Does Laundry detergent cause Alzheimer's?


About 1980 it was noticed that the phosphate used  in laundry detergents was causing algae blooms after it was discharged into rivers and lakes.      This  lead to it being replaced with chemicals called surfactants that had the ability to dissolve oil and grease as well as dirt.    

Farmers also used phosphates and spread it on fields where it again could run off into  rivers but there never was much of a movement to limit the use of phosphate in farming.

Perhaps it was a coincidence that beginning in 1984 the incidence of Alzheimer's began to rise.    

I found a website that listed Alzheimer's deaths for each country and noticed that it seems it is only the first world countries that  have a high rate of Alzheimer's deaths.(1)     Third world countries do not.    This fact together with the  knowledge that Alzheimer's disease exploded starting in 1985 or so led me to believe that somehow our environment had changed and we are now exposed to some type of toxin that causes Alzheimer's.    Another important  fact is that woman are twice as likely to have Alzheimer's as men.    This points to exposure to chemicals used in cleaning homes,  washing dishes and doing laundry. 

The brain is encased in a blood brain barrier which protects it from toxic materials in the body.    This means that either people with Alzheimer's  are exposed to toxic materials that find their way through the blood brain barrier or other chemicals that are not toxic damage the blood brain barrier so other toxins can pass through it.

Returning again to the fact that rich countries have high Alzheimer's rates it turns out that there is one exception.    The is Singapore, a very rich country with very low Alzheimer's.      But Singapore is a very fussy country.   They ban chewing gum.   They cane people.    They fine you if you jaywalk.    They condemn cars if they are too old.    and more.   Is it possible that Singapore bans toxic materials that cause Alzheimer's?   Another fact about Singapore,  they  use  phosphate in their laundry detergent.    

As I looked into replacements for phosphate i came with something called surfactants.    These chemicals have a molecule that can attach to a water molecule on one end and attach to a oil molecule on the other.    Thus they make good detergents and are used on many of our detergents.

  An interesting issue was raised when I googled  the term "surfactants blood brain barrier".    It seems that surfactants are also used in making drugs.    They are added to drugs  to allow them to pass through the blood brain barrier  into the brain.  One link (2)  about a surfactant called Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate or (SDS)  is used for this purpose.  The abstract ends with  "one can suggest that intracarotid infusion of SDS might provide a useful clinical approach for the intentional introduction of different substances into the brain"     Another link (3) talks about using the same surfactant  as both a cleaning agent and a food additive.      

So to me it appears possible that by eliminating phosphate from our laundry detergent and other soaps we forced a switch to surfactants that may enable toxic materials to travel into the brain.      If so one possible solution to this problem might be to switch back to a phosphate based detergent.   I found such a detergent  on the web and have purchased it.    Now we use it for our laundry.    The source is given in link (4).

There are of course many other surfactants with different uses.   

AR






1)
http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/alzheimers-dementia/by-country/
(2)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9262210
(3)  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_dodecyl_sulfate

(4)   
https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-20687/Cleaning-Supplies/Uline-Powder-High-Efficiency-Detergent-50-lb-Pail?pricode=WB1192&gadtype=pla&id=S-20687&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2f7bBRDVARIsAAwYBBtIgylN3_DgFUEPGd5wetsnDuLfUe_vbvxZBpj-cMkBCf680X48RfwaAjTqEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds



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