Aluminum, Urine
The major tissue sites of aluminum toxicity are the nervous system, immune system, bone, liver, and red blood cells. Aluminum may also interfere with heme (porphyrin) synthesis. Consequences of aluminum toxicity are encephalopathy and abnormal speech, myoclonic jerks, convulsions, and a predisposition to osteomalacic fractures.
Exposure to aluminum is ubiquitous via food, water, air and soil. Aluminum is used to produce beverage cans, cooking pots, siding, roofing, aluminum foil and airplanes. Further, it is found in antacids, buffered aspirin, food additives (especially in grains and cheeses), astringents, vaccinations, cat litter, antiperspirants, infant formula, and baking soda.
Aluminum has been detected in calcium, magnesium, and phosphate salts used in parenteral solutions, and it has been found high in lung tissue as a result of tobacco and cannabis smoke inhalation.
When aluminum is used in water treatment facilities, concentration in community water supplies can reach 93 µmol/L (2,500 µg/L).
Though not proven as a causative agent, it is striking that the neurofibrillary tangles of neurons that characterize the brains of Alzheimer’s patients (as well as in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases) accumulate aluminum.
A study group with aluminum exposure had higher vanylmandelic and homovanillic acids in urine and were significantly different from controls on neurobehavioral tests. Aluminum replaces calcium in bone, disrupting normal osteoid formation and mineralization.
Assessing copper, zinc, and iron status helps to determine a patient’s vulnerability to the toxic effects of aluminum, and appropriate elemental treatments may help to overcome aluminum toxicity. Testing for anemia is indicated in patients with high RBC, plasma, or serum aluminum. Higher plasma aluminum is seen in infants fed soy formula compared with breast-fed infants. Serum, erythrocyte, and plasma aluminum levels appear to correlate. Serum aluminum levels above 5 μmol/L (135 μg/L) are predictive of aluminum toxicity. Testing for anemia is indicated in patients with high blood levels of aluminum. High hair aluminum has been shown in aluminum toxicity and therefore, a high value in hair likely reflects a regular source of exposure and should be eliminated. Urinary aluminum can provide information about aluminum intake and has been used to monitor humans exposed to dangerous amounts of aluminum. Because aluminum is ubiquitous in the environment, contamination of a patient’s specimen with aluminum is possible when collection containers are opened in living and work environments.
Desferrioxamine (DFO) is a chelator of aluminum and iron that has been used to treat acute aluminum toxicity. In fact, cases of aluminum toxicity are managed similarly to iron toxicity. DFO decreased RBC and plasma aluminum and improved hemoglobin, hematocrit, and mean cell volume in 13 patients.
Chelation treatment with desferrioxamine should be handled conservatively due to the risk of inadvertently mobilizing large amounts of aluminum to the brain, which may enhance encephalopathy or a chemical interaction.
The chelator, L1 (1,2-dimethyl-1,3-hydroxypyrid-4-one deferiprone or DMHP) has also been used to lower aluminum total-body burden. Ascorbate combined with DFO has been used to remove aluminum from human brain cells. Glycine has been used to help mobilize aluminum. As discussed above, it is important to assure adequate status of essential elements (calcium, iron, copper, zinc). Silicon is an antagonist of aluminum. Further testing of an aluminum-toxic patient might involve measurement of bone resorption, urinary catecholamines, oxidative stress, and even vitamin D.
What does it mean if your Aluminum, Urine result is too high?
Associated Symptoms and Diseases:
Abnormal speech, myoclonic jerks, osteomalacia, progressive encephalopathy, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease
Sources:
Aluminum cookware, antacids, drinking water, tobacco, and cannabis smoke
Protective Measures:
Adequate iron (check ferritin), glycine, calcium, phosphorus (lowers intestinal absorption)
Chelating Agents:
DFO, DMHP
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When ingested aluminum (Al) is primarly excreted through urine, meaning high toxicology readings of aluminum in an individual's urine is an effective indicator of abnormally high amounts of aluminum intake.
Bioavailable aluminum can be contracted through a series of commonly found sources. Urban drinking water is often treated with aluminum to disinfect it against harmful organisms and improve water clarity, while some cosmetics, especially deodorants, contain aluminum for its antiperspirant qualities.
Aluminum is known to leach from cookware, such as frying pans and coffee pots, meaning these aluminum appliances will dissolve some of their metal into the foods they cook, especially in highly acidic foods like tomato.
Aluminum accumulates in the body throughout a person's lifetime, with an abundance of aluminum potentially leading to the development of multiple negative symptoms. For example, aluminum as an element is naturally drawn to phosphorous molecules, and on a cellular level the nucleus contains the highest concentration of phosphate within a cell, causing cases of elevated aluminum levels to disrupt the formation of proteins within the body.
Aluminum is also speculated to be a neurotoxin that potentially contributes to the cause of Alzheimer's disease. Fatigue, porphyria, and hypophosphatemia are all possible results of excessive aluminum levels as well.
If necessary, a hair element test is another efficient means of determining an individual's exposure to aluminum.
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