Post by URBAN FARMING on Apr 3, 2014 17:42:35 GMT -6
"A dramatic loss of copper in key brain regions may be central to Alzheimer’s disease. Could restoring metals in the brain help?"
"Many people threw out their aluminum pots and pans in the 1960s and 1970s, when they heard that researchers had discovered small amounts of the metal in the sticky amyloid plaques that litter the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. While the notion that ingestion of aluminum products might contribute to the disease has since been discredited, evidence is accumulating that metals such as copper, zinc, and iron can play an important role in driving brain degeneration. These biologically active metals have been linked not only to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but also to Parkinson’s, motor neuron disease, and a group of childhood brain disorders called lysosomal storage diseases, among others.
That biometals influence brain health and disease should not be surprising. Ions of copper, zinc, iron, manganese, and cobalt are all key cofactors in a wide range of brain cell functions, including cellular respiration, antioxidant removal of toxic free radicals, and oxygen delivery to brain cells. (See illustration.) These metals are also cofactors for cell signaling at synapses. In fact, it has been estimated that half of all proteins in the body form complexes with metals."
Quoted from and for more information: www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39517/title/Metals-on-our-Mind/