This written interview was done for a blog on Substack called ‘Lies are Unbekoming” https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/interview-with-dennis-n-crouse-phd?utm_source=publication-search
Dennis N Crouse is a Ph.D. chemist with an undergraduate degree in biochemistry and graduate degrees in chemistry from Harvard and post-graduate courses in Dementia at the University of Tasmania and neuroscience at Harvard. Dennis is not trained as a medical doctor and receives no financial reward for any products he recommends. Dennis provides information for educational purposes only.
Question 1: Dennis, can you please tell us about your early interest in science? How did your high school research on environmental chemicals and tissue regeneration shape your academic path?
My interest in finding environmental toxins that impact development began early in life. In seventh grade I received specialized instruction in place of the normal science curriculum and was taught how to learn science through inquiry inspired experimentation. In 9th grade I read a Scientific American article by Dr. Marcus Singer, Professor of Anatomy at Case Western Reserve, in which he found that by rerouting nerves, frogs could grow amputated fore-limbs. This was remarkable because frogs usually have only one chance to develop a new forelimb and this is during their tadpole stage.
I met with Professor Singer and explained my proposed inquiry into the effect, if any, of environmental chemicals on tissue development during regeneration in salamanders. I proposed that salamander tail regeneration could be inhibited by some common chemicals found in our environment and our grocery stores. Salamander tail regeneration simulates the developing brain of a child that has only one chance to develop properly.
Professor Singer supplied me with encouragement and the salamanders. I found that just traces of some environmental chemicals inhibited normal development of regenerating tissue. This concerned me as I wondered how these chemicals were impacting the developing brains of children. This work was noticed and concerned others. It was awarded first place in the biology division of the Eastern Iowa Science Fair three years in row. My work also resulted in me attending the U.S. National Science Fare three years in row, where this work was awarded fourth place in my junior year of high school.
Question 2: You mention that Dr. Lewis L. Engle Professor of Biological Chemistry at Harvard Medical School recommended a book to you during your first week at Harvard. How did “The Fitness of The Environment” by Lawrence J. Henderson influence your understanding of life’s chemical foundations?
It was a good recommendation because Henerson’s book inspired me to read more books and better understand how chemistry of the earth’s crust made life possible and has shaped human evolution. What I found is that oxygen and silicon are the first and second most common elements in the earth’s crust. Over time silicon became oxidized by oxygen to make silica. There are many forms of silica and one form called orthosilicic acid, or OSA for short, is found in some public drinking water and mineral waters available in grocery stores.
Aluminum is the third most common element in the earth’s crust and is neurotoxin that kills the nerves of animals. Luckily OSA detoxifies aluminum making life on earth possible. Unluckily this information is not common knowledge and aluminum is available in grocery stores in the spice aisle as alum, in the baking and condiment aisles as ingredients in baking powder and pickles, respectively, and in the “aluminum aisle” where canned beverages are sold. Since the late 1890’s the pure form of aluminum has been produced from a clay called bauxite and converted into a variety of aluminum containing products.
Question 3: Your work on PCBs in the 1970s seems to have been quite impactful. Could you share more about how you and other students set up that FDA-certified analytical laboratory and what led to Monsanto stopping PCB production?
I have always had a love for birds that was instilled in me at an early age by my mother. This interest led me in graduate school at Harvard to read a 1969 publication by Soren Jensen in the journal Nature on his finding of polychlorobiphenyls, PCBs for short, in fish-eating white tailed sea eagles in Sweden. I had never heard of PCBs until I read this publication. In fact, Rachel Carson did not mention them in her 1962 book “Silent Spring”.
In 1970 Monsanto was annually producing 85 million pounds of PCBs that are environmentally very stable and have an affinity for the brain. PCBs are nicknamed “Forever Chemicals” because once produced they slowly leak into the environment and are biomagnified in the food chain. Because humans are at the top to the food chain, the result is slow accumulation of forever chemicals in every human brain in the world.
After several workers had died due to PCB exposure, In 1937 Dr. Cecil K. Drinker of Harvard told Monsanto and Halowax that PCBs were toxic to both humans and rats and published this data in the Journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology. Monsanto and Halowax did not stop production of PCBs but in fact increased production of PCBs. In January of 1968 there was a mass PCB poisoning of people in northern Kyushu Japan. PCB exposed pregnant mothers gave birth to children with low IQ.
With the goal of getting Monsanto to stop production, in 1972 I recruited other likeminded Harvard students and setup a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA for short) certified analytical laboratory to analyze food for PCBs prior to sale to the public. For a while we were the only laboratory certified to perform this test. Because of our efforts proving the prevalence of PCBs in food it was repeatedly mentioned on TV by Walter Cronkite. Monsanto was tried in the court of public opinion and stopped production of PCBs in 1977.
It is ironic that polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS for short, another group of “Forever Chemical”, is now accumulating in human livers and brains. In 2023 PFAS concentration in maternal serum was shown to be associated with low IQ in children. The EPA alarm level for PFAS in drinking water is only 4 -10ppt depending upon the specific PFAS. However, there is currently no limit on PFAS levels in waste water sludge used as fertilizer for crops. Recently, the liver of calf that was stillborn was found by a lab at Texas A&M University to contain 610,000ppt of PFAS. The calf’s mother was feed on a crop grown on waste water sludge fertilized soil. A PFAS producer, 3M, is refusing to immediately stop production. 3M will not stop production until late 2025 or more than a year from now. The court of public opinion needs to be convened now to control PFAS producers before it is too late.
In 2017 it was found and published that post coagulation sludge used as a fertilizer is a source of bioavailable aluminum, especially when aluminum salts are used as coagulants during water and waste water treatment. Currently there is no limit on aluminum levels in waste water sludge used as fertilizer. The court of public opinion has forced some U.S. grocery chains, such as Whole Foods, to state a new policy: they will not sell food grown on land fertilized with waste water sludge.
Question 4: Your career has spanned from detecting toxic chemicals in food to aluminum corrosion in beverage cans. How do you see these experiences connecting to your later work on Alzheimer’s disease?
In the early 1980s I worked for a company that produced undersea data logging equipment for measuring chemical and physical properties of sea water. Sea water is very corrosive to metal equipment as the metal slowly dissolves due to corrosion. In order to understand how fast metals were corroding/dissolving I developed a computerized instrument to measure corrosion rates. I found that certain ions significantly enhance the corrosion rate of aluminum, such as fluoride and organic acids. Also, high temperatures enhance the corrosion rate of aluminum. Cooking in an aluminum pan with normal tap water containing a trace of fluoride results in an aluminum enriched soup.
Looking back on my life I am surprised I had a working brain. My mother cooked in aluminum pans with fluoride containing tap water. Also, my mother served tap water in aluminum drink cups. I drank from countless aluminum beverage cans. My mother’s drip style coffee maker heated tap water to boiling in an aluminum tube below the warming tray. Aluminum was high on my list of suspects when my mother was diagnosed at 85 with MCI and later with AD due to her accelerated brain atrophy.
Question 5: Your mother’s diagnosis with mild cognitive impairment seems to have been a turning point in your research. Can you walk us through how that personal experience led to your deep dive into Alzheimer’s literature?
A turning point in my life was 2012 as I had been retired for a year. I had more time for my family than ever before and began calling my mother and father on a regular basis. During these calls I noticed my mother at age 85 was not consolidating memories. She could carry on a conversation but could not remember what we talked about the day before. She preferred to talk about the distant past and not the present. I had to call early in the day as by late afternoon she was too tired to carry on a conversation. She had been an assistant accountant but could no longer balance the check book. She was a seamstress and could no longer operate a sewing machine. In 2012 she was diagnosed by a doctor with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and sundowners. Later she was diagnosed with accelerated brain atrophy and AD.
The doctors said there was no known cause and cure for her condition and with her rapid rate of declining cognition and brain atrophy she would die of AD. I decided to develop a research focus with the goal of finding the cause of mother’s AD as only then could I find a cure for my mother.
Question 6: You’ve written extensively about orthosilicic acid (OSA). For our readers who might not be familiar, could you explain what OSA is and why you consider it a “miracle molecule”?
OSA (Si(OH)4) is silicon dioxide (SiO2) hydrated with two water molecules. OSA has a solubility in water of 200ppm. In the U.S. 160ppm of dissolved silicates such as OSA is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) to drink by the FDA. OSA is found in some mineral waters available at the local grocery store. For example, Fiji water is available in the U.S and contains 149ppm of silica as OSA that equals 93ppm of non-hydrated SiO2 as stated on the label. The amount of OSA in water is easily measured because it forms a blue complex in the presence of acidified heptomolybdate. Using this assay with a spectrophotometer and a commercially available 80ppm OSA NIST-traceable SiO2 standard, I measured 146ppm of OSA in Fiji water.
OSA is a “miracle molecule” for the following reasons:
A complete list of bottled waters sold in the world is provided in Appendix I of my book “Silica Water The Secret of Healthy Longevity in the Aluminum Age” and at my website’s blog: www.prevent-alzheimers-autism-stroke.com.
I have assayed virtual all silica supplements on the market for OSA released after 24 hours of exposure to simulated gastric acid and found they release too little OSA to be efficacious in facilitating the removal of aluminum. In fact, my mother took choline stabilized OSA for a year before beginning on Fiji water and she had no observable improvement. This is because you can only take 10 drops a day and the bioavailability of choline stabilized OSA is only 17% compared to 43% with mineral water.
Question 7: In your research, you’ve connected aluminum exposure to Alzheimer’s disease. What evidence do you find most compelling in this relationship?
Compelling evidence requires proving causality. Causality is more than an association, correlation, or connection. It is proof that A causes B. Methods to prove causality in medical science have been developed and tested over the last 60 years. When I began searching for the cause of AD, I first turned to papers applying the Hill criteria. In 1965 Sir Austin Bradford Hill specified nine criteria that could be used in order to establish causality. In 2001 Robert Van Reekum further developed Hill’s criteria by applying them to neuropsychiatric disorders caused by traumatic brain injury.
My search for AD causality began in 2012 but in 2014 as luck would have it a paper was published by an Australian Scientist Dr. J. R. Walton that allowed me to better connect the recent research that I had read. Dr. Walton is on the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales at St Georges Hospital in Sydney. The title of Dr. Walton’s paper is “Chronic Aluminum Intake Causes Alzheimer’s Disease: Applying Sir Austin Bradford Hill’s Causality Criteria”. Dr. Walton proved using data from both animal and human studies that aluminum causes AD. After reading Dr. Walton’s paper I decided to apply the Hill’s causality criteria to just human data on aluminum and AD. This application of Hill’s criteria is published in my 2016 book “Preventing Alzheimer’s, Autism, and Stroke”. Dr. Walton peer reviewed checked a draft of this book prior to publication.
In 2015 Kristin Fedak described Hill’s criteria as a framework for causal inference applied to exposure-response associations in human disease. In 2018 I began a process similar to climbing a ladder using casual inference to prove that chronic aluminum exposure causes AD:
First, there exists a statistically significant dose response relationship between aluminum in drinking water and the risk of AD. This data is from the 8 largest published epidemiology studies involving 200 to 9,500 cases of AD/dementia. The 7 smaller published studies, involving only 14 to 109 cases of AD/dementia, are susceptible to type II statistical error: failing to observe a dose response when one actually exists.
Second, using data from several large epidemiology studies, proves that drinking water with OSA above a certain level lowers the risk of AD in spite of the presence of aluminum in the drinking water.
Third and most compelling data for aluminum causing AD, is aluminum accumulation in the human brain is a biomarker of AD. Autopsy and analysis of 242 brains of people diagnosed with AD, as reported in six studies have revealed in all cases AD brains had accumulated more than normal levels of aluminum. The areas of the human brain that accumulate the most aluminum are the same areas of the brain that have more accelerated brain atrophy than normal.
Then steps 3 – 17 are presented to prove that all 15 biomarkers of aluminum are mediators of aluminum causing either AD or just the biomarker.
Steps 18 – 21 are presented to show that aluminum causes all microscopically observable or histochemical biomarkers markers of AD.
Finally, steps 22-24 prove three proposed narratives on beta-amyloid and not aluminum being a cause of AD are false narratives or in another word “counterfactuals”:
Complete referenced details are in my 2022 book “Finding a Cause and Potential Cures for Alzheimer’s Disease”.
Question 8: Your work has led to the development of the “Crouse Protocol” for reversing mild cognitive impairment and preventing Alzheimer’s. Could you walk us through the key components of this protocol, explaining how you determined which nutritional supplements to include, and discuss whether you see these elements as equally crucial or if some play a more pivotal role than others in cognitive health?
Dr. Philippe Grandjean coined the term “brain drainers” for a group of chemicals and viruses that cause cognitive decline in children and adults and lower IQ in newly born babies. Dr. Grandjean asked a simple question “Could science develop some kind of antidote to counteract brain drain?” The answer is yes and it has been developed. I suggest that people daily take five “brain savers” that are targeted to facilitate targeted detoxification and elimination of “brain drainers”. These targeted brain savers are both essential nutrients and the most important part of the Crouse protocol:
Next most important part of the Crouse protocol is improving mitochondrial energy production with two brain savers that are produced by the body. The bodies production of these brain savers declines with age:
In addition, I recommend 3 brain savers for lowering homocysteine to protect your vascular system because without a working vascular system your brain will not function properly:
I also recommend 3 brain savers for increased production of neurons by a process called neurogenesis:
Finally, eliminate sources of aluminum exposure – see question 11
Question 9: Your books cover a wide range of topics from Alzheimer’s to autism and stroke. How do you see these conditions interconnecting in your research?
The interconnection is aluminum. Aluminum is a causal factor of Alzheimer’s, autism, and hardening of the arteries leading to chronic heart disease and stroke.
Question 10: You’ve been critical of some commonly prescribed medications for mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s. Could you explain your concerns about these drugs?
Memantine (tradename Namenda) is medication approved by the FDA for those with Alzheimer’s disease. This drug may be effective for treatment of behavioral (for example aggression and agitation) and psychological symptoms in those with AD but not cognitive symptoms (for example memory). People with amnestic MCI, like my mother, have lost the ability to consolidated memories because aluminum inhibits expression of protein subunits that comprise receptors on hippocampal neuronal synapses called NMDAR. Without working NMDAR you can not recall what happened a few hours ago. Aluminum and memantine both cause cognitive decline by inhibiting NMDAR in the hippocampus. Research shows taking Memantine increases rate of cognitive decline in AD patients and results in greater cognitive decline as compared with untreated AD patients.
The following cholinesterase inhibitors are medications approved by the FDA:
Galantamine (tradename Razadyne) is approved by FDA for treatment of vascular dementia and mild to moderate AD. It enhances memory in brain-damaged adults.
Rivastigmine (tradename Excelon) is approved for mild to moderate AD.
Donepezil (tradename Aricept) is approved to treat all stages of AD.
Acetylcholine is the primary neurotransmitter of the parasympathetic nervous system. This is a network of nerves that helps the body relax and conserve energy by slowing the heart, dilating blood vessels, and increasing digestive juices. Choline is required to make acetylcholine inside parasympathetic nerves and this acetylcholine is released from the nerve into cholinergic synapses in order to make the parasympathetic network function. Because of limited choline it must be recycled and this process is inhibited by both aluminum and cholinesterase inhibitors. Therefore, it is not surprising that research shows taking cholinesterase inhibitors increases rate of cognitive decline and results in greater cognitive decline in AD patients as compared with untreated AD patients.
Anti-beta-amyloid Monoclonal Antibodies lower beta-amyloid derivatives in the body and in one case has received accelerated approval by the FDA for treatment of AD. This approval is based upon an unproven theory called the “Amyloid Hypothesis” that beta-amyloid causes AD. This approval was not based upon the efficacy of the drug because there was no significant cognitive improvement in people tested. In fact, there has been no significant cognitive improvement in seventeen Phase III randomized controlled trials of this type of drug involving 12,585 AD patients. However, there have been brain bleeds, accelerated brain atrophy, and deaths due to the use of this type of drug. In spite of these negative results, drug companies with the help of the Alzheimer’s Association are continuing to recruiting people for testing this type of drug.
Question 11: Your work emphasizes the importance of detoxification, particularly from aluminum. How do you recommend people reduce their aluminum exposure in daily life?
My wife, Laurie Adamson, has become an expert on reducing aluminum exposure in daily life so she can better answer this question than myself:
“The first step in reducing your aluminum is to identify sources of aluminum you are being exposed to especially ones you ingest or use on a daily basis. In most cases you can find a safer alternative. There is a list of sources of aluminum which includes safer alternatives and a table of how much aluminum the sources contain at our website. There are You Tube videos at my channel and Dennis’ channel.
Here are major sources: drinking water that is treated with aluminum salts, aluminum cookware, aluminum containing baking powder, most drip style coffee makers, antiperspirants, some antacids, drinks in aluminum cans, aluminum foil, products for detoxing that contain zeolites in any form, most clays such as bauxite, diatomaceous earth, fluoride filters that remove aluminum with alumina (aluminum oxide), some food dyes, some e cigarettes, plants that are aluminum accumulators including: tobacco, soy, marijuana, tea, and coffee.
Start by eliminating daily sources and the sources that have the most aluminum. Go slowly with identifying and making changes When Dennis and I first learned of how many processes in our body aluminum interferes with we went overboard. We wanted to identify all the sources we were being exposed to and replace them with safer alternatives to avoid them. It can be overwhelming because there are so many sources. For example, if you have aluminum pots and pans replace the ones you use daily first.
Here are words to look for as ingredients in products you should avoid:
· Alum – aluminum salt used in baking powder and used for making pickles, used in some deodorants (advertised as ‘natural’)
· Alumina and aluminum oxide – in drinking water fluoride filters releasing aluminum fluoride
· Aluminum chloride and chlorohydrate – used in deodorants and absorbed through skin
· Aluminum hydroxide – used as an antacid that releases aluminum if acidified in the stomach
· Lake or Aluminum lake – used to color pharmaceuticals, lipstick, and candy
· Aluminum phosphate – used as an adjuvant in some vaccines slowly releasing aluminum ions
· Aluminum starch octenylsuccinate – used in cosmetics and absorbed through skin
· Aluminum zirconium compounds – used in deodorants and absorbed through skin
· Modified food starch – aluminum starch octenylsuccinate used in food
· Sodium aluminum phosphate – SALP is used in baking powder and cheese spreads”
Question 12: You’ve developed a recipe for “Silicade,” a homemade silica-rich water. Could you tell us more about this and why you believe it’s beneficial?
In 2014 my wife and I decided to start drinking OSA rich water on a daily basis. A cost calculation revealed it is much less expensive to make OSA enriched tap water than purchase bottled water and it is more sustainable. I developed a safe and quick method to make what I called Silicade that contains the same concentration of OSA as Fiji water. My wife and I have been drinking 3 to 4 cups a day of Silicade for 10 years while watching our declining body-burden of aluminum with 24-hour urine tests. We now have a lower body-burden of aluminum than people 50 years younger and we are in excellent health having low blood pressure, no serious medical conditions, and hiking every week with people 50 years younger.
Because we are exposed to many sources of aluminum, I recommend that even healthy people drink silica rich water on a daily basis. Aluminum plays a proven causal role in a number of human diseases and syndromes. By eliminating aluminum with OSA rich silica water you can lower your risk of getting the following:
Silicade is made from a powdered silicate that can be safely measured with small dash and smidgen spoons available from three companies: Yellrin, Beryler, and Dostien. My method to make Silicade from powdered silicate is unlike the classic method used by researchers to make OSA rich water in their laboratories that dilutes and acidifies water glass. Water glass is a very basic liquid containing concentrated silicate. In eight grade I became interested in building an electric arc furnace in order to melt silicon dioxide (SiO2) for chemical experiments. I built the furnace in one of my mother’s large clay flower pots and I lined it with a mixture of fire clay and water glass purchased at the local hardware store. I learned that water glass is likely to be spilled and that it is very difficult to clean up after a spill making it unsafe to handle.
The recipe for Silicade is free at the website: https://prevent-alzheimers-autism-stroke.com/silicade/There is a You Tube video on how to make Silicade and also a Silicade recipe and the procedure I used to analyze Silicade for OSA is in my book “Silica Water the Secret of Healthy Longevity in the Aluminum Age”.
Question 13: Your research touches on the potential benefits of silica water for autism spectrum disorders. What has been the response from the autism community to your work?
I presented the data that supports aluminum being a causal factor of autism in Chapter 9 of my 2016 book “Prevent Alzheimer’s Autism and Stroke”. Chris Exley peer reviewed a draft of this book prior to publication. A year later in 2017 Mathew Mold and Chris published the results of a brain analysis of 5 individuals with confirmed ASD, 4 males and 1 female. They found in all 5 cases aluminum levels in their brains was much higher than normal.
My wife, Laurie Adamson, worked as a psychologist in the public schools and over her career she observed a rising prevalence of ASD in her school’s student population. Since 2016 my wife and others promoted the idea that children with autism would see benefit in drinking silica rich water to lower their body-burden of aluminum. This resulted in a number of success stories presented as anecdotal information in facebook groups and with parental permission these stories are in my books and at this website. https://prevent-alzheimers-autism-stroke.com/sample-page/
Some children with ASD also have seizures. Shortly after Chris Exley’s paper was published in 2017 some parents of children with autism had their children drink Fiji water. My wife found a facebook group started by a few of these parents who encouraged other parents to compare their child’s seizure frequency before and after OSA treatment. The results were a significant number of these children having a lower seizure frequency during and even after OSA treatment. Including some children whose seizures were completely eliminated. This is not surprising since primates injected with aluminum in research studies have aluminum induced seizures.
The general response from parents with autistic children is not surprisingly disbelief that a mineral water available in grocery stores can be so beneficial to their autistic child. I do recommend mothers drink OSA rich water during pregnancy and children drink OSA rich water from birth to counteract the aluminum they get from soy-based baby formula and aluminum containing vaccines. Drinking OSA may in some cases prevent autism.
Keep in mind that children only have one chance to develop a fully working brain and this begins as a fetus and ends after adolescence. Aluminum in their brain is negatively impacting this development.