![]() Herbs For Alzheimers - Introduction To Alzheimers![]() Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive cognitive deterioration together with declining activities of daily living and neuropsychiatric symptoms or behavioral changes. It is the most common type of dementia. The most striking early symptom is loss of short term memory (amnesia), which usually manifests as minor forgetfulness that becomes steadily more pronounced with illness progression, with relative preservation of older memories. As the disorder progresses, cognitive (intellectual) impairment extends to the domains of language (aphasia), skilled movements (apraxia), recognition (agnosia), and those functions (such as decision-making and planning) closely related to the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain as they become disconnected from the limbic system, reflecting extension of the underlying pathological process. These changes make up the essential human qualities, and thus AD is sometimes described as a disease where the victims suffer the loss of qualities that define human existence. This pathological process consists principally of neuronal loss or atrophy, principally in the temporoparietal cortex, but also in the frontal cortex, together with an inflammatory response to the deposition of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.
Five to ten percent of people over the age of 85 have Alzheimer's disease. A smaller percentage of those under 65 are affected with it. Strongly implicated in this dreaded disease is aluminum. Aluminum is the commonest metal on the earth's crust and, after oxygen and selenium, the most abundant element on earth. It comes in bauxite ore. Fifty years ago the widespread use of this metal became common. And for many more years, aluminum salts have been used for pickling vegetables. We now find it in tap water, antacids, antiperspirants, and many other places. Dialysis patients go mad, have trouble talking, confusion, muscle spasms, become helpless, demented, bedridden, and die. The large amounts of tap water from cities using aluminum for flocculation procedures apparently caused these patients to have their difficulty. These patients routinely swallow large amounts of aluminum in antacids to prevent the build-up of phosphorus in their blood. Dialysis dementia is a common complication of dialysis. Aluminum attaches itself to blood protein and gains easy entry to the brain. In Guam, soil and water is low in calcium and magnesium, and especially high in aluminum. There is much Lou Gehrig's and Parkinson's disease in Guam. Aluminum is high in the neurofibrillary tangles. Only 12 to 25% of aluminum consumed seems to be absorbed. The daily intake of 22 mgs. seems to be average, although some get 100 times that amount (!). The excess is excreted in the urine. Plaques and tangles both occur in the neurons. The tangles and plaques are usually located in a critical area in the basilar nuclei. This is the cerebral activator, keeping the higher brain levels from falling asleep, etc., and is a rich source of acetylcholine (important for recently memory processing). Cats injected with aluminum directly into the brain showed behavioral changes similar to Alzheimer's.
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