The clump of cells that Clara Ganhör examines under the microscope is bright red. Meanwhile, it should be slightly pink. Another sample is blue, another is soft purple. It is not a disease or gene mutation that causes the discoloration of human cells. It is the most common metal in the earth’s crust with an occurrence of eight percent: aluminum.
“We use aluminum in the food industry, but have no idea how it affects the human body,” says the 27-year-old medical scientist. She originally studied chemistry in Vienna, but “it was always clear to me that I wanted to do medical research”.
Food is the main source of aluminum intake for humans. The metal is added in the food industry so that dyes are no longer water-soluble. This effect is also used in cosmetics: “Otherwise the applied lipstick would be washed out the first time you drink it,” says Ganhör. The EU guidelines would regulate how many artificial colorings may be added to food, but not how high the aluminum content in the colors may be. Food colorings are also listed with the same E number, regardless of whether they contain aluminum or not.
Since humans absorb aluminum through food, it stands to reason that the metal and color accumulate in the digestive tract. Not at all. Not even in the brain, where a high aluminum content is suspected to be one of the causes of dementia. The results she drew from the pathological samples “surprised her,” says Ganhör. But “some very exciting tissues still have to be examined” before the precise research results can be made public.
However, one thing is certain: aluminum in deodorants was demonized for a long time. In the meantime, however, these have progressed so far that the deodorants are “safe”.
Source: Nachrichten
