Episode Details

I’m Shelley Schlender.  This is an extended interview from the report we broadcast on August 20th, 2013, about a new study from the University of Rochester that indicates that too much of an essential nutrient, copper, might promote Alzheimer’s disease.

As background Rashid Deane gave mice drinking water laced with 50 times their normal copper intake. While that sounds high, he says it was only 10% of the daily dose that the EPA considers to be within safe limits for the mice. Rashid says this amount of copper, that’s within EPA limits, led to a reduced effectiveness of the blood-brain barrier, resulting in excess copper in the blood that feeds the mice brains. This activated mop-up proteins, such as beta amyloid and prions. Some research indicates that these proteins, when working properly clear out inflammation. But the excess copper stuck to the clean-up proteins. Altered proteins then clogged receptor channels that normally allow the beta amyloid, prion proteins, and copper all to pass back down, through the blood-brain barrier, and passed to elimination channels, such as the liver. Deane suggests that all this blockage may contribute to the risk of Alzheimer’s.

Deane plans more research to determine whether people with Alzheimer’s have higher blood copper levels. He’s also exploring other substances that prevent the brain from cleansing itself of accumulating “trash.” For instance, high blood sugar levels can clog the receptors that allow toxins to leave the brain. As for copper, everyone needs and gets trace amounts from food, copper plumbing, and supplements. Dean personally points out that he has copper pipes in his home and no plans to replace them.  But given his findings, Deane suggests that for people who get enough copper in their diet, they consider reducing copper supplements for instance. 

To help clarify a couple of technical topics that we’ll mention, in his study, Deane describes how a chemical called N-acetylcysteine helps reduce detrimental effects to to buildup of copper in the brains of the mice they studied. Interestingly, doing a wikipedia search about this supplement, it became clear it’s a substance that is often used to clear out damage from an overdose of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, such as Tylenol. That led to some interesting questions along the lines of Tylenol.

Also, at the end of this interview, I asked Deane about the nature of Alzheimer’s in other animals, such as salmon. That’s because salmon is a fish that naturally develops beta-amyloid plaques in its brain as part of its normal aging pro