The rallying cry following publication of our seminal research on aluminium and autism has always been for other independent research groups to confirm or refute our observations. Such has been very slow to materialise, most probably out of fear, both of proving us right (we couldn’t have that, could we) and of being labelled as anti-vaccine for even considering the possibility (as happened to me). It is true that I have received myriad reports from individuals identifying beneficial effects of drinking silicon-rich mineral water in children diagnosed with autism. When a child (or adult) with a diagnosis of autism begins to drink a silicon-rich mineral water on a regular basis we cannot hope to reverse damage already caused by aluminium in brain tissue. However, facilitating the removal of aluminium from the body, including the brain, will help to prevent further damage and may even promote some beneficial neurogenesis, some brain repair that might impact upon the symptoms of autism. Ideally we need to protect the unborn child through the mother drinking a silicon-rich mineral water and the neonate through the removal of aluminium from vaccines and infant formulas.
With all of this in mind I was delighted to read recent research in Nature’s Scientific Reports linking human exposure to aluminium with the incidence of autism. The new research measured the aluminium content of cord blood of new born infants and found that higher levels are indicative of a future diagnosis of autism. They rightly conclude that prenatal concentrations of aluminium indicating later incidence of autism should be investigated. The research also measured heavy metals, including mercury, and unfortunately the authors lumped aluminium in with this classification. I have no specific expertise on heavy metals and so I will not comment upon this aspect of the research. That authors, editors and reviewers all considered aluminium as a heavy metal does worry me somewhat.
The authors are somewhat coy with respect to their observations on aluminium, both in the paper and in recent email correspondence directly with myself. Their conclusions with respect to aluminium are somewhat guarded and they prefer to emphasise their data relating to mercury. The authors are primarily statisticians and the paper is heavy in statistics. I am unable to review the statistics and will assume that the reviewers of the manuscript were capable. The fact that the manuscript was in review for nearly 8 months suggests at least that it received thorough peer review. It may also explain why the observations on aluminium were presented as somewhat low key and, surprisingly, that my research in this field (despite being published in the same journal) was not cited, deemed significant by authors and reviewers alike.
I am pleased to find new peer reviewed research that wholly supports my assertion that aluminium has a role to play in autism. However, none of the authors of this paper has any significant expertise in the toxicity of metals in humans and absolutely no background in aluminium. Analysis of metals in cord blood was actually carried out by a commercial laboratory and few details of this critical part of the research are included in the paper. I spent the majority of my academic career learning how to measure aluminium in myriad media and specifically human tissues. I am not sure that this expertise can be mirrored in a commercial analytical laboratory. I hope and trust that the raw data analysed in this study are true and the results are a further step towards confirming a role for aluminium in autism.
Mineral water has given my son his voice, Dr. E. It obviously did not “fix” his autism, but at 13 years old, he only communicated in phrases his entire life, when he even did that, which resulted in a lot of frustration for him. But we went from reviewing electronic communication tools to him verbally advocating for himself in about six months. At 13. I think aluminum removal absolutely allows for some neuro-repair, and I, for one, am so grateful for your work.
It's absolutely clear that aluminium causes neurotoxicity. It has been since 1976 when Dialysis Encephalopathy was found to be caused by aluminium in the tap water. It's no surprise that further studies into the removal of aluminium with desferrioxamine were not funded.
https://heatherjburroughs.substack.com/p/the-cause-and-cure-of-alzheimers