Drinking a quart of mineral water a day can prevent and even reverse Alzheimer’s disease, according to British researchers.
A study published in Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that silicon-rich water can remove aluminum from the bodies of those suffering from the brain disease. Aluminum has long been implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s, although it is not known if it actually causes the disease.
After drinking about a quart of mineral water each day for 13 weeks, the amount of toxic aluminum in one patient’s body dropped by 70 percent. Others also showed large reductions in the metal. Researchers believe that it is the silicon in mineral water that removes aluminum.
Professor Christopher Exley of Keele University led the research and he said the results gave hope of finding simple ways to fight Alzheimer’s.
“There were two parts to our research,” he said. “The first is that drinking silicon water does remove aluminum from the body. When you drink silicon-rich mineral water, aluminum throughout the body is gathered up into the blood and excreted through the urine.
“The second was looking at cognitive abilities of people with Alzheimer’s and whether this changed as aluminum was reduced. We did see this potential relationship between the removal of aluminum and improvement in cognitive function.”
“It is highly unlikely to see changes over such a short period, so the fact we saw changes in cognitive ability was quite a surprise.”
Most Alzheimer’s patients in the study showed no further signs of cognitive decline and some showed major improvement.
The brand of mineral water used in the study is called Spritzer, from Malaysia, which may be hard to find. But Exley said that most mineral waters have similar silicon levels, including Fiji water, which is widely available in the U.S.