"A Free Cure (?) for Fibromyalgia and CFS"

Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, 
Alzheimer's Disease: Probable Causes and Treatment 
by Darrell Stoddard     http://www.healpain.net     Copyright 2001

"Chronic Fatigue Syndrome might represent early or evolving Alzheimer's disease."  The words (an opinion of a medical doctor in a medical journal I was reading) leaped off the page.  Is chronic fatigue syndrome (and fibromyalgia that nearly always goes with it), evolving Alzheimer's disease in young people?  Could there be a connection between fibromyalgia (FM)/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and Alzheimer's disease (AD)?

I offer the following as a testable hypothesis to be considered.  It is speculative but not without evidence.   The primary thesis, if correct, may be life saving.  I have reviewed more than a hundred articles on fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome.  What follows is one of few attempts to explain the cause of these new and mystifying diseases.  Most articles say the cause is unknown and many say FM/CFS is incurable.  After treating more than 18,000 patients for pain, I believe both statements are wrong!

What is Fibromyalgia And Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? 

CFS is also referred to as chronic fatigue immune deficiency syndrome (CFIDS).  Seven times as many women are afflicted as men.  Both seem to be new diseases.  We had neither disease 50 years ago.  If FM/CFS did exist, they were not identified or named.  The words are not even in the dictionary unless you have the latest edition.  Now, the diseases are epidemic. According to the American College of Rheumatology, fibromyalgia affects 3 to 6 million Americans.  Still many doctors debate whether there is such a disease because there are no widely recognized medical tests to identify either FM or CFS.  They are identified only by symptoms.  A good argument could be made for the claim that we have created FM/CFS by naming them.  It is reassuring for patients if we put a name on their symptoms even if we don't know the cause or what to do for them.  Even if FM/CFS are just old diseases with new names, what follows still applies as to the possible cause and treatment.

What is Alzheimer's Disease?

The following paragraph comes from the Internet website, WebMD.(1)"Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative disease of the brain from which there is no recovery.  Slowly and inexorably, the disease attacks nerve cells in all parts of the cortex of the brain.... About half of the people in nursing homes and almost half of all people over 85 have Alzheimer's disease.  It is now the fourth leading cause of death in adults.  Almost 2 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, and unless effective methods for prevention and treatment are developed, it will reach epidemic proportions by the middle of the next century, afflicting over 8 million people." (Italics added.)

Hypothesis: Possible Cause of Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, and Alzheimer's

In the medical clinic where I have worked for 13 years, we have seen more than a thousand patients with FM and CFS symptoms.  When admitted to the clinic, every patient is required to fill out a Symptom Checklist that includes 169 symptoms.  In addition to the "Hurt all over" and "Tired all the time" symptoms, almost all FM/CFS patients also check: "Difficulty concentrating," "Trouble thinking clearly,"  "Indecisive," "Confusion," "Memory disturbance," "Learning disability."  If this isn't "early or evolving Alzheimer's disease," many of the symptoms are the same.  Alzheimer's disease and  FM/CFS could be related and have a common cause.

As I thought about the possibility of fibromyalgia  and chronic fatigue syndrome being "Alzheimer's disease in young  people," the thought came to me, The cause could be aluminum from soft drinks in aluminum cans and aluminum from antiperspirants."  These are two of the dramatic life style differences between people today and 50 years ago.  (Deodorants are ok. The problem is the aluminum antiperspirant included in nearly all deodorants, which stops perspiration.) 

In the 1980's, aluminum (AL) was suspected to be one of the causes of Alzheimer's disease when aluminum of higher than normal amounts was found by autopsy in the brains of people who had died from Alzheimer's disease.  To test the theory, animals were given large doses of aluminum in different forms.  The experimental injection of aluminum into animals did cause neurofibrillary tangles in the brain but they were different than the neurofibrillary tangles seen in the brain of AD patients; therefore, the theory was discounted and abandoned.  Although it is widely recognized that aluminum is a neurologic toxin, most experts today believe the excessive aluminum in the brain of AD patients is the effect of the disease and not the cause, or they believe the aluminum was not measured properly.  The claim that aluminum causes Alzheimer's disease is called an "urban legend" on the Internet (see reference #13).  In Scientific American, an Alzheimer specialist answering the question, "Is Alzheimer's disease related to aluminum exposure?" called it a "myth." (2)  Ironically, in explaining how the myth got started,  the doctor still presents evidence linking aluminum to AD.

Other scientists have published new research in peer review scientific journals, that still support the belief that aluminum may be one of the causes of Alzheimer's disease.  The challenge is to discover or prove what makes the aluminum deposit in the brain.  Theories have been proposed and compelling evidence offered to explain the mechanism of why and how aluminum deposits form in the brain.

To understand my theory of how aluminum, from soft drinks and antiperspirants, may be one of the causes of both AD and FM/CFS, one needs to learn about the function of the skin.  We usually think of the skin as just something that holds us together, but the skin is a very complex organ that performs an astounding number of functions.  It is the largest organ in the body.  Within a single square inch of skin are approximately 19 million cells, including 650 sweat glands, 100 sebum or oil glands, 65 hair follicles, 19,000 sensory cells and as much as 13 feet of microscopic blood vessels.  The skin helps regulate blood pressure, protects us from heat and cold, and also protects the body from harmful bacteria.  The skin absorbs oxygen and gives off carbon dioxide, manufactures vitamin D and a myriad of complex chemicals to protect and keep us well. 

The skin is also an organ of elimination through perspiration/respiration.  The four organs of elimination are the bowels, kidneys, lungs, and skin.  If we understand the elimination function of the skin, the very word "anti-perspirant" should give us concern.  Would we take into our body or use anything called "anti-bowel movement" to prevent elimination because our feces smells bad?  Would we take or use anything called "anti-urination" to keep us from voiding because the smell of urine is unpleasant?  Last of all, would we take or use anything called "anti-breathing" to prevent bad breath?  Using an antiperspirant makes as much sense!  Remember, deodorant is not the suspected culprit.  The antiperspirant (aluminum) that is added to almost all deodorants is the problem.  I believe if you put antiperspirant on your entire body, thereby stopping the respiration/perspiration elimination functions of the skin, you would get ill in a short time.  You wouldn't need to wait for FM/CFS or AD to develop.

It is true that the amount of toxins eliminated by the skin is small compared to the other organs of elimination.  Still, it seems the importance of the elimination/respiration functions of the skin has never been adequately investigated.  Just as the kidneys cannot do the job of the bowels or lungs, the other organs of elimination cannot replace or do what the skin does.

A reason for saying that an antiperspirant on the entire body would make you ill comes from the James Bond motion picture, Gold Finger.  Many patients have told me that the gold paint on the body of the actor, could only be left on for a short time because to leave the paint on for more than an hour or two would cause death;  the cause of death being blockage of the respiration/elimination functions of the skin or a type of suffocation.  The skin takes in oxygen and gives off carbon dioxide much like the lungs.

The function of perspiration is not only to cool us but also to eliminate toxic elements from the body, mostly from under the arms.  The smell is evidence of that fact.  When the elimination of those toxic elements (though the amounts are small) is stopped by the absorption of aluminum in antiperspirants along with aluminum from other sources, the result, I believe, is fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome.  Any other mineral, chemical, or stone that claims to stop perspiration would also be harmful because toxins would not be eliminated.  It is OK to use a deodorant but if it says "antiperspirant" it should be discarded.

If perspiration gives you a bad odor, you should get down on your knees and thank god that your skin has eliminated the toxins that cause the smell.  Incidentally, it is an observable fact that vegetarians have less body odor than heavy meat eaters.  Many times in China, where they eat very little meat, I have been on the worlds most crowded buses and never noticed offensive body odors. This is even more unusual than it seems, because most of  the Chinese in Beijing have no shower or tub.  Virtually all of the apartments in that great city, have only a wash basin.  I got back to San Francisco and a man had such a strong body odor that I couldn't even stand to be in the same terminal with him. You could smell him 100 feet away. 

Fifty years ago, before the discovery that aluminum would stop perspiration, women wore a plastic shield and/or a pad under their arms to protect their clothes and powder or cornstarch to absorb the sweat, plus fragrances to cover up the smell.  We didn't have antiperspirants and it seemed no one had fatigue and/or unrelenting pain (which was not arthritic) in their entire body severe enough to render them completely non-functional. 

In the "olden days" some 50 years ago, there were no soft drinks in aluminum cans.  Soft drinks came only in returnable, refillable glass bottles or in a frosted glass mug from the local A&W fast food drive-in. (I know this as a fact because as a boy I made my spending money by finding the beer and soft drink bottles that had been discarded and taking them back to the store for the deposit.)  Other than a few people who were addicted to Coca Cola from glass bottles, there was not the widespread every day use of soft drinks and the apparent addiction to soft drinks that we see today in almost all teenagers and young people - the FM/CFS generation.  (See: Confession of a Soft Drink on this web site.)

Before antiperspirants, my father, who was a smoker, had a big white circle from perspiration under the arm of all his shirts.  The material under the arms where he sweat would rot away, ruining the shirt.  Perspiration is the way my father eliminated the nicotine and other harmful substances from the cigarettes he smoked.  You could smell the cigarettes when mother washed his shirts.  I think the smell was not just from the smoke in his clothes, but also from the toxins that were eliminated by the perspiration under his arms.  The average life expectancy of a male smoker is 72 years.  If father had used antiperspirants, the toxins from the cigarettes he smoked would not have been eliminated and I don't believe he would have lived to be 79 years old.

Do people get FM/CFS symptoms who do not use antiperspirants?  The answer is Yes.  The same symptoms can be caused by dehydration and/or lack of essential minerals which is much easier to correct. (See: "Healing Pain" and "Pain Healed Immediately" on this web site.)  In most patients the symptoms described are a combination of the two.  Do all people who use antiperspirants get FM/CFS.  The answer is No.  It is a question of how effectively the body can eliminate the aluminum it takes in. 

Health food people have told us for fifty years not to use aluminum cookware, not to use baking powder that contains aluminum, and more recently, not to use antacids containing aluminum, or consume soft drinks from aluminum cans.  I believe the amount of aluminum that goes into the tissues from such sources is minimal compared to giving yourself a big dose under the arms every morning - a dose that is absorbed directly into the muscles, ligaments, and tendons - the fibrous tissues in the body where fibromyalgia is manifest.  Most of the aluminum that is consumed orally is eliminated.  You may absorb and retain as much aluminum from one application of an antiperspirant as you would from using aluminum cookware for a lifetime.

Confirming Scientific Research and Evidence

Aluminum is the third most common element on the earth's crust so small amounts of aluminum may be in the water we drink and in the food we eat.  It is impossible to totally eliminate all aluminum from the diet.  Because of that fact, people have always developed Alzheimer's disease in contrast to FM/CFS which I  believe are new diseases.  There are studies to indicate that the incidence of AD increases with the amount of aluminum in the water supply.  Alum (potassium aluminum sulfate) is added to most culinary drinking water systems as a clearing agent. (3)  The World Health Organization recommends that the amount of aluminum present in drinking water  be below 200 micrograms per liter. 

A 1996 study by D.R.C. McLachlan et al. found there was a correlation between the level of aluminum present in the drinking water and the number of diagnosed Alzheimer's cases. (4)  This study concluded that between 15,180 and 26,910 of the estimated 66,000 to 117,000 cases of AD might have been prevented if the aluminum concentration in the municipal water supply had been kept below 100 micrograms per liter. 

A year 2000 study from France that followed 2,700 individuals for an 8-year period showed that a concentration of aluminum in drinking water above 0.1 milligrams/liter may be a risk factor for dementia and Alzheimer's disease. (5)

Aluminum cookware releases excessive aluminum when tomatoes or high acid foods are cooked in it.  Aluminum cookware that is stained comes out shiny clean after cooking tomatoes.  The acid from the tomatoes dissolves the aluminum which can then be ingested.  The same thing occurs with soft drinks (from aluminum cans) which are all highly acidic.  Dragen, et al. measured the aluminum content in a variety of beverages. (6)  They found that cola drinks in cans contained 16 times as much aluminum as their local tap water.  Non-cola soft drinks in aluminum cans contained 23 times as much aluminum.  The leakage of aluminum into soft drinks in aluminum cans increased with the level of the acidity of the soft drink.  Beer is also highly acidic and now comes in aluminum cans.  In the past, beer came only in glass bottles. 

A MUST READ Internet article by William B. Grant, Ph.D., presents a compelling theory of what makes aluminum deposit in the brain of people with Alzheimer's disease. (7)  In another article, Dr. Grant states the following, "Aluminum is strongly bound to oxygen unless it is dissolved in a strong acid.... Aluminum oxide is basically inert, so when ingested will pass through the digestive system intact unless the digestive system is acidic from over consumption of acid-forming foods such as fats and proteins, with possibly some contribution from highly processed carbohydrates."(8) 

Diet can be changed, heredity cannot.  Dr. Grant believes that diet may affect AD as much as heredity.  "Possibly increasing the consumption of calcium supplements when eating acid-forming foods might reduce the absorption of aluminum.  A better solution may be to include fewer acid-forming and more alkaline-forming foods in the diet." Dietary Links to Alzheimer's Disease, a complete, comprehensive scientific article by Dr. Grant is available on the internet. (9)   This is vital, paradigm, breakthrough research that everyone concerned with Alzheimer's disease and/or FM/CFS should know about because some of the causes of both diseases may be the same! 

Some environmental factors of AD are noted in a WebMD article. (10)   "The disease is rare in West Africa, but African-Americans have four times the risk as white Americans... A study of Japanese men, however, showed that their risk increased if they emigrated to America."  Dietary  changes could explain the difference.

In the research cited by Dr. Grant, it was found that other metals and elements in the brain of autopsied Alzheimer patients were higher than normal, in addition to aluminum.  They were: Silver, (Ag),  Cobalt (Co),  Iron (Fe),  Mercury (Hg), Scandium (Sc), and Sodium, Mercury being the highest of all.  The alkali metals: Cesium (Cs), Potassium (K), Rubidium (Rb), were lower than normal. 

Dr. Grants summary reads as follows: "There is strong evidence that the incidence and prevalence of AD is affected by diet, with high risk factors found to include alcohol, fat, refined carbohydrates, salt, and total caloric consumption, and preventative factors found to include antioxidants, essential trace minerals, estrogen for post-menopausal women, fish and fish oil, and anti-inflammatory therapeutic agents.... Thus, healthy diets should be considered the first line of defense against the development and progression of AD, as well as all other chronic degenerative diseases.  The finding that the highest correlation between diet and AD incidence and prevalence is found 3-5 years before the study period suggests that diet modifications late in life can still affect the risk of developing AD."  (Dr Grant is a good scientist who knows the difference between correlation and causation. In his more comprehensive study cited, Grant addresses all of the elements necessary to affirm causation.)

George M. Tamari, Ph.D., lists 23  diseases linked to aluminum toxicity including Alzheimer's, pain, weakness, fatigue, and aching muscles. (11) (Sounds like a description of FM/CFS.)  Tamari reports that people whose diets are "deficient in calcium and/or zinc will absorb more aluminum than well fed subjects" and that "antagonistic elements, like zinc and calcium, will replace aluminum."  In conclusion he states, "By ingesting food rich in the deficient element, or by using food supplements, the unwanted toxic elements may be ‘replaced' by antagonistic nutritional elements."   A zinc deficiency may cause aluminum to deposit in the brain but excessive amounts of zinc may promote formation of amyloid plaques in the brain which is characteristic of AD.  Too little or too much zinc could contribute to AD.   Fluoride is also an antagonistic element of aluminum but is not recommended because of its toxicity.

Because of numerous articles and a book advocating malic acid to chelate aluminum from the body for the treatment of FM, I performed a Med-Line search on malic acid and aluminum.  The search brought up 10 studies published between 1966 and 1999.  A 1993 study by Domingo et al. was the most pertinent.(12)   Eight groups of mice were given in their drinking water eight different acids commonly found in the human diet.   After one month the mice were killed and the amount of aluminum was measured in the bone and four major organs. The acids actually caused aluminum (from the water they drank and from the food they ate) to deposit in the bones and organs of the body, including the brain, instead of chelating the aluminum out!

Because of the importance of the Domingo study, I submit the entire abstract: 

"The influence of some frequent dietary constituents on gastrointestinal absorption of aluminum from drinking water and diet was investigated in mice. Eight groups of male mice received lactic (57.6 mg/kg/day), tartaric (96 mg/kg/day), gluconic (125.4 mg/kg/day), malic (85.8 mg/kg/day), succinic (75.6 mg/kg/day), ascorbic (112.6 mg/kg/day), citric (124 mg/kg/day), and oxalic (80.6 mg/kg/day) acids in the drinking water for one month. At the end of this period, animals were killed and aluminum concentrations in liver, spleen, kidney, brain, and bone were determined. All the dietary constituents significantly increased the aluminum levels in bone, whereas brain aluminum concentrations were also raised by the intake of lactic, gluconic, malic, citric, and oxalic acids. The levels of aluminum found in spleen were significantly increased by gluconic and ascorbic acids, whereas gluconic and oxalic acids also raised the concentrations of aluminum found in kidneys.  Because of the wide presence and consumption of the above dietary constituents, in order to prevent aluminum accumulation and toxicity we suggest a drastic limitation of human exposure to aluminum." (Italics added.)  This should include, of all things, not giving yourself a big dose under the arms every morning. 

Malic acid, all of the acids used in the above study, amino acids from meat, fats, and protein may cause aluminum (that may otherwise pass through the body) to deposit in the bone, organs, and brain.  Alkaline drinking water, essential minerals (including calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium), and alkaline-forming foods (see list at end of this article) may keep this from happening.

It has also been discovered that low doses of fluoride (the equivalent of 1.0 ppm, the "optimal" dose added to drinking water to prevent cavities in the teeth) may cause aluminum to deposit in the brain.  Brain Research, a peer review medical journal, reported in 1998 that the amount of aluminum deposited in the brain of low dose fluoride treated rats was double that of the controls!(13)   Fluoride (antagonistic to AL) made the aluminum bio-available to cross the blood-brain barrier.

Aluminum from all sources can be substantial.  Studies conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration estimate that the average adult American consumes 20 to 40 mg of aluminum per day; 90 percent from FDA-approved food additives found in baked goods, desserts, and cheeses.  Up to 5,000 mg of aluminum a day may come from medicines, including antacids and buffered aspirin.  Individuals on antacid therapy may consume up to 3,000 mg of aluminum per day and do so for many years.  Checking on over-the-counter drugs today, I found that buffered aspirin and antacids that once contained aluminum no longer do so.  Did the above FDA study change that?  Mylanta and Maalox now use much safer magnesium and calcium carbonate instead of aluminum. 

There is enough new and old evidence in scientific journals which link aluminum to AD that we should reconsider aluminum as one of the possible causes Alzheimer's disease.  Just because the neurofibrillary tangles induced in animals were not the same as the neurofibrillary tangles seen in the brains of AD patients, or the fact that people with low AL intake still get AD, or that the aluminum in the brain was not measured properly, is not justification to abandon the theory. 

A new study led by James Croom, Ph.D of North Carolina State University offers great promise for treatment.  Researchers found that aluminum levels in the brains of laboratory mice decreased by 80 percent after the mice were given supplemental doses of a protein
called peptide YY.  The sharp drop in aluminum levels occurred after injecting the mice with the protein supplements for just three days. (14)

Testing the Hypothesis:

I have primarily cited studies that acknowledge a possible connection between aluminum and AD.   That debate about aluminum causing AD (believed by most to be disproved so long ago that it's not even worth considering) will go on and on. (15)  The hypothesis that aluminum may cause FM/CFS is testable short term.

Those who say antiperspirants couldn't possibly be harmful can (all science aside) find out for themselves by putting an antiperspirant on their entire body for a few days.  They won't have to wait for double-blind, crossover, placebo controlled studies or publication of research in peer-review scientific journals. 

There is no experimental evidence that aluminum in antiperspirants is one of the causes of FM/CFS.  I present my theory here only as a hypothesis to be considered.  We don't need to guess how the deodorant companies, soft drink manufactures, and fluoride proponents will respond.  Those with FM/CFS can try the suggestions below and find out for themselves.  It will cost nothing.  I have nothing to sell.  Experience has shown that avoiding aluminum may help FM/CFS within weeks. 

I now conclude with the question that started this all, "Is fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, Alzheimer's disease in young people?  And could there be a connection between FM/CFS and AD?  If I am correct about aluminum being one of the causes of both diseases, the consequences are staggering.  We would expect to see, as the antiperspirant/soft drink/fluoride in the drinking water (and almost all tooth paste) generation ages, an epidemic of Alzheimer's like the world has never known.  It not only portends terrible things to come but also offers hope of preventing one of the most tragic of all diseases (AD) and sparing others from the disabling effects of FM/CFS. 

If I am wrong, there are still plenty of reasons to avoid aluminum.  As far as I know, no one has ever presented evidence that aluminum in any amount is good for the health of trees, plants, animals, or humans.  Most just say that aluminum in small amounts does no harm.  NO ONE EVEN ARGUES THAT ALUMINUM, in any amount, IS BENEFICIAL.  Innumerable articles and studies claim aluminum is or may be harmful to the body.
 

If you believe that aluminum could be one of the causes of FM/CFS or don't want to take a chance, the take home message is:  You may be able to prevent and/or reverse the effects of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, and other degenerative diseases by doing the following:

1.  DON'T USE ANTIPERSPIRANTS.   A deodorant that is not also an antiperspirant is OK,  if you can find one.

2.   DON'T DRINK SOFT DRINKS FROM ALUMINUM CANS.  Better still, don't drink them at all.  Fruit Juice, beer, tomatoes and tomato juice from aluminum cans should also be avoided.

3.  DON'T USE ANTACIDS WITH ALUMINUM.   Individuals on antacid therapy may consume up to 3,000 mg of aluminum per day.

4.  DON'T USE HAND LOTIONS CONTAINING ALUMINUM.  Read the labels.  Most of them do.

5.  DON'T USE BAKING POWDER CONTAINING ALUMINUM, or eat foods cooked with such baking powder.  Virtually all commercially baked products, except for bread that uses yeast as a leavening, are baked using baking powder that contains aluminum.  The two common brands of baking powder in your grocery store both contain aluminum.  You can buy "Rumford Baking Powder" in the health food store that does not have aluminum.

5.  DON'T DRINK YOUR TAP WATER unless the chlorine has been removed and the aluminum level is below 200 micrograms per liter or even 100 micrograms per liter. Aluminum is added to most municipal drinking water systems as a clearing agent.  Remember, the World Health Organization recommends that the amount of aluminum present in drinking water be below 200 micrograms per liter.  McLachlan estimates that, "Between 15,180 and 26,910 of the estimated 66,000 to 117,000 cases of Alzheimer's might have been prevented if the aluminum concentration in the municipal water supply had been kept below 100 micrograms per liter."

6.  DON'T DRINK FLUORIDATED WATER OR USE FLUORIDE TOOTH PASTE. Fluoride is an antagonist of aluminum and will replace aluminum.  Fluoridated water, in the recommended amount to prevent cavities, doubled the amount of aluminum deposited in the brain of rats. 

7.  DON'T USE BUFFERED ASPIRIN (if it contains aluminum) OR OTHER MEDICATIONS THAT CONTAIN ALUMINUM.  The best buffer for aspirin is ½ teaspoon of baking soda which is highly alkaline.  Completely dissolve an uncoated aspirin and the baking soda in a glass of water before taking.  See: Inflammation Worse than Cholesterol by the author for the only way to take aspirin.

8.  MALIC ACID TO TREAT FM/CFS MAY CAUSE THE ALUMINUM TO DEPOSIT IN THE BRAIN.  There are dozens of Internet sites and a book that recommend malic acid to treat fibromyalgia.  Experimental evidence has shown that it may be helpful - but if it takes aluminum out of the muscle tissue and deposits it in the organs and brain, is it worth the relief it gives? 

9.  In addition to aluminum, ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, FAT, REFINED CARBOHYDRATES (SUGAR), AND TABLE SALT (that pours when it rains) ARE HIGH RISK FACTORS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.  They may also be risk factors for FM/CFS. 

10.  Another important thing you can do is to DRINK IONIZED ALKALINE WATER.  (See Conclusion below for the way to do this.)

List of Alkaline and Acid Forming Foods (16)

Since it would be impossible to remember the acidity or alkalinity of all foods, we will list here some common foods, the best and worst in each category. For Aluminum detoxification, remember:  Most Alkaline is best.  (Foods on the left of the chart are the best becoming less and less desirable as you move to the right.) Most Acid is least desirable.
 

Food Category	Most Alkaline	More Alkaline	Low Alkaline	Low Acid	More Acid	Most Acid
Spice	Sea salt	Pepper				Table salt
Drinks	Most mineral water, Ionized water		Filtered water, Most spring  water	Reverse osmoses water, Distilled water	Coffee,	Soft  drinks, Beer, Alcoholic beverages
Sugar Honey Molasses		Molasses		Honey		Sugar,  Jam, Jelly, Cocoa,
Vinegar		Soy sauce	Apple cider vinegar			White  vinegar
Dairy, Eggs			Human breast milk,  Duck eggs, Quail eggs	Cow milk Cream, Butter, Yogurt, Aged cheese, Chicken  eggs	New  Cheese	Ice  Cream,  Pudding, Processed  cheese
Grain			Oats, Wild rice	Wheat, White rice	Corn, Rye	Barley
Vegetable	Onions, Yams, Sweet potatoes, Lentils	Asparagus, Garlic, Broccoli	Potatoes, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Squash, Lettuce	Tomatoes, Split peas, Beans	Carrots, Green pea, Snow pea	Soybeans
Fruit	Lime, Nectarine, Raspberry, Water- melon, Tangerine, Pineapple	Grapefruit, Cantaloupe,  Olive, Mango,  Avocodo,  Apple,  Peach	Orange, Banana, Apricot, Blueberry, Strawberry, Grapes	Coconut, Guava, Dry fruit, Dates, Figs,  Plum, Prune,	Cranberry
Nuts		Cashews Chestnuts	Almonds	Pine nuts	Peanuts, Pecans	Walnuts, Brazil nuts
Meat, Fried  Food				Fish, Venison, Elk, Lamb, Mutton, Turkey, Shell fish	Chicken, Pork, Veal	Fried  Food, Beef, Pheasant, Lobster

Our hypothetical BEST MEAL EVER would be:  Cold water fish (salmon, halibut, cod, trout) or venison, baked with olive oil, seasoned with sea salt, pepper, and fresh lime juice; baked yams seasoned with real butter and sea salt; mineral water or milk as a beverage. (Stirring a teaspoon of Grandmas' Molasses into a glass of milk makes it even better.  Try it you'll love it.  It is a wonderful substitute for chocolate milk and tastes almost as good.)  Dessert could be fresh nectarines, raspberries, watermelon, tangerine, or pineapple with cultured yogurt.

The hypothetical WORST MEAL would be:  Fried beef (hamburger or steak) with a slice of processed cheese, white bread or bun with margarine; french fries; caffeinated soft drink or beer; chocolate ice cream and a chocolate brownie for desert; coffee with sugar; and a cigarette to finish the meal (or you) off. 

Conclusion

Trace amounts of aluminum are found in grains, vegetables, and fruit, naturally taken up from the soil.  Almost all culinary water systems add aluminum to the water supply as a clearing agent, and no filter I know of will remove aluminum without removing vital trace minerals (necessary for the life of every cell). We cannot totally eliminate aluminum from our diet. We cannot eat only alkaline foods. But we can drink only alkaline water. 

Water ionizers made in Japan and Korea are available that electrically separate the water coming from the faucet into alkaline water and acid water.  Alkaline water comes out of one hose and acid water comes out of the other. You cook with and drink the alkaline water and use the acid water on your plants. Your plants love the acid water, and drinking only alkaline water is one of the best things you can do for your health.  Water ionizers also filter the water, which takes out the chlorine.  Some brands also run the water through ultra violet light, which kills infectious microorganisms. The ultra violet light feature adds to the cost and may not be necessary if your water is chlorinated. 

Having a water ionizer and drinking only filtered alkaline water is not only one of the best ways to suppress FM/CFS and prevent Alzheimer's, but it is one of the best things you can do to slow or delay the aging process. (For a full treatise on the subject of aging, I highly recommend a superb little book titled Reverse Aging by Sang Y. Whang.  See also: The Cause of All Degenerative Disease by the author.)

Using Peptide YY (when we can get it), avoiding sources of aluminum, avoiding fluoride toothpaste and fluoridated drinking water, avoiding acid foods, eating alkaline foods, and drinking only alkaline water would be the ultimate thing to do.  This may not eliminate all Alzheimer's disease (some people are genetically more susceptible than others), but it will do no harm.  It could eliminate fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome and it could dramatically reduce the number of people who are afflicted by Alzheimer's disease.  

Blessings on you, reader, if you have gotten this far.  If this hasn't given you something to be paranoid about, nothing will.  Overreacting could be detrimental.  It's not just the bad stuff we eat that is harmful but "what eats us."  Eating more alkaline foods and fewer acid foods to keep aluminum from depositing in our tissues is important, but not as important as avoiding the sources of aluminum.  May neither acid ran, antiperspirants, fluoride. aluminum, Alzheimer's or paranoia befall you. 

A  FREE CURE (?)  FOR FIBROMYALGIA and CFS 
Could be simply eliminating:

ANTIPERSPIRANTS,
POP, FRUIT JUICE,  OR TOMATO JUICE, FROM ALUMINUM CANS
FLUORIDE TOOTHPASTE AND  FLUORIDATED WATER

I have nothing to sell and you have nothing to lose but your pain and fatigue.
You will not even lose your friends if you use a deodorant that is not also an antiperspirant.
Be good and you will be happy.

331 Reasons to Avoid Fluoride and Aluminum !!!
Important February 17, 2009 Update  I received from Leo Cashman. (BS, MA,  Executive Director of  DAMS  [Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions]  1043 Grand Ave. #317 , ST Paul  MN 55105, Phone 651-644-4572 a member of the Fluoride Toxicity Research Collaborative) a scientific article entitled: Fluoride Interactions: From molecules to Disease. The article gives 331 references relating to the harmful effects of Fluoride when combined with Aluminum. A concluding line from the article states, "With exposure so common, we can no longer afford to ignore potential consequences of fluoride and Aluminum." I believe Mr. Cashman and the DAMS  (Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions) orginization is the best resource in the world  for dental health issues.

Note: The following article is posted with permission of the author. It is vital information for anyone that has a loved one who is suffering with Alzheimer's disease:

Personal Stories: My Father's Mind
By Jeffrey Bland, Nutritional Biochemist and Chair of the Institute for Functional Medicine, in Gig Harbor, Washington

My father always said the worst part of getting old would be to lose his mind. His was an exceedingly good one. After a lifetime of working as an aerospace engineer, he retired at 70 and almost immediately decided to go to school to learn computer programming-just because he wanted to see how it was done. Two years later, he graduated number one in his class. He was just like that: smart enough to be able to follow through on his curiosity.

Soon after, though, he became vague and started demonstrating signs of dementia-
misplacing things, losing his sense of direction. Finally, one day he couldn't even remember how to turn on the computer. Before calling his doctor, I did extensive research into dementia and spoke with the head of neurology at Columbia School of Medicine, in New York, who had published papers in the 1980s showing a link between B-12 deficiency and dementia. So I suggested to the doctor that he give my father injections of B-12.. He balked-he hadn't seen the studies-but I kept pushing, and he finally relented.

Four days after starting the injections, my father walked, fully dressed, into the room where my mother was reading and asked, "Do you want to go for a drive?" She was stunned. Here was a man who could barely get out of bed, much less dress himself and think of what he wanted to do. In another few weeks' time, my father was back at his computer doing the things he liked to do. He has since passed away, but from the time he started taking B-12, he had ten high-quality years of life.

(There is a possibility that sublingual Vitamin B-12, available in your health food store, may be equally beneficial. For more information on Vitamin B-12 and Alzheimer's disease, see: http://www.apa.org/releases/cognitivesupport_article.pdf )
 

End notes:

1.  What is Alzheimer's disease? For the full article see: http://my.webmd.com/content/article/1680.50324

2.  Scientific American  http://www.sciam.com/askexpert/medicine/medicine22.html

3.  Re: The Alum added to drinking water issue see:  http://www.awwa.org/govtaff/aluminpa.htm 

4.  McLachlan D.R, et al.  Risk for neuropathologically confirmed Alzheimers disease and residual aluminum in municipal drinking water employing weighted residential histories.  Neurology. 46 (1996): 401-405

5.  American Journal of Epidemiology 2000;152:59-66

6.  Dragen JM , Dickeson JE, Tynan, PF. et al.  Aluminum beverage cans as a dietary source of aluminum.  Med J Aust 1992; 156: 604-5

7.  Grant WB, Alzheimer's, Acid Rain, and Aluminum, on this Website  - Alzheimer's Disease Breakthrough

8.  Grant WB  Aluminum Accumulates in Body with High Acid Diet.  Townsend Letter for Doctors 1999 June p.92,

9.  Grant WB, Dietary Links to Alzheimer's Disease, http://www.mc.uky.edu/adreview/Vol2/Grant/Grant.htm#top

10.  Environmental factors linked to AD.  http://my.webmd.com/content/article/1680.50324

11.  Tameri, George M.  Aluminum - Toxicity and Prevention.  Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients Feb/Mar 1999  pp. 98-100

12.  Domingo JL; Gomez M; Sanchez DJ; Llobet JM; Corbella J  Effect of various dietary constituents on gastrointestinal absorption of aluminum from drinking water and diet.  Res Commun Chem Pathol Pharmacol, 1993 Mar, 79:3, 377-80

13.  Verner JA, et al. Chronic administration of aluminum fluoride to rats in drinking water: alterations in neuronal and cerebrovascular integrity. Brain Research, vol. 784:1998

14.  Peptide YY Reduces Brain Aluminum. http://www.mercola.com/2000/aug/6/peptide_aluminum.htm

15.  For a delightful, nostalgic article that reviews the history of claims that aluminum may be harmful and shows how long the health aspects of aluminum have been debated see:  http://www.snopes2.com/movies/actors/valentin.htm  This web page gives quaint tales from the past including the once popular claim that Rudolph Valentino died from eating food cooked in aluminum cookware.   The web page would put what I have written, the research of those I have cited, along with all other claims that aluminum may be harmful in the realm of an "Urban Legend."  The site has a link to a Scientific American article in which an Alzheimer specialist declares that the idea that aluminum may be one of the causes of Alzheimer's disease is a "myth."  I plead guilty to perpetuating the urban legend and the myth.

16.  A chart entitled FOOD AND CHEMICAL EFFECTS ON ACID/ALKALINE BODY CHEMICAL BALANCE is available from ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies, 14 Pigeon Hill Drive, STE 300, Sterling, VA 20165.

For other theories regarding the cause of FM/CFS, click on the following link:
Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Resource
(It may be of interest for you to know that the above organization refused to publish the above article when it was offered to them without cost.)

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