Zinc deficiency and zinc therapy efficacy with reduction of serum free copper in Alzheimer's disease.

We are in the midst of an epidemic of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in developed countries. We have postulated that ingestion of inorganic copper from drinking water and taking supplement pills and a high fat diet are major causative factors. Ingestion of inorganic copper can directly raise the blood free copper level. Blood free copper has been shown by the Squitti group to be elevated in AD, to correlate with cognition, and to predict cognition loss. Secondly, we have shown that AD patients are zinc deficient compared to age matched controls. Zinc is important in neuronal protection. We carried out a 6-month small double blind trial of a new zinc formulation on AD patients. We found that in patients 70 years and older, zinc therapy protected against cognition decline compared to placebo controls. We also found that zinc therapy significantly lowered blood free copper levels. So zinc efficacy could be due to restoring neuronal zinc levels, to lowering blood free copper levels, or to both.