Does copper play a harmful role in occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia in the world? Scientists are divided on the answer after the publication of a new American study which suspects the accumulation of copper in the blood to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Rashid Deane, professor of medicine at the Center for Neurosurgery at Rochester University Medical Center in the United States concludes in this work that “over time, the cumulative effect of copper affects the system that eliminates the protein from the brain. beta-amyloid which is toxic and plays a key role in Alzheimer’s.
Copper is naturally present in the brain where it contributes to the proper functioning of the brain by protecting neurons from oxidation. But in too high a quantity, copper would prove to be a toxic element and would promote the assembly in the form of plaques of the beta-amyloid protein. In the reports of the American National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researcher, who carried out his work on mice and human brain cells, points the finger at the excess of copper, “one of the key environmental factors which causes the accumulation of this protein in the brain, where it forms plaques characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease “.
Problem, the thesis of Dr Deane is undermined by a study last February, carried out by the University of Keele, in the United Kingdom. In the journal Nature, the authors state that copper cannot be faulted since the amount of copper in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s is “lower than in normal subjects”. According to Christopher Exley, one of the researchers, copper would rather a protective effect: “Research including ours shows that copper prevents the formation of beta-amyloid plaques”, claiming to have carried out this work on 60 human brains of people who died of Alzheimer’s or a related pathology.
Who is telling the truth? No study allows us to decide in the heart of the matter. But reading Dr. Deane’s findings one can only wonder about the supposed links between the Alzheimer’s disease epidemic and the use of copper piping. Dr Deane’s controversial results are in fact based on doses of copper similar to those that are normally ingested through normal consumption of tap water. Not very reassuring.
