(NaturalNews) A recent report found that 35 million people around the world have Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia. The number is expected to double every 20 years "unless there is a medical breakthrough." Dementia rates have grown 10% over what was predicted just a few years back, and this is attributed to faster than expected growth rates in developing countries. However, far more important than any medical breakthrough would be the widespread understanding of the common things people do each day that cause and contribute to brain dysfunction and dementia. The obvious next step then, is to end those destructive habits.

Aluminum in the brain is commonly associated with Alzheimer's disease and most people apply aluminum to their skin each day in the form of deodorant. Even worse, females regularly apply aluminum-based deodorant to freshly shaven pits, which are likely to have small nicks and cuts in them. Even without those little cuts, most of what is applied to the skin ends up in the bloodstream, and this applies to ingredients in lotion, make-up and to the aluminum in deodorant.

Aluminum is also common in cooking, and aluminum pots and pans are common in homes and restaurants. However, when heated, the toxic heavy metal leaches into your food and from there, it ends up inside your body.

Particularly in developing countries, toxic cookware can be the only option available. The choices are often Teflon or aluminum, both of which are associated with serious problems, and problems that are growing at tremendous rates. In fact, this may account for the unexpected increase of dementia in developing countries.

Many people also see fit to wrap, or worse, cook foods in aluminum foil. Especially when heated, the toxic heavy metal will find its way right into your diet, and perhaps become lodged in your brain. Food packaged in aluminum cans and soft drinks are also part of the problem.

Soft drinks in aluminum cans are disturbing because soft drinks are so acidic, that they are known to eat through metal. In fact, a study in 1993 showed that rats fed soda from aluminum cans had "significantly higher" levels of aluminum in their blood, liver and bones, when compared to rats fed soda from a glass bottle.

The same study found "a 69% higher bone aluminum concentration and 16% lower femur weight in rats fed aluminum canned soft drinks" when compared to rats given distilled water. The reduced femur (large leg bone) weight is likely connected to the acidic nature of soft drinks, because acids in the body contribute to bone loss. It's also interesting that in soil, aluminum is far more toxic in acidic, rather than alkaline, environments.

If there wasn't enough to be concerned about with genetically modified foods, one of the things they are working on is producing plants that can be grown in highly toxic environments. According to Wired Magazine, this includes growing our foods in areas that are polluted with aluminum. Normally, aluminum damages the plant's root structure, but they're finding ways to grow our food there anyway. A pro-GMO blog even ran an article with the title "GM Crops that Can Grow on Poisonous Soil."

Because genetically modified foods don't require labeling in much of the world, by consuming plants that have been altered to grow in poisonous environments, most people will never have a clue how they'll have been contributing to their own brain failure when it eventually comes about. Unfortunately, this particular type of brain failure will destroy your quality of life and often the quality of life of your loved ones, while sucking every penny dry for constant care.

While dementia is associated with aging, it's not really aging that gets people. It's the fact that older people have had a longer time to accumulate poisons, including aluminum, in their brains and bodies. In fact, a nine year old girl has been diagnosed with dementia, showing that age is far from the only factor in who is tormented by the disease.

The U.S. Alzheimer's Association is urging for increased spending to research the disease - from just over $400 million to one billion dollars. They want to study the plaque that develops in brains with dementia, while ignoring several studies that show aluminum causes this plaque to grow. According to Dr. John McDougall, MD, aluminum has been found at the center of each of these plaques. If Dr. McDougall is correct, it's likely that the body forms the plaque as a protective measure against the poison, and to keep it away from the tissue. But, as with many of the body's efforts to contain and protect us from the abundant poisons that the average person keeps taking in, these protective measures will cause problems over time too.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090921...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...
http://www.springerlink.com/content...
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...
http://www.rense.com/general37/alum.htm

About the author

Kim Evans is a natural health writer and author of Cleaning Up! The Ultimate Body Cleanse. Deep cleansing has helped her, personally, eliminate over a dozen problems in her own body - including several that medical professionals had said there were no solutions for, except long-term drugs.
Cleaning Up! outlines a powerful, easy to do, body cleanse. It's easy, at-home cleansing and includes colon cleansing, liver cleansing, candida cleansing and much more. It's designed to address the root causes of most all disease and offers deep detoxification that will remove more toxicity than most people think is possible... Learn more at www.cleaningupcleanse.com.