes insoluble to form the deposits. Both tubulin and creatine kinase are proteins that bind the nucleotides GTP (guanosine-5’-triphosphate) and ATP (adenosine-5’-triphosphate), respectively.

Mercury poisons an enzyme that converts glutamate to glutamine in the brain. Unconverted glutamate kills brain cells. According to Haley, mercury poisons more enzymes than any other toxic metal. Released into Minamata Bay in

Japan

in the 1950s, mercury contamination has been blamed for a disastrous outbreak of neurological diseases there.

Haley’s group’s first finding was simple and straight-forward. After testing numerous heavy metals they observed that only Hg²⁺ could mimic the AD effect in homogenates of normal brain at concentrations that might be expected to be found in brain. The observation was that Hg²⁺ at very low micromolar levels (@ 1 micromolar) could rapidly and selectively abolish the GTP binding activity of tubulin (M_r= 55,000 daltons) without any noticeable effect on the other GTP binding proteins observed at an M_r of about 42,000 daltons, that are present in both control and AD brain at approximately equal levels.

Therefore, concerning heavy metals the addition of only mercury at low micromolar levels to control brain homogenates gave a GTP binding profile that was identical to that observed in AD brain and that chelation of Hg²⁺ by EDTA did not prevent but enhanced this effect. Further, additional results have shown that the addition of Hg²⁺ to control brain homogenates not only caused the decrease in nucleotide interaction but could also support the abnormal partitioning of tubulin into the particulate fraction as observed in AD brain. This was especially effective in the presence of other divalent metals, such as zinc, which is elevated in AD brain.

For any toxicant, or class of toxicants, to be proposed as involved in the etiology of AD they must be available equally to individuals living in markedly different locations. The toxicant proposed must explain the genetic susceptibility concept of AD. Further, under experimental conditions the toxicants must be able to cause the exacerbation of the many biochemical aberrancies found in AD brain. Based on Haley's research and a literature review, mercury and mercury containing compounds from dental amalgams, vaccines, other medicinals and preservatives used in paints, seed grains, etc. represent a class of compounds that fill this requirement.

Mercury and organic mercurials are neurotoxicants. Further, the enzyme inhibitory effects of mercury are synergistically enhanced by exposures to other toxicants such as lead and cadmium (smokers). Even the simultaneous presence of EDTA (ethylene-diamine-tetraacetic acid, a common food additive) or metal binding antibiotics such as tetracycline can enhance mercury toxicity. Therefore, any determination of a safe level of mercury exposure using rats in a cage being feed carefully monitored food and water is not reliable for determination of a "safe level of exposure to mercury" for humans. The fact is that science does not know what the combined toxic effects of many toxicants or enhancers of toxicity would be if present with mercury and therefore cannot identify a safe level of exposure.

Therefore, thiol-reactive toxicants such as mercury, cadmium, lead and certain organics are rational suggestions as being exacerbating factors for AD, or possibly even causal. However, mercury is the one toxicant that has been shown to reproduce many of the biochemical aberrancies and diagnostic hallmarks of AD. Also, mercury exposure is readily available to most humans. It is reasonable to propose that exposure to mercury is one of the major toxic factors involved in early onset AD. Further, that simultaneous exposures to other toxicants or factors enhance the toxicity of mercury and hasten the onset of AD, especially in those individuals who are genetically susceptible.

The fact that mercury has inhibitory effects on tubulin, CK and GS and that these proteins are proven to be aberrantly inhibited in AD does not alone conclusively prove that mercury exposure causes AD. However, it definitely proves that chronic, daily exposure to mercury would at least exacerbate the clinical conditions of AD. Is such an exposure to mercury likely? The answer is yes, and this makes mercury involvement in AD plausible.

First, the question must be addressed if there is enough mercury in an amalgam filling to continue a low chronic level exposure for years? The answer is yes. For example, if a single large amalgam filling contained 1 gram of mercury (1 million micrograms) and lost a significantly toxic 10 micrograms per day there would be enough mercury for 100,000 days or about 274 years of exposure. A small, one-tenth gram mercury filling would last 27 years. So enough mercury is within amalgam fillings to provide a consistent chronic toxic exposure for the life of most fillings. Dental amalgams, or "silver fillings" as organized dentistry calls them, are approximately 50% mercury by weight and it is quite easy to demonstrate that mercury vapors readily emit from these fillings. The actual amount can only be determined with the amalgam in a closed container and the amount of mercury released being determined using solid, time proven chemical techniques and instrumentation. The accurate level of mercury released cannot be accomplished on amalgams in the mouth. In a carefully designed study in a sealed container Chew et al. tested the "long term dissolution of mercury from a non-mercury-releasing amalgam (trade name Composil)." Their results demonstrated "that the overall mean release of mercury was 43.5 +/-3.2 micrograms/cm²/24hr, and the amount of mercury released remained fairly constant during the duration of the experiment (2 years)."

In Haley’s opinion, this 43.5 micrograms/cm²/day is not an insignificant amount of mercury exposure if one considers the number of years a 70 year old individual living today may have been exposed to chronic mercury levels from his amalgams. Additionally, 43.5 micrograms/cm²/day is the level released without galvanism, excess heat, or pressure from chewing, all factors that increase mercury release from amalgams in the mouth. Brushing with a toothbrush causes10 times more vaporization, and drinking hot liquids, like coffee, causes another 10-fold increase in emission.Furthermore, soaking amalgams in water produces a solution that kills neurons in culture.

A great deal of the research on which Haley bases his conclusions has been accomplished in other countries. There have been numerous published reports of increased tissue mercury levels in subjects and the relationship to increased number of amalgams fillings. Also, the World Health Organization Scientific Panel found ranges of mercury exposures from 3 to 70 micrograms/day with the bulk being from amalgam fillings. However, the dispensers of money for research in the United States , like the FDA, the NIH and the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, generally refuse to support research on toxic metals as a cause of disease. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science also discourages such research. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent yearly on AD research.

AD has devastating effects not only on the victims, but also on their families; it involves a heavy financial burden. Total direct and indirect costs have been estimated to be at least $100 billion annually. These are expected to increase, not only because of inflation, but also because of increasing numbers of AD patients. In 2000 there were about 4.5 million of them. In 2050 there may be 11 million to 16 million.

Average cost of care for the eight- to 20-year duration of this illness has been estimated to be $174,000. Nursing homes chare $42,000 to $70,000 a year. For the 70 percent who are cared for at home, supplemental care runs about $12,000 annually.

The Alzheimer’s Association claims that the best available scientific evidence shows no relation between these fillings, which typically contain 50 percent mercury that, in certain forms, is known to be toxic to the brain and other organs. The group says amalgam fillings emit small amounts of mercury vapor when they are installed or removed and as they wear. The organization also says that mercury affects some of the biochemical processes implicated in AD. But they add that an FDA panel concluded in 1991 that there was no evidence that amalgam fillings pose any danger.

Haley says that research by people in his department and the AD research department at Kentucky showed that AD brains contained mercury and that the concentration of mercury in patient’s fingernails decreased as the disease progressed. This indicated increasing difficulty in excreting this substance. After Haley’s report was issued, his grant was terminated. NIH then funded a study by Dr. Stanley R. Saxe, a dentist at the university. His research, published in the Journal of the American Dental Association, stated that there was no significant association between AD and any aspect of amalgam fillings and no correlation between AD and levels of mercury in AD brains.

Critics have disputed Saxe’s findings noting that Saxe must be a very unusual dentist. Very few dentists are experts in neurological diseases. Saxe’s research and a review of the health effects of mercury published in The New England Journal of Medicine in October 2003, underpin the endorsement of amalgam fillings as safe by the FDA, the Public Health Service and the World Health Organization. The American Dental Association informs dentists that amalgam fillings are safe. On the other hand, Haley claims that there are no studies in the scientific literature proving that mercury does not vaporize from amalgam fillings. The FDA has no data to refute his claims, nor have they funded any studies to show that amalgam fillings are safe.

People also acquire this metal from coal-fired power plants, preservatives in vaccines and fish. People used to be exposed by handling liquid mercury and by breathing air in rooms where mercury from broken thermometers had spilled on the floor. Gold miners still use mercury to recover gold, and large quantities are said to get into rivers in Brazil from this source.

Our bodies have a protein that protects us from toxic metals. About 67 percent of this is located in our digestive systems, so mercury in fish is probably not as bad as that from other sources. Each dose of influenza vaccine contains 25 micrograms of mercury in thimerosal, a preservative. Given to someone weighing 220 pounds, this amounts to 2.5 times the amount of mercury the FDA and EPA say is safe to take in a day by mouth. Given to a 110-pound person this is five times the amount. This does not enter our digestive system, where the bulk of our protection against mercury is located. Therefore you might expect it to have an even more toxic effect.

It would be interesting to know why the Institute of Medicine is discouraging research on the relationship between toxic metals and disease. Is it possible that, where lots of money is involved, as Haley suggests, conflicts of interest can arise that impact people’s health?

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