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Authoritative studies on aluminum, for doctors and patients
Aluminum is used in many childhood vaccines, ostensibly to make them work better. Much of the controversy around aluminum is because people don't realize that how it enters the body dramatically changes what it does to the body.

Aluminum can enter the body either orally, by injection into muscle tissue or by intravenous injection. If it's taken by mouth, it's virtually harmless, as almost all of it is passed in stool. If it's injected by IV, much of it is eliminated through the kidneys. But the aluminum from most vaccines enters the body by being injected into muscle tissue, from where it is transported around the body to distant organs like the spleen and brain.

Unfortunately, some cited studies report on intravenous or oral Aluminum, without regard to the fact that the aluminum from vaccines is neither of these - is intra-muscular and so is handled much differently by the body.

This confusion is sorted out in the articles below.

A pathway has been discovered in an animal model by which the intramuscular injected aluminum from vaccines is transported into the brain. To understand an overview of the problems aluminum might be causing in the brain and body, please check out this December 2019 post from Dr. Chris Exley, world expert on human exposure to aluminum with 35 years of study. Here is an excerpt:

It is clear that a vaccine including an aluminium adjuvant is an acute exposure to aluminium (read paper). The aluminium adjuvant initiates an inflammatory response in the immediate vicinity of the injection site. Myriad infiltrating cells flood the damaged area and responding to the inflammation take up adjuvant and antigen into their cytoplasm (Scientific report) though not necessarily as an adjuvant-antigen complex (read report). Adjuvant is transported to lymph glands (read article) and may also be carried in macrophages (read report) and other histiocytes throughout the body including into the brain (read article). The latter, though demonstrated in an animal model (read article) remains to be proven in humans. Vaccines that include an aluminium adjuvant are a source of aluminium to the rest of the body and this should be a concern.

The studies listed below, which most doctors don't know about, reveal the details of how vaccine aluminum affects your child's body. (If you are in the mood to see what doctors do know about vaccines, this video portrays doctors learning how to talk to their patients about vaccines. It includes an informed Mom's encounter with one of the doctors.)

Date First Author Title (click for full document) Abstract TMOV comment
2020-00-00 McFarland, Grant (USA) Acute exposure and chronic retention of aluminum in three vaccine schedules and effects of genetic and environmental variation Abstract Like the mechanisms of action as adjuvants, the pharmacodynamics of injected forms of aluminum commonly used in vaccines are not well-characterized, particularly with respect to how... Read the full abstract
2019-12-02 Exley, C (UK) Aluminium Adjuvants in Vaccines: Missing Information There is no abstract for this article. Here is the beginning of the article instead: I have been researching human exposure to aluminium for over thirty-five years. I am (sometimes affectionately)... Read the full abstract This is an up-to-date (December, 2019) report on the significance of Aluminum in vaccines by the world expert, Dr. Chris Exley, Professor in Bioinorganic Chemistry Keele University; Honorary... Read the full TMOV comment
2019-01-28 Crepeaux, Guillemette Aluminum salts in vaccines - From ancient concepts to current knowledge Overview of the growth of scientific knowledge of aluminum in vaccines. From a conference in Rome, Italy, called Vaccinare in sicurezza (Vaccinate... Read the full TMOV comment
2018-11-07 Shardlow, E Unraveling the enigma: elucidating the relationship between the physicochemical properties of aluminium-based adjuvants and their immunological mechanisms of action Aluminium salts are by far the most commonly used adjuvants in vaccines. There are only two aluminium salts which are used in clinically-approved vaccines, Alhydrogel® and AdjuPhos®, while... Read the full abstract This article starts to explain the relationship between the relationship between the physico-chemical properties of aluminum in vaccines to how immunity is achieved. With all the Aluminum that has... Read the full TMOV comment
2018-03-00 Karwowski MP Blood and Hair Aluminum Levels, Vaccine History, and Early Infant Development: A Cross-Sectional Study. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate relationships between whole blood (B-Al) and hair aluminum (H-Al) levels in healthy infants and their immunization history and development. METHODS: We conducted a... Read the full abstract This study may be cited by your doctor, if s/he thinks Aluminum in vaccines is not a problem. "CONCLUSIONS of this study: Infant Blood-Al and Hair-Al varied considerably but did not correlate with... Read the full TMOV comment
2017-12-00 Masson JD Critical analysis of reference studies on the toxicokinetics of aluminum-based adjuvants We reviewed the three toxicokinetic reference studies commonly used to suggest that aluminum (Al)-based adjuvants are innocuous. A single experimental study was carried out using isotopic 26Al... Read the full abstract This study shows the weaknesses of three studies which your doctor might cite to support vaccination. These three commonly cited studies are by Flarend, Keith and Mitkus and are listed by TMOV for... Read the full TMOV comment
2017-01-15 Crépeaux G Non-linear dose-response of aluminium hydroxide adjuvant particles: Selective low dose neurotoxicity Aluminium (Al) oxyhydroxide (Alhydrogel®), the main adjuvant licensed for human and animal vaccines, consists of primary nanoparticles that spontaneously agglomerate. Concerns about its safety... Read the full abstract Inverted dose-toxicity relationship (low dosage more harmful than higher dosage)
2015-11-00 Alexandrov PN Nanomolar aluminum induces expression of the inflammatory systemic biomarker C-reactive protein (CRP) in human brain microvessel endothelial cells (hBMECs). C-reactive protein (CRP; also known as pentraxin 1, PTX1), a 224 amino acid soluble serum protein organized into a novel pentameric ring-shaped structure, is a highly sensitive pathogenic biomarker... Read the full abstract The three major findings in this short communication are: (i) that CRP is up-regulated in AD serum; (ii) that CRP serum levels increased in parallel with AD progression; and (iii) for the first time... Read the full TMOV comment
2015-06-01 Van Der Gucht A (France) Neuropsychological Correlates of Brain Perfusion SPECT in Patients with Macrophagic Myofasciitis Background Patients with aluminum hydroxide adjuvant-induced macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF) complain of arthromyalgias, chronic fatigue and cognitive deficits. This study aimed to characterize brain... Read the full abstract From conclusion: ". . . These results provide a neurobiological substrate for brain dysfunction in aluminum hydroxide-induced MMF patients . . .... Read the full TMOV comment
2015-02-05 Gherardi RK (France) Biopersistence and Brain Translocation of Aluminum Adjuvants of Vaccines Aluminum oxyhydroxide (alum) is a crystalline compound widely used as an immunological adjuvant of vaccines. Concerns linked to the use of alum particles emerged following recognition of their... Read the full abstract See title
2014-11-28 Rigolet M (France) Clinical Features in Patients with Long-Lasting Macrophagic Myofasciitis Macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF) is an emerging condition characterized by specific muscle lesions assessing abnormal long-term persistence of aluminum hydroxide within macrophages at the site of... Read the full abstract MMF is when you have aluminum hydroxide in macrophages at the site of previous immunization, along with diffuse muscle and joint pain, chronic fatigue and cognitive deficits. Conclusion: ... 'health... Read the full TMOV comment
2014-10-02 Shaw CA et al. Aluminum-induced entropy in biological systems: implications for neurological disease. Over the last 200 years, mining, smelting, and refining of aluminum (Al) in various forms have increasingly exposed living species to this naturally abundant metal. Because of its prevalence in the... Read the full abstract Aluminum has a lot of undesirable effects in your body. Highlights (i) Aluminum (Al3+), suspected as a toxicant for 100 years, injures the CNS and immune systems, individually and... Read the full TMOV comment
2014-09-05 Mold M Unequivocal identification of intracellular aluminium adjuvant in a monocytic THP-1 cell line Aluminium-based adjuvants (ABA) are the predominant adjuvants used in human vaccinations. While a consensus is yet to be reached on the aetiology of the biological activities of ABA several studies... Read the full abstract "Herein we demonstrate for the first time the unequivocal identification of Aluminum based adjuvants within a monocytic T helper 1 (THP-1) cell... Read the full TMOV comment
2013-11-00 Shaw CA Administration of aluminium to neonatal mice in vaccine-relevant amounts is associated with adverse long term neurological outcomes. Our previous ecological studies of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has demonstrated a correlation between increasing ASD rates and aluminium (Al) adjuvants in common use in paediatric vaccines in... Read the full abstract "These current data implicate Aluminum injected in early postnatal life in some CNS alterations that may be relevant for a better understanding of the aetiology of Autism Spectrum... Read the full TMOV comment
2013-10-00 Exley C Human exposure to aluminium. Human activities have circumvented the efficient geochemical cycling of aluminium within the lithosphere and therewith opened a door, which was previously only ajar, onto the biotic cycle to... Read the full abstract "... it is thus now imperative that we understand as fully as possible how humans are exposed to aluminium and the future consequences of a burgeoning exposure and body burden.... Read the full TMOV comment
2013-09-00 Movsas TZ Effect of routine vaccination on aluminum and essential element levels in preterm infants. Parenteral feedings containing more than 4 to 5 micrograms/kg/d of aluminum have been shown to result in neurodevelopmental delay in preterm infants.(see Title link for reference) However, an infant... Read the full abstract Human babies did not excrete the Al from an im injection. "We were reassured to find no significant postvaccine rise in serum aluminum level after vaccination of preterm infants with vaccines... Read the full TMOV comment
2013-09-00 Bhattacharjee S Selective accumulation of aluminum in cerebral arteries in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Once biologically available aluminum bypasses gastrointestinal and blood-brain barriers, this environmentally-abundant neurotoxin has an exceedingly high affinity for the large pyramidal neurons of... Read the full abstract In AD patients, found higher Al in arteries closer to brain. Human brain microvessel endothelial cell have a v high affinity for... Read the full TMOV comment
2013-04-04 Khan Z Slow CCL2-dependent translocation of biopersistent particles from muscle to brain BACKGROUND: Long-term biodistribution of nanomaterials used in medicine is largely unknown. This is the case for alum, the most widely used vaccine adjuvant, which is a nanocrystalline compound... Read the full abstract Aluminum goes from muscle to brain via draining lymph nodes and macrophages. Al nanoparticles photographed in macrophages and detected in... Read the full TMOV comment
2012-12-00 Choi MR Delivery of nanoparticles to brain metastases of breast cancer using a cellular Trojan horse As systemic cancer therapies improve and are able to control metastatic disease outside the central nervous system, the brain is increasingly the first site of relapse. The blood-brain barrier (BBB)... Read the full abstract Macrophages can be used to deliver therapeutic and diagnostic nanoparticles across the BBB to affect brain metastases of breast... Read the full TMOV comment
2012-08-00 Foglio E (Italy) Regular consumption of a silicic acid-rich water prevents aluminium-induced alterations of nitrergic neurons in mouse brain: histochemical and immunohistochemical studies. Silicon is not generally considered an essential nutrient for mammals and, to date, whether it has a biological role or beneficial effects in humans is not known. The results of a number of studies... Read the full abstract Silicic acid protects against Aluminum
2011-11-28 Mitkus RJ Updated aluminum pharmacokinetics following infant exposures through diet and vaccination. Aluminum is a ubiquitous element that is released naturally into the environment via volcanic activity and the breakdown of rocks on the earth's surface. Exposure of the general population to... Read the full abstract This flawed study concludes, ". . . episodic exposures to vaccines that contain aluminum adjuvant continue to be extremely low risk to infants and that the benefits of using vaccines containing... Read the full TMOV comment
2011-03-08 Kawahara M Link between Aluminum and the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer's Disease: The Integration of the Aluminum and Amyloid Cascade Hypotheses. Whilst being environmentally abundant, aluminum is not essential for life. On the contrary, aluminum is a widely recognized neurotoxin that inhibits more than 200 biologically important functions and... Read the full abstract Review-Details of Al neurotoxicity
2009-07-00 Sethi P Curcumin attenuates aluminium-induced functional neurotoxicity in rats. Curcumin is a polyphenol extracted from the rhizome of Curcuma longa and well known as a multi-functional drug with antioxidative, anti-cancerous and anti-inflammatory activities. Curcumin's... Read the full abstract Result obtained demonstrates that curcumin treatment attenuates the Al-induced alterations at biochemical, behavioral and ultrastructural levels which was well reflected in the electrophysiological... Read the full TMOV comment
2004-06-22 Pandya JD Effect of long-term aluminum feeding on lipid/phospholipid profiles of rat brain myelin. Effect of long-term (90-100 days) exposure of rats to soluble salt of aluminum (AlCl3) on myelin lipid profile was examined. The long-term exposure to AlCl3 resulted in a 60% decrease in the total... Read the full abstract "In conclusion, results of our present studies have brought into focus several parallels in the myelin membrane lipid alterations in Al-treated rats and the AD brains [16, 42, 44]. Such changes in... Read the full TMOV comment
2004-02-00 Jefferson T Adverse events after immunisation with aluminium-containing DTP vaccines: systematic review of the evidence. We have reviewed evidence of adverse events after exposure to aluminium-containing vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTP), alone or in combination, compared with identical... Read the full abstract We found no evidence that aluminium salts in vaccines cause any serious or long-lasting adverse events. Despite a lack of good-quality evidence we do not recommend that any further research on this... Read the full TMOV comment
2002-10-00 Silva VS (Portugal) Aluminum accumulation and membrane fluidity alteration in synaptosomes isolated from rat brain cortex following aluminum ingestion: effect of cholesterol. In the present work, we studied the effect of cholesterol/phospholipid (CH/PL) molar ratio on aluminum accumulation and aluminum-induced alteration of membrane fluidity in rat brain cortex... Read the full abstract " In conclusion, during in vivo exposure to aluminum, fluidification of hydrophilic regions and reduction of CH/PL (cholesterol/phospholipid) molar ratio of presynaptic membranes accompany the... Read the full TMOV comment
2002-05-31 Keith LS Aluminum toxicokinetics regarding infant diet and vaccinations. Some vaccines contain aluminum adjuvants to enhance the immunological response, and it has been postulated that this aluminum could contribute to adverse health effects, especially in children who... Read the full abstract Bad study because it incorrectly compares ingested Al with injected Al. Important note: The subject matter of this study has been critically analyzed by Masson in... Read the full TMOV comment
2002-03-15 Verstraeten SV (Argentina) et al Aluminum affects membrane physical properties in human neuroblastoma (IMR-32) cells both before and after differentiation. The capacity of Al(3+) to induce changes in the physical properties of plasma membrane from human neuroblastoma cells (IMR-32) was investigated, and the magnitude of the changes was compared with... Read the full abstract Details of neurotoxic affects of Al
2001-09-00 Gherardi RK Macrophagic myofasciitis lesions assess long-term persistence of vaccine-derived aluminium hydroxide in muscle. Macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF) is an emerging condition of unknown cause, detected in patients with diffuse arthromyalgias and fatigue, and characterized by muscle infiltration by granular periodic... Read the full abstract "We conclude that the MMF lesion is secondary to intramuscular injection of aluminium hydroxide-containing vaccines, shows both long-term persistence of aluminium hydroxide and an ongoing local... Read the full TMOV comment
2001-07-00 Golub MS Long-term consequences of developmental exposure to aluminum in a suboptimal diet for growth and behavior of Swiss Webster mice Swiss Webster mice received diets containing 7 (control), 100, 500, or 1000 microg aluminum (Al)/g throughout development (conception to 35 days of age) and were tested behaviorally as adults (>90... Read the full abstract This study is the basis of ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) Toxicological Profile for Aluminum, 2008 (See page 24). This study (Golub, 2001) looks at dietary Al lactate. So... Read the full TMOV comment
1997-08-15 Verstraeten SV Myelin is a preferential target of aluminum-mediated oxidative damage. The capacity of Al3+ to promote oxidative damage to brain membrane was investigated both in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, Al3+ and related metals (Sc3+, Ga3+, In3+, Be2+, Y3+, and La3+) stimulated... Read the full abstract Al damages myelin more than other parts of brain cells.
1997-08-00 Flarend RE In vivo absorption of aluminium-containing vaccine adjuvants using 26Al. Aluminium hydroxide (AH) and aluminium phosphate (AP) adjuvants, labelled with 26Al, were injected intramuscularly (i.m.) in New Zealand White rabbits. Blood and urine samples were collected for 28... Read the full abstract Al retained after 28 days: Al Hydroxide - 94.4%; Al Phosphate - 78%. Found in kidney, spleen, liver, heart, lymph node, brain. Main point: No incr in blood level after IM injection. Important... Read the full TMOV comment
1996-05-00 Bellia JP (UK) The role of silicic acid in the renal excretion of aluminium. The chemical affinity of silicic acid for aluminium (AI) has been shown to reduce the bioavailability of AI in studies of human gastrointestinal (GI) absorption. Investigations were carried out to... Read the full abstract "... Healthy individuals given monosilicic acid as naturally found in beer, excreted the majority of the silicic acid content (mean 56 percent) within 8 hours, concomitant with a significant increase... Read the full TMOV comment
1995-03-00 Priest ND Human metabolism of aluminium-26 and gallium-67 injected as citrates. 1. 26Al and 67Ga were given as citrates to a healthy male volunteer by intravenous injection. The retention of both tracers was studied by body radioactivity measurement. Levels in blood and excreta... Read the full abstract Healthy adult male - 4% of IV Al retained after 3.2 years. Most excreted quickly like Xu. IV, not... Read the full TMOV comment
1993-05-00 Bilkei-Gorzó A Neurotoxic effect of enteral aluminium. Long Evans rats were treated for 90 days with water-soluble, insoluble or chelated aluminium compounds. The daily treatments given were as follows: controls, NaCl (100 mg/kg body weight) plus citric... Read the full abstract Oral Al(OH)3 and AlCl3 both with and without citric acid. All forms of Al decreased learning ability and there was Al in the... Read the full TMOV comment
1992-10-00 Xu ZC Kinetics of aluminum in rats. IV: Blood and cerebrospinal fluid kinetics. Aluminum causes central nervous system (CNS) toxicities in both humans and various animal species. Although blood aluminum concentrations are monitored in the clinic, very little is known regarding... Read the full abstract Injected Al declined quickly, but it was IV, not IM.
1989-05-00 Golub MS Effects of aluminum ingestion on spontaneous motor activity of mice. Aluminum (Al) as aluminum lactate in a purified diet was fed to adult female Swiss-Webster mice over a six week period. Comparison groups were: controls (CON), 25 micrograms Al/g diet; low Al (LO),... Read the full abstract :...short term feeding of aluminum at levels within an order of magnitude of estimated human intake can influence neurobehavioral function as indexed by motor activity" But this was an ingestion... Read the full TMOV comment
1983-11-26 Banks WA (USA) Aluminium increases permeability of the blood-brain barrier to labelled DSIP and beta-endorphin: possible implications for senile and dialysis dementia. The primary lesion in Alzheimer's disease and dialysis dementia has been postulated to be an impaired blood-brain-barrier (BBB) permeability that allows neurotoxins like aluminium to reach the... Read the full abstract Al affects permeability of blood brain barrier.