List,
This may be OT but this subject was aired on Aussie TV tonight, concerning  the 
accumulation of zinc and copper in the body. This coupled with Hydrogen 
Peroxide caused brain damage, resulting in Alzheimer's Disease.
I recall a lot of posts regarding combining H2o2 with CS and even ingesting 
colloidal copper.

Question is, will this be harmful to the human body and cause Alzheimer's?
Comments, or maybe point me to the newsgroup that may be more appropriate for 
this subject.
John in Australia

A Current Affair. Nine MSN
Alzheimer's disease: solving the puzzle
21 July 2004

Alzheimer's disease is gradually eating at the fabric of 150,000 Australian 
families. The impact of the condition is both cruel and frightening, 
particularly for the sufferer's loved ones. But as ACA reports, researchers 
have discovered a treatment to target the cause of disorder rather than the 
symptoms.

For Dr Ashley Bush and colleague Dr Rob Cherney, determining the cause of 
Alzheimer's was the first step in their quest to find a cure. In their search 
for answers, the pair found that Alzheimer brain tissue is speckled with 
abnormal "blobs" of a naturally occurring protein called beta amyloid. 

Initially, it was thought the clusters or plaques themselves somehow caused the 
disease but the Australian scientists looked even further. What they found was 
a high concentration of zinc within the regions of the plaques. They also found 
high levels of another metal in the body, copper.

Dr Bush and his team applied classic high school chemistry to theorise that the 
extreme concentrations of copper were in fact reacting with the protein to form 
a third lethal substance.

"The damage in Alzheimer's disease is actually caused by the invisible hydrogen 
peroxide generation that goes on in the background and can't be seen down the 
microscope," explains Dr Bush.

Hydrogen peroxide is in fact, the active ingredient in bleach.

It's estimated that for every one person with Alzheimer's, three others closest 
to them suffer a similar decline in productivity and quality of life, which is 
a ticking time bomb.

"By the age of 50, almost 50 percent of people have already got evidence of 
Alzheimer's disease in their brains," says Dr Bush. "By the age of 80, almost 
100 percent of people have got the pathology of Alzheimer's in their brain. So 
if you live long enough, you will get evidence of the damage occurring."

Bearing in mind we are living longer, by the year 2030, it's predicted we'll be 
able to fill a town the size of Geelong entirely with Alzheimer's sufferers. Dr 
Bush calls it the social meteorite because scientists can see it coming. 

But, if we've got any hope of escaping this meteorite, Bush and his team must 
prove that what's good for mice is also good for man through breeding mice 
which will develop Alzheimer's. Following this research, Bush and his team 
believe the drug Cliocwinol, or a variant, is the key. The drug was used in the 
1970s to treat diarrhoea and skin irritations.

"The available drugs had just been dealing with the symptoms of Alzheimer's 
disease rather than the underlying cause of it," says Dr Bush. "We think we've 
got the first drug that is actually dealing with the underlying biochemistry 
and showing inhibition of it and perhaps even the reversal of it [Alzheimer's]."

Extensive human trials are slated for the US and the UK next year. Australia's 
population is too small to cater for something so big, but the team did treat 
36 patients in a limited trial here recently and Dr Bush and Dr Cherney are 
even more excited.

The first sign of Alzheimer's is memory loss. Now, in an era where we're 
developing new drugs that can do something about the underlying damage to the 
brain, it's important to identify when this pathology commences as soon as 
possible. 

Dr Bush and Dr Cherney urge people to speak to their GPs if they're displaying 
any early symptoms, with the first of these drugs not likely to be available 
for the next three years.