Special Focus - Alzheimer’s and Dementia
Alzheimer’s disease is a severe disorder affecting the human brain, resulting in an ever more progressive deterioration in the patient’s mental capacity. Aluminium is time and again brought into the discussion as a factor triggering this disease. But how accurate is this assumption in reality?
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Does aluminium trigger Alzheimer’s?
According to the current scientific status, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BFR) do not see any scientifically proven causal connection between the development of Alzheimer’s disease and the uptake of aluminium compounds.
The question as to whether aluminium triggers Alzheimer’s disease has been the subject of controversial debate for decades now. This suspicion first arose in the 1970s and 1980s, when aluminium was considered a high-risk factor for the emergence of Alzheimer’s. But despite these decades-old discussions, it has to date not been possible to find any scientifically demonstrable evidence of health damage due to the uptake of aluminium and of a causal connection with Alzheimer’s disease.
No scientific evidence for aluminium as a triggering factor for Alzheimer’s
As early as 1997, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that aluminium does not constitute a causal factor for the development of Alzheimer’s disease. In 2007, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment published its conclusion that the uptake of aluminium stands in no relationship to the occurrence of the disorder. Based on the conclusion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), in 2014 the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety – a scientific panel of the European Commission whose task it is to give statements on health and safety risks – gave final confirmation: it was not possible to demonstrate any causal connection between the uptake of aluminium and Alzheimer’s. What’s more, the Alzheimer’s Association also states that according to the current scientific status there are no studies that confirm that the metal plays any role in the emergence of Alzheimer’s. The suspicion that aluminium is capable of triggering Alzheimer’s disease is today considered obsolete.