In article , "Don K"
wrote:

I, too, like to make my own decisions.
The post I was initially responding to, said, "anyone with aluminum
kitchen pots & utensils should toss them immediately".
Since there is no reputable scientific organization that has come to
the same conclusion, it qualifies as a crackpot advice.

Depends on if you think some of the leading scientific institutions are
reputable. If you DO bother to base your decision on having actually
checked the scientific data, you will find many who doubt cans & pots can
be a source of the aluminum deposits in alzheimer brain tissue, but do
think it could be aluminates from medications, deodorants, antacids, etc;
others think it could be neither; still others think the door is wide open
for it to be either or both. Several studies do show categorically that
the aluminum enters the bloodstream then the brain tissue through diet,
with no source entirely ruled out. Now you may think it crackpot, but in
this case, I've read the studies or their abstracts, & wasn't relieved of
my sense that it's on the REASONABLE side of safety to avoid aluminum. So
I wouldn't cook in aluminum (not that I ever did), I won't drink from
aluminum cans, I won't use a an antacid with aluminates. Is it paranoid?
Not according to Dr. Barry Thomas whose Australian study showed
CONCLUSIVELY that aluminum ingested by rats accumulates in their brains.
Not paranoid according to gerontologist William Forbes of the University
of Waterloo whose 1995 study showed that a population exposed to aluminum
in their diet for 35 years had impaired mental functions 10 times higher
than in areas without the exposure (in this case it was a water treatment
method that included aluminum & ended up delivering trace amounts of
aluminum to the area's water supply).

An animal modeled study by Dr Ian Taylor of the Medical University of
South Carolina, Dr Peter Mannon of Duke University Medical Center, Fred
Boehem of the Trace Metal Division of the Great Smokies Diagnostic
Laboratory, et al, showed the mechanism by which aluminum enters the blood
system intestinally, then is deposited in the brains of mice. They believe
their findings provide a suitable model for further study of the same
mechanism increasing the intestinal absorption rate of aluminum in Downs
syndrome people & in alzheimer's sufferers.

Many similar studies have resulted in aluminum cookware being banned in
some European countries. Sensible political response? It would be
according to Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, which notes that
aluminum corodes into water that is heated 356 degrees. Furthermore, if
your water is flouridated, the flourine in water further corodes the
cookware.

There is no NO QUESTION but that man-made sources of aluminum are
associated with alzheimers. The only question is which or how many
possible sources are absorbed. The studies by Thomas, & by Forbes, as well
as a study by Dr. Paolo Prolo of the University of California at Los
Angeles (which institute you've apparently categorized as crackpot --
perhaps you'd rather rely on your own decision-making powers based on
something rumor of safety spread by aluminum industry) have shown
categorically that aluminum in the water supply is a key source of the
aluminum deposits in human brains & associated with dementia.. Dr. Prolo
however felt that the amount of aluminum from cookware was not yet proven
(not by his study). Paul found that death rates from Alzhiemers raised
signally in areas with aluminum in the water supply (both from water
treatment methods & naturally occurring bauxite among the trace metals),
so this does not speak to cookware or pop cans as sources, no similarly
large populations being available to single out as controls for exposure
vs non-exposure.

So the confusion (or the unwillingness of Alzheimer's researchers to
categorically condemn aluminum cookware) stems from the difficulty of
studying it separately, vs the ease of drawing stats from regions that
have added aluminates to the water system over time. Nevertheless, Dr.
Stephen Levick of the Yale University Medical Center was so creeped out by
his findings about aluminum that he threw away all his aluminum cookware
-- the KNOWLEDGEABLE want to be safe rather than sorry. Dr. John Koning of
the Riverside General Hospital in Corona California worried more about
antacids. And Dr. Creighton Phelps of the Alzheimer's Association says
only that WE KNOW aluminum has abnormally high deposits in the brains of
alzheimer sufferers, so make your decision accordingly.

Of course those medical practitioners are all crackpots in your
estimation. You're bound to prefer the opinion of the Aluminum Association
invested in protecting the can & cookware industry. They like to point out
that a single antacid tablet or buffered aspirin tablet delivers thousands
of times more medical grade aluminate to the system than all the aluminum
cookware you could use in a whole year. But their propaganda is a lie.
Here's the science: If you cook with aluminum, you add an estimated 3.5
milligrams of aluminum to your diet every day. That is one-third the
amount of pharmaceutical grade aluminate in a buffered aspirin, & a
fraction of the amount in the average antacid pill (which can have 50 mg
of aluminates). But it's still a hell of a lot of aluminum ingested from
cookware day in day out, & I personally never take buffered aspirin, never
take any antacid except Tums the one that includes no aluminates, & use an
aluminate-free deodorant since it is also possible to absorb aluminates
through the skin. If in fact most people take only a couple buffered
aspirins PER MONTH, that'd be ten or twenty milligrams of aluminates per
month, but if using aluminum cookware every day, that'd be 105 milligrams
per month. So even the way the Aluminum Association wants you to look at
it isn't very heartening to me. And less they get sued for lying, even the
Aluminum Association advocates NEVER cooking rhubarb or other acidic foods
in aluminum cookware, which increases the amount of aluminum in your diet
dramatically above the 3.5 milligrams daily they otherwise admit to.

The Aluminum Association is fond of this FDA quote: "There is no
information at this time that the normal dietary intake of aluminum [from
the] use of aluminum cookware, or from aluminum food additives or drugs,
is harmful." They're not fond of quoting the updated FDA stances, which
for instance BAN the use of aluminum coming in contact with dairy
products, this despite that the FDA is highly conservative & slow to act
in this kind of area.

What can be said today is that very few scientists believe the 3.5
milligrams daily intake of aluminum from use of aluminum cookware could be
the primary source of the aluminum in alzheimer brain cells, not when the
amount in medications or water supplies is so much greater. Professor
Leonard Berg at Washington School of Medicine in St Louis does not believe
getting rid of one's cookware would lower the daily aluminum exposure
enough to make one whit of difference. Does that mean the cookware has
been given a clean bill of health by those same scientists? Absolute not.
Most of whom followed Dr. Levick's lead & upgraded their cookware long
ago. Zaven S. Khachaturian of the Ronald & Nancy Reagon Alzheimer
Institute says it this way: "Unfortunately there is no clear-cut answer."
But Khachaturian's real point is that it is thus far unknown whether
aluminum exposure CAUSES alzheimers, or alzheimer's causes aluminum
absorption. The real question for these scientists would be "Do you use
aluminum cookware?" I worked a while at the University of Washington
Health Sciences as an medical editor, & was amused to discover that ALL
the researchers in a herpes study had become 100% monogomous -- just to be
on the safe side of something they came to find more & more horrifying --
so too I suspect that Dr. Levick's decision to toss out all his aluminum
cookware was not a novel decision among researchers.

Certainly there are many researchers whose opinion falls to the side of
the issue that pleases the Aluminum Association, & many such could be
cited. For me it's enough that many qualified experts believe the issue is
credible, & even the Aluminum Association "spin" ends up recommending not
to cook acidic foods in their products because of health risks.

So when YOU threw out the idea that GOLD is a toxin, YOU were apparently
being a crackpot, alarmist, or jester without much concern for facts. When
I threw out the possibility that it would be wise to toss one's aluminum
utensils, I had many sources of good science to base this very real
possibility upon. The bottom line is this: Is there proof that aluminum in
the diet is the source of the deposits of aluminum in alzheimer's brains?
The answer is a resounding YES! Is there proof the aluminum CAUSED the
alzheimers? There is not, just as there is no proof it did not cause it.
Yet a study reported in LANCET in 1985 found that trace amounts of
aluminum in the diets of infants caused retarded mental development, so
there's more to this than a side-effect of senile dementia. Is there proof
that any of this aluminum exposure comes from cookware? Yes, 3.5
milligrams per day if you use alumumum in your kitchen. Is there proof
that cutting back 3.5 milligrams per day would lower the risk of
alzheimers? There is no evidence one way or the other. Does that mean you
SHOULD exposure yourself to foods cooked or stored in aluminum? There's a
gene pool argument to be made that if you have this information, & still
want to cook in aluminum, then you really should do so -- for the sake of
the gene pool. And there's an aesthetic principle at work, too, as many
people really do need those aluminum pots & pans to match their rusty ol'
trailer houses.

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/