Copper-which lines the pipes that carry drinking water to our homes-is a major cause of Alzheimer’s disease. The metal accumulates in the brain, and eventually causes the type of brain damage that is a hallmark of the disease.
It interferes with the brain’s normal defence system, and gathers in the blood vessels that help feed the brain, eventually causing plaques that signify Alzheimer’s.
Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Centre noted the pattern in laboratory mice that were given copper-enriched water for three months. Copper is essential for other psyiological processes, say the researchers, and our exposure to it could be controlled by eating fewer fopopds that also contain copper, such as red meats and shellfish.
(Source: PNAS, 2013; doi: 10.1073/pnas.1302212110).
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