Currently, an increasing number of various mental disorders, brain diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and others, makes scientists intensify their efforts on identifying the mechanisms and finding the treatments that will possibly prevent and reverse that development of these serious health conditions. According to the latest findings of Australian experts, such factors as the actions of minerals like zinc, copper, iron, and other metals, can play a role in the development of the mentioned degenerative diseases, as well as open the way to possible treatment development.

The experiments started with finding out that excessive amounts of such metals as copper and iron can be found in the brain of Alzheimer’s disease and other mental disease sufferers. It was also discovered that zinc is one of chemical elements that has a property to impair memory in case if it goes to a wrong area of human brain. There is no secret that metals like copper, zinc or iron, have very important functions and their ions can start chemical reactions that help our body create proteins of proper structure, as well as producing and storing proper amounts of energy. Unfortunately, aging always causes imbalances and diseases, and the levels and effects of metals in human brain can change.

In particular, excessive amounts of iron in human body can have both good and bad effects. On the one hand, this metal assists in producing energy, but on the other hand, its interaction with oxygen causes production of free radicals known as the compounds responsible for speeding up aging processes and causing irreversible cell damage. Therefore, excessive amounts of iron in the body can be very harmful and cause cell damage to the brain, resulting in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s diseases, and other mental disorders, the specialists who carried out the study underline.

Then, the study proceeded with working with the lab rats bred specially as animals unable to produce the substance known as tau protein, that is linked to such mental disprders as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. As the rats aged, they they started displaying clear signs of mental problems (memory impairment, etc.), including increased amounts of iron in the brain. After receiving a treatment helping to remove excessive amounts of iron from their brain, the symptoms started reversing. This means that there can be a similar treatment created for humans, too. Read more about the findings of Australian specialists and the perspectives to use these findings in one of the latest issues of the journal Nature Medicine.

Author Info: Hi! My name is Carla and I am a 5th year medical student at HYMS. I am interested in alternative medicine and I have done months researching the topic of herbal medicine. Besides, I like interviewing people and learning more about their experiences with one or another type of herbal treatments. I am willing to contribute to this site with my knowledge, and I would be happy to help you out to the best of my ability with any specific questions or problems related to alternative medicine.

One Response to “Metals Contribute In Mental Disease Development”

1. Chris Milton Says:
   February 12th, 2012 at 9:21 pm

   Thank you (once again) for this pointer.

   When it comes to cancer it’s well known that 95% of cancers are caused by environmental factors and that the biggest environmental carcinogen is dioxins, released into the environment from a whole host of chemical processes.

   The prevalence of dioxins around the world makes it almost impossible to conduct a scientific analysis of the impact of dioxins on human health .. where could the control group be found?

   I wonder whether we’ve reached the same point with metal contamination in our environment as well?