It has often been said that moving home is one of life’s great stressors. My wife and I are making a new home and life among myriad boxes of clutter is a challenge. However, my body and soul is content since after thirty and more years my spirit has returned to the sea and the splendid isolation of the North Yorkshire coast. Of course, I brought aluminium with me.
I began my research in metals, amyloid beta and Alzheimer’s disease about thirty years ago and while aluminium has always been the main focus it has been necessary to understand how other metals, and in my case essential metals, complement this picture. Copper turned out to be of most interest, we have also studied zinc and iron, since it appeared to be an essential metal antagonistic towards aluminium.
While aluminium, the foreign invader of body and brain, promoted the formation of beta-pleated sheets of amyloid beta (similar to that found in senile plaques in AD brain tissue), copper, a metal essential to body and brain function, precipitated amyloid beta as amorphous aggregates. Indeed, we discovered that copper was not only preventative but abolished the beta sheet secondary structure of preformed amyloid fibrils of amyloid beta.
Our research on copper and amyloid beta did not fit the narrative sustained by the great and the good of amyloid beta research. There was a determination that copper should be the ‘bad guy’ of Alzheimer’s disease. I wonder who might be behind such a movement, if copper is the culprit then we can forget about aluminium, can’t we.
Special issues of leading review journals were devoted to metals, amyloid beta and Alzheimer’s disease and yet none of the reviews painted copper in good light. I found this blindness highly frustrating and said so in a letter to the editor. It is one thing to ignore good published science demonstrating the potential benefits of copper in preventing Alzheimer’s disease but it is another to promote poor published science purporting to label copper as a cause of the disease.
We were determined to address the dodgy science once and for all and to demonstrate unequivocally that if amyloid beta is a major player in the aetiology of Alzheimer’s disease then it is not through aberrant interactions with copper. We published our seminal contribution in the field of copper and amyloid beta in 2013 in Nature’s Scientific Reports. The science presented in this paper has not been refuted. In the main it has been supported by many following papers on this subject. It shows categorically that copper cannot promote the formation of senile plaques found in brain tissue in Alzheimer’s disease. Indeed it presents a scenario where copper would prevent their formation, at least in the absence of brain aluminium. It is important to understand that both amyloid beta and copper are normal and essential components of human brain physiology. They have evolved in tandem and while their respective functions remain to be fully elucidated they should be considered as beneficial to brain function until shown otherwise. Aluminium on the other hand is a late entry to the competitive equilibria that orchestrate brain functioning and is only disruptive of essential mechanisms. As I wrote in my book, in the presence of aluminium, while all of the notes may be played they are in the wrong order and the tune is lost.
In my opinion, copper has a role to play in amyloidosis in general and it is a beneficial role in preventing the formation of aberrant forms of amyloid throughout the body. Of course, issues associated with copper metabolism may provide an entry route for the detrimental effects of aluminium. This research remains to be addressed and in the meantime we do need to talk about copper.
PS. Many thanks to all the subscribers to my substack. I write these musings primarily for my own wellbeing and to be at least a voice when before I was something more. It will remain free for all to read but should you wish to take out a paid subscription know that you are helping to keep me vocal and my website alive.
COPPER! And in practical USE it's amazing. My husband and I know a man who manufactures a very good bioavailable copper supplement that's been healing people in big ways. We take it, and I give it to my friends and family with stunning reports.
Some people are even reporting it reversed their diabetes. Research has shown me that it works better than zinc to slow or stop viral replication. A must-have in my arsenal.
THANK YOU for covering this important topic!
Always look forward to your posts Christopher. This particular post reminds me that I ran out of copper supplements and I should order more. Thanks to you and your book, avoiding aluminum in my everyday life is a solid habit for me now. Also, enjoy the ocean and the slower paced life that awaits you. If it’s not too cold, try to take walks on the moist beach sand barefoot and gather those negative ions for your health. I’m a big believer in grounding.