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Is this, as they allude to in the article, the environmental link?

Evidence of link between exposure to aluminium and multiple sclerosis
Medical Research News
Published: Thursday, 16-Feb-2006


Scientists at Keele University in Staffordshire have discovered the first evidence of a link between human exposure to aluminium and multiple sclerosis.

Their research has demonstrated very high (up to 40 times the control level) urinary excretion of aluminium in MS, particularly so in the relapsing-remitting form of the disease. Urinary excretion of iron was also significantly elevated in MS and particularly so in the secondary progressive form of the disease.

Urinary excretion of silicon, the 'natural' antagonist to the potential toxicity of aluminium, was decreased in MS and particularly so in secondary progressive form of the disease.

The research suggests that individuals with MS have a higher body burden of aluminium and that their urinary excretion of aluminium is linked to changes taking place during the relapsing-remitting stage of the disease.

Dr Christopher Exley, Birchall Centre for Inorganic Chemistry and Materials Science, Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, Staffordshire, said: "If, as is currently believed, MS is a disorder resulting from the interplay between the environment and susceptibility genes then our observation of elevated excretion of iron may be indicative of the latter, while elevated excretion of aluminium suggests that exposure to aluminium may be the hitherto unrecognised environmental factor in MS."

Other researchers involved in the study were: Godwin Mamutse, Olga Korchazhkina, Eleanor Pye, Stanislav Strekopytov, Anthony Polwart, Clive Hawkins.

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=15956

Dunmann.

This theory makes a lot of sense to me and it may be the culprit that nailed us with MS. There is already much research pointing to aluminum as a possible influence in alzheimers disease, Parkinson's and ALS.

I consumed a lot of canned soda as a teenager which is just one place where I could have ingested excess aluminum. It is all over the place, and in such foods as water, dairy, grains, fruits and vegetables.

I look forward to more details about this theory and in particular about how to get rid of aluminum in my body.

gwa

I have to think that urinary excretion of aluminium could be the result of many factors and not necessarily the cause of ms. If this were the case, why didn't we see MS rates skyrocket when soda manufacturers switched from glass bottles to aluminum cans many years ago? Not knocking the post, just very skeptical of the aluminum causes ms theory.

thanks

First they say its mercury, now they say its aluminium, tomorrow they ll say its uranium, ore or to much breast silicon and so on!!!. One could only follow his reasoning to such kind of research that in my point of view every person with MS has MS for a different reason. Therefore I bleieve the cause are many that may be genetic reasons, or may be toxic ones from i.e. to much aluminum or to much smoking, or may also be from to much drug intake (coke ecstasy etc etc....) that seriously damage the nervous system.

Thats is the reason MS is considered to be a fingerprint disease! Everyone has it for his own reasons.

Brownsfan wrote:I have to think that urinary excretion of aluminium could be the result of many factors and not necessarily the cause of ms. If this were the case, why didn't we see MS rates skyrocket when soda manufacturers switched from glass bottles to aluminum cans many years ago? Not knocking the post, just very skeptical of the aluminum causes ms theory.

thanks

It would take time to build in your system I'd think and hasn't MS skyrocketed so to speak. I had only ever heard of it in passing in 1998 and wasn't sure what it was the first time a Dr. mentioned it to us. We had to look it up. Now it seems 100's of people in our area alone have it. Mercury and aluminium could both be part of the picture as I believe it is how each individual body handles certain toxins. Don't forget aspartame as well as caffeine and smoking.

Dear all,

Here is the BBC's article on the metals story.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4724414.stm


So just to summarise the current understanding of this disease:

you need genetic susceptibility (probably inherited from the Vikings, but those with African and Asian roots can also get MS); you need a trigger such as a virus or bacteria; you usually get it between 20-40 (although it is now recognised that very young children get MS and people in their 50s and 60s are diagnosed); it is an auto-immune disease (but some say not); it is an inflammatory disease of the CNS which leads to neuro-degeneration (although some say it is primarily a neuro-degenerative disease where inflammation gets involved); it is one disease (or some say many diseases); it is a disease of the white matter - Myelin (but grey matter is also involved); it is related to diet (or not); it is a disease caused by not enough Vit D; its is a disease involving glutamate; it is a disease involving iron and aluminium.

So it looks as if they are getting really close to the answer.

I must confess that I consume 5 cans of diet coke a week. But I only drink the contents not the aluminium can. I get my iron from spinach so will cut this out in future.

Ian

Well aren't we just saying, on another board, that "the writing is on the wall for MS?!!!

I am just as confused as everyone here but I had this sort of blind hope!

Surely all these factors have something in common - they are toxic.

Go back to the diet we had a century ago, these things weren't as prevalent, which explains the increase in MS. Maybe a particular virus makes our bodies more susceptible to the effects of toxic substances, so we can no longer cope and the MS happens?

J.

I think that a virus plays a very big role in the whole siuation, well at least for my situation. My story goes like this

I am now 27 years old. From 12 I use to be a strong soccer athlete smoker however from 17 I use to be a heave smoker too (two packs a day average). Unfortunatley, when I reached the age of 21-22 I realised that my body could not cope with the smoking toxins as well as other people could,(too much spitting (sorry) in the morning and heavy breathing).

When I reached 24 something weird happened to me after i lit a cigarrete which made me feel sick for a couple of weeks. Went to the docks, made my examination and guess... they found that I had that Epstein Barr virus (EPB) thing. It took me about 5 months to get over it which fortunately I did and managed to finish my masters.

After 2 Years (26 years old) I had my first MS attacks.

Therefore, I agree to the whole virus thing, it matches up pefect with my situation.

Sorry just a mistyping error. I did not use to be an athlete smoker at 12. I used to be an athlete at soccer (reached semi-pro at 17 years old)

Secondly, from the time I was diagnosed with that naughty EPB virus thing I till the thime i was diagnosed with MS I always felt a strange sensation that somethings wrong with my brain (in terms of the nervous system I suppose), and my eyes were alittle blurish. This sensation were triggered by the time I got the EPB naughty thingi.

ANYBODY else had experience with naughty viruses???

Staiko,

You mentioned EBV and a possible link with MS. Atttached is a thread I started on viruses and many recalled a run in with Glandular Fever (as we call it in the UK), or Mono (as it is called in the US).

I am fortunate that I am in contact with one of the UK's MS experts. He has organised a thinktank in the Spring on EBV and MS. EBV may not be the trigger for all cases of MS but I think it plays a role in many. No-one is sure if it upsets the immune system or whether it stays in the Central Nervous System. But viruses are in the CNS - the JC virus was the cause of PML seen in the Tysabri trials. Recent research suggested that Cerebral Palsy probably results from the mother getting a virus during pregnancy.

http://www.thisisms.com/modules.php?nam ... pic&t=1852


Getting back to aluminium. My neuro had seen the results but said he would be surprised if the results would be replicated in further trials / tests.


Ian

Thanks for posting me the EBV thread and Sorry for babbling about my history!

Hmmmm, interesting. My mom has an MS diagnosis and recently she saw my Lyme doctor who tested her for metals. Everything was pretty much in the normal range including mercury, but guess what? She was high in aluminum! We were thinking what an odd metal to be high in, how do you end up with elevated aluminum? She isn't a canned soda drinker, but she did say that since my dad passed away 2 years ago she does sometimes leave food in cans and eats them later, would that do it? She had the MS diagnosis way before that.

The main ingredient of anti-persperants is aluminium! It doesn't need to be from canned drinks does it? Can't we get it from toxic stuff we put on our skin?

J.

Also, a considerable amount of cookware is made from aluminum and I believe most baking powder also has aluminum in it.

Cindy

I once read this very interesting article in a newspaper (6 months ago) from a very famous politician that spoke about a very big thing that is going on from the secret goverment agencies that involved experiments with aluminium in most of the big cities England, USA, Canada, SPain etc.

The Experiment involved the following facts:

Firstly has anybody noticed the airplanes that fly in the sky leave this whit tail that after a very short time ( 1-3 minutes) vanishes?

Well something weird is going on in the sky with many airplanes that leave a tail that vanishes after A FEW HOURS! Not only that but the tail wideness and covers large areas.

So this politician found out this weird fact and took immediat action to see what is going on. Guess what ....
For many years now the secret goverments have been spraying chemicals on us the in order to test!

You know what the most common spray on us people was? Yes ... yes you guest right ALUMINIUM!!!

You know what the goverments say all this secret thing going on?

That they are experimenting on ways to make the suns rays not get trapped on earth and cause the global warming and therefore the best way is to reflect them back into space.

And some idiot came to the idea that sparing particles of aluminium in the sky will make this happen.

AND YES THIS IS TRUE AND HAS BEEN PROVEN AND WE ARE BEING SPRAYED FOR YEARS NOW WITH ALUMINIUM AND WHO KNOWS WHAT OTHER CHEMICALS.

SO yes most of us that live in cities, will have elevated aluminium because we are breathing this s#@ every day as well as eating it etc etc.

Sorry, to babble to much but next time you are taking a walk just take a look in the sky and see if i am kidding or not!