London, Oct 12: Drinking a litre of mineral water every day can prevent and even reverse the devastating memory loss disease, Alzheimer's, British scientists have claimed.
Researchers from Keele University said the silicon-rich water can alter the course of cognitive decline in patients by removing toxic aluminium from their bodies, according to the Daily Express.
It has long been known that aluminium has some link to the development of the disease, but whether aluminium is the cause has not been established.
The researchers found that drinking water packed with silicon “significantly reduced” levels of the neurotoxin in the body of patients.
The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, said that the patients studied drank a litre of mineral water a day for 13 weeks.
The study involved 15 Alzheimer's patients and their carers or partners -- 15 women and 15 men in total.
The brand of water used was from Malaysia. But he said water sold in Britain have similar silicon levels.
One patient saw the amount of aluminium in his body drop by 70 percent. Most patients showed no further signs of cognitive decline, and three showed a major improvement.
The results gave new hope of finding simple ways to fight the disease, Christopher Exley, who led the study, was quoted as saying by the British daily.
”There were two parts to our research. The first is that drinking silicon water does remove aluminium from the body. When you drink silicon-rich mineral water, aluminium throughout the body is gathered up into the blood and excreted through the urine,” Exley said.
