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David G. Munoz, MD, FRCPC
From the Departments of Pathology and Clinical Neurological Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.

Arch Neurol. 1998;55:737-739.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

THE HYPOTHESIS that aluminum is involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease (AD) rests on 3 connected issues: the toxicity of aluminum, elevation of levels of aluminum in the brains of patients with AD, and increased prevalence of AD in geographic regions where levels of aluminum in drinking water are high. Although the title of this article refers only to the third issue, all 3 are so interlocked that they must be examined together.

The aluminum hypothesis originated in 1965 with the discovery that injections of aluminum salts in the brains or cerebrospinal fluid of rabbits induce a progressive encephalopathy that is associated with the development of lesions reminiscent of neurofibrillary tangles.^1-2 The scientific community's excitement in response to this discovery waned as more sophisticated electron microscopy and the development of immunohistochemistry showed that aluminum-induced tangles are made up of bundles of normal neurofilaments, in . . . [Full Text of this Article]