What Really Causes Alzheimer's Disease - Soil and Health Library

mutations involved in promoting the development of Alzheimer’s
disease duplicate some of aluminum’s deleterious impacts
on the brain and, in so doing, encourage at least one of the
following: the growth of neuritic plaques or neurofibrillary tangles,
excessive free radical formation, and/or higher neural
oxidative stress. Consequently, unfortunate individuals carrying
any one of the genetic variants are much more likely to
develop Alzheimer’s disease, even if they are not exposed to the
aluminum excess, or to the vitamin and mineral deficiencies,
that are normally associated with its etiology.
Alzheimer’s disease incidence appears to be rising faster than
the population is aging. Obviously, such an increase cannot
be due to any genetic cause. One does not have “epidemics” of
genetic diseases, simply because the human genome does not
change rapidly enough to trigger them. If, as the evidence
strongly hints, Alzheimer’s disease is becoming generally more
common, it must be because the “harmful environments” that
trigger it are now more widespread. There is no doubt that,
globally, soils and water are becoming more acidic and, consequently,
aluminum more soluble. Throughout the 20 th and early
21 st centuries, as a result of expanding fossil fuel consumption,
ever increasing quantities of sulphur and nitrogen were
emitted into the atmosphere. Here they were converted into
sulphuric and nitric acids, elevating the acidity of subsequent
precipitation. 11 Such acid rain has caused extensive damage
to the environment at local, regional, and even global scales.
It has been particularly problematic in northern and central
Europe, eastern North America, and eastern China where it
has been associated with many health costs. 12 Simultaneously,
commercial fertilizers have been used with increasing frequency.
These consist predominantly of nitrogen, phosphorus,
and potassium. As a consequence of heavy crop yields, agricultural
soils have been depleted of several minerals that are
important for human health, including calcium and magnesium.
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