For half a century, many experts have recognized a link between Alzheimer's disease and aluminum. Since there was no definite proof, there has been no agreement in the scientific community. Now, however, a new study published in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology may provide the proof needed of aluminum's role in the mind-robbing disease.

Professor Chris Exley of the U.K.'s Keele University is sometimes known as "Mr. Aluminum" for his research. "I consider the latter as a mark of respect," he says. "I have been researching and thinking about aluminum for over thirty years, and I have published in excess of 150 scientific papers on this subject."

For more than 10 years, Exley and his group have researched the link between Alzheimer's and aluminum. "Our findings have led us to one very simple conclusion," he said.

"We must now accept that where the aluminum content of an individual's brain tissue exceeds a certain level that this aluminum will contribute toward any ongoing Alzheimer's disease in that individual."

In his study of more than 100 human brains, he found that some of the highest levels of aluminum ever found were in the brains of people who died of familial Alzheimer's disease.

Familial Alzheimer's disease is an uncommon hereditary form of the disease that strikes earlier in life, generally between 50 and 65 years of age. Symptoms may begin occurring as early as 30 years of age.

Exley's research found that the genetic predisposition to develop early onset Alzheimer's is linked to the accumulation of aluminum — through everyday exposure — in brain tissue.

"At the very least, these new results should encourage everyone and even those who have steadfastly maintained that aluminum has no role in the disease to think again," Exley wrote in The Hippocratic Post.

"I don’t believe that is the only factor, but I think it is an important one which should be considered very seriously," he wrote.

"When our new results are put into the context of what is already known about aluminum and Alzheimer’s disease, their significance becomes overwhelming and compelling."