[Intakes and health effects of aluminum. "Is aluminum a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease?"].

Alzheimer's disease will be one of the main health problems in Japan in the near future, where the proportion of elderly people is showing rapid increase. The causes of the disease have been obscure, but some reports in recent years indicate the intake of aluminum is a risk factor. The reported knowledge concerning the function aluminum, the intake of aluminum and the relationship of aluminum to Alzheimer's disease needs to be summarized. The intestinal absorption of aluminum differs according to its chemical structures, coexistent substances such as maltose, citric acid, silicon and hydrogen ion concentration exponent. Aluminum absorbed from the intestine may be possibly accumulated in the brain tissue. There are some reports which indicate that the aluminum in the brain are toxic to nerve cells and produce Alzheimer's disease-like pathological or biochemical changes in animal brain. While there are a number of epidemiological reports which show that the presence of aluminum in the water supply relates to the disease incidence, it is not well recognized that a large amount of aluminum is contained and can be consumed through commonly used confectioneries and medications. At the present time while the amount of information is not sufficient to make some proposals about the aluminum consumption through foods and medicines, it is sufficient to merit informing people of their intake of the metal so as to be able to make their own decision. For further recommendations, more studies on this problem are necessary.