These Metals Causes Parkinson’s Disease

In the past month, two studies have appeared in scientific journals demonstrating that exposure to two types of common metals causes Parkinson’s disease.

The first study was published in ACS Chemical Neuroscience, and the second appeared in Chemosphere.

In the first study on copper, the scientists start from the knowledge that proteins in the brain become defective long before symptoms such as tremors occur. If this is true, then we need to find out why these proteins become defective and what damages them.

Metal exposure is an obvious target to study as so many studies have linked exposure to various metals to Parkinson’s disease.

Accordingly, the team of Irish researchers decided to place some of these proteins in a copper solution in the laboratory to see what happened to them.

They picked a protein called alpha-synuclein. This protein is involved in the development of Parkinson’s. Alpha-synuclein cells clump together, which causes nerve cells to die.

They discovered that this protein developed normally when placed in a water-based solution, whereas it changed its structure completely when placed in a copper solution. Within the first few hours, these proteins became ring-shaped when interacting with copper.

From this, they concluded that it was likely that the initial protein damage that eventually becomes Parkinson’s disease could be caused by copper exposure.

In the second study on aluminum, Italian scientists wanted to find out what effects aluminum had on our brains. Many previous studies have demonstrated the toxic effects of aluminum on organs.

As it would have been deeply unethical to expose human brains to a toxic metal for the purpose of a study, the scientists had to use zebrafish, a creature often used to study neurological diseases in humans.

They exposed the zebrafish to an aluminum solution for 10, 15, and 20 days. They also used a sample of fish not given an aluminum solution.

They discovered that the aluminum level in their brains was highest just after 15 days.

When comparing their brains with those of the unexposed zebrafish, the aluminum-exposed fish had altered blood vessels, cellular disorganization and damage, a lot of swelling, dead nerve cells, and brain degeneration.

Given that previous research had identified 10 genes responsible for Parkinson’s disease, the scientists also checked whether these genes were turned on or off in the aluminum-exposed fish.

According to their results, all 10 genes were more active in the brains of the zebrafish that were exposed to the aluminum.

We are all exposed to some amount of aluminum and copper daily, for example, in the food we eat. Anything more than that, for example in work, is, however, worth avoiding if you want to prevent Parkinson’s disease.

But if you have already begun developing Parkinson’s disease, your #1 goal is, of course, to halt and even reverse its progress. Fortunately, this is quite easy to do using the simple steps explained here…