🚀 go-pugleaf

>http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994045
>
>Researchers first noticed that the rabbits they use to model
>Alzheimer's disease developed fewer plaques in their brains when they
>drank distilled water rather than tap water. These insoluble plaques,
>generated in the rabbits via a high-cholesterol diet, are a trademark
>of the degenerative illness.
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/1832769100v1

An important take-home detail in the study above was the association
between distilled water and reduced Abeta accumulation. The following
abstract appears to refer to the same rabbit study prior to isolation
of copper as the likely causal agent. The following abstract
concludes: 

  "These findings suggest that water quality may impact 
  on human health in the setting of increased circulating
  cholesterol levels, and could illustrate a truly simple 
  life-style change that could be of benefit in AD."

 
J Alzheimers Dis. 2002 Dec;4(6):523-9.  

Water quality has a pronounced effect on cholesterol-induced
accumulation of Alzheimer amyloid beta (Abeta) in rabbit brain.

Sparks DL, Lochhead J, Horstman D, Wagoner T, Martin T.

Sun Health Research Institute, Sun City, Arizona 85351, USA.

Increased circulating cholesterol is known to promote risk of coronary
artery disease. It is now emerging that cholesterol promotes
production and accumulation of amyloid beta (Abeta) deposited in the
hallmark pathologic lesion of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the senile
plaque, perhaps by shifting away from normal metabolism of amyloid
beta protein precursor (AbetaPP) to beta. Previous studies employing
the cholesterol-fed rabbit model of AD demonstrated that induction of
AD-like Abeta accumulation in brain could be reversed by
co-administration of cholesterol lowering drugs or removing
cholesterol, prompted initiation of an AD Cholesterol-Lowering
(Statin) Treatment Trial. We now present data that identify a
previously unrecognized role for dietary water quality on the severity
of neuropathology induced by elevated cholesterol. Neuronal
accumulation of Abeta induced by increased circulating concentrations
of cholesterol in the New Zealand white rabbit is attenuated when
distilled drinking water is administered compared to use of tap water.
The numbers of neurons in cholesterol-fed rabbits that exhibited Abeta
immunoreactivity, relative to normal chow-fed controls, increased
approximately 2.5 fold among animals on tap water but only
approximately 1.9 fold among animals on distilled water. This yielded
a statistically significant approximately 28% reduction due to the use
of distilled water. In addition, the subjectively assessed intensity
of neuronal Abeta immunoreactivity was consistently reduced among
cholesterol-fed rabbits allowed distilled drinking water compared to
cholesterol-fed rabbits on tap water. As intensity of antibody
immunoreactivity is likely related to concentration of antigen, the
identified difference among cholesterol-fed rabbits allowed distilled
drinking water may hold greater importance than a significant
reduction in numbers of affected neurons. The effect on neuronal Abeta
immunoreactivity intensity was observable among cholesterol-fed
rabbits reared and allowed tap water when performing studies in three
distinct locales. Pilot data suggest the possibility of increased
clearance of Abeta from the brain, identified as increased blood
levels, among cholesterol-fed rabbits administered distilled water
compared to animals on tap water. The agent(s) occurring in tap water,
excluded by distillation, promoting accumulation of neuronal Abeta
immunoreactivity is(are) yet undisclosed, but arsenic, manganese,
aluminum, zinc, mercury, iron and nitrate have tentatively been
excluded because they were not identifiable (below detection limits)
in the tap water of the three locales where the cholesterol-induced
neuropathologic difference was observable. These findings suggest that
water quality may impact on human health in the setting of increased
circulating cholesterol levels, and could illustrate a truly simple
life-style change that could be of benefit in AD.

PMID: 12515903 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12515903&dopt=Abstract



>  Also see:
>
>  Aluminum and Alzheimer's disease:
>http://www.google.com/groups?selm=gq8havshkhetd6s78ctbgvc8iev0gtma1n%404ax.com
>
>  Iron and Alzheimer's disease:  
>http://www.google.com/groups?selm=bhfmiv867s916mglu8ioerf60ninn8b2hs%404ax.com
>
>  Mercury and Alzheimer's disease:
>http://www.google.com/groups?selm=3af37029.2307577%40news.erols.com
>
>
>  http://IanGoddard.net/journal.htm
>
>  "To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals." Ben Franklin
>
>  Ongoing CR-monkey-study update: "In the monkeys...those on
>  reduced feeding since the study started are dying at a rate 
>  that is about half that of the monkeys receiving a full food
>  ration." Associated Press: Eating less may extend human life.
>  August 1, 2002 : http://www.msnbc.com/news/788746.asp?0si=- 
>
>