Alzheimer's Disease: Environmental Factors and Etiologic Hypotheses

Abstract

A review of published reports on conventional and unconventional viruses, aluminum, neurotoxic metals and trace elements, neurotoxins of biological origin and immune systems, suggest that environmental factors, possibly multiple ones, play a significant role in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease. A complex interaction between genetic predisposition to this illness, natural aging processes, environmental factors over a life-time exposure and pathological alterations of the host immune system is proposed. © 1989, Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation. All rights reserved.