Refuting George J Brewer’s Copper-1, Copper-2 Ideas

This page was created in response to my investigation of George Brewer’s ideas on the toxicity of copper-2. The refutation of George’s ideas is NOT a refutation of the Mitosynergy product itself, even though Mitosynergy, as a company, hired George Brewer as a consultant. To be clear. Mitosynergy, as a product, has testimonials that work. I’m refuting George Brewer’s essay, not the Mitosynergy product.

When refuting someone, there is always a risk that they remove their links. If pages disappear, then this worked.

Mitosynergy is a copper/niacin product: https://mitosynergy.com/

Point 1. The cost:

Their extra strength product contains 0.5 mg of copper in 1 capsule, with 60 capsules in a bottle, at a total cost of $89.

MitoActivator Extra Strength

The total mg of copper per bottle is 30 mg. (.5 mg x 60 caps)

$89 / 30 mg = $2.97 per mg of copper.

In contrast, I take 30 mg of copper in copper sulfate per day, and my supply costs me about 3 cents for over a month’s worth. https://revealingfraud.com/2022/03/health/copper-quick-start-guide/

Mitosynergy is 90,000 times more expensive than copper sulfate.

Point 2. Brewer’s hypothesis:

At the Mitosynergy product page above is a link to what they claim is the science behind their product:

https://mitosynergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/AnalysisOfTheNeedForACopper-1SupplementPill_11_04_16.pdf

by George J Brewer

A similar article by George Brewer can be found here:
https://www.scientia.global/professor-george-brewer-how-to-avoid-alzheimers-disease/

I refuted at least two of these “anti copper” studies in my book. First, 0.12 ppm copper in water is the same as 0.12 mg/Liter. It’s not copper to blame, it’s clearly copper deficiency. It is not nearly enough copper to be toxic.

In the second study, it’s 3 mg of copper. Paired with known neurotoxic bad fats, and a diet very high in those bad fats. Again, not enough copper to be toxic, but the copper does help our bodies turn fats into the myelin sheath around the nerves, which is why, even in our Facebook group’s description, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/thecopperrevolution

(everyone reading is invited to join) I advise to avoid bad toxic fats like margarine, etc. It is not copper that is toxic. It’s copper deficiency, and it’s bad fats that are toxic.

George Brewer’s presentation claims that copper 1 is made by plants, and that copper II is toxic.

Copper exists in such forms as copper II oxide, or copper II fluoride, or copper II sulfate, Cu-(II)-orotate, etc.

Brewer’s idea makes no distinction between the vastly different molecules of copper. He literally compares copper in tap water to copper supplements, which are entirely different things. Copper in tap water is likely bonded to fluoride. Copper supplements are often copper glycinate, called a copper chelate.

His idea is that a Copper II has one less electron, than a copper I, and this makes copper II toxic. That seems to be a hard proposition to prove, that a one-electron difference creates toxicity. It is his hypothesis.

Regardless, the facts are against his idea. Copper sulfate has been rather extensively tested both in humans and animals, and it is toxic at extremely high levels, such as around 20,000 mg, not at 0.12 mg, as his one study suggests. The extremely high toxicity levels actually prove the safety of copper II sulfate. Furthermore, copper sulfate has been used for thousands of years in human history to heal people, and is recognized as GRAS, in US law, or “generally recognized as safe” for use as a nutrient supplement in the USA.

If we dig into the details of the studies, things just get weirder and weirder. They gave water with 0.12 mg copper per liter to “cholesterol fed” rabbits.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16886094/

First of all, this level of copper, 0.12 mg is 1/5th of an amount of copper that causes deficiency at .6 mg per day for humans.

Second of all, cholesterol blocks copper. So, it’s a deficiency of a deficiency, not a toxicity he is studying.

Cholesterol:
“Further, it has been shown that excess dietary cholesterol causes cardiovascular disease by lowering the absorption of copper, an effect that is preventable by increasing the copper level in the diet.” Source: 31) L.M. Klevay, Biol Tr Elem Res 1988; 16: 51-57.

Third, they claim aluminum did not cause Ab accumulation, or amyloid beta protein.

“In contrast to the effects of copper, we found that aluminum- or zinc-ion-supplemented distilled water did not have a significant effect on brain Ab accumulation in cholesterol-fed rabbits.”

However a quick search shows scores of studies showing that aluminum does cause amyloid beta protein. So how can you trust this study at all?

Fourth, they did not say how much aluminum they tested.

Next, Brewer cites Morris, et al. for copper causing cognitive decline.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-10713-002

He writes: “Morris and colleagues(5) in human studies showed that the highest quintile of copper intake, and only people taking copper containing supplements were in this quintile, lost cognition at 6 times the rate of other groups. Copper in currently available supplement pills is all copper (II).”

The study did not conclude that!

From the study itself: “Copper intake was not associated with cognitive change among persons whose diets were not high in these fats.”

Which fats? TRANS fats, or margarine, which are already known to cause cognitive decline!

But trans fats are already associated with Alzheimer’s.

Trans Fats, Bad for the Heart, May Be Bad for the Brain as Well (2009)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/well/eat/trans-fats-dementia-alzheimers-brain-heart.html

So there is a clearly false citation of the study (because the study did not blame copper) and Brewer ended up falsely blaming copper for the action of trans fats!

Just like the prior study, blaming a super tiny amount of copper for the action of cholesterol!

Next, Brewer cites Mursa et al: “Mursa et al(6) have reported that mortality was 42% higher in older women taking copper [all copper (II)] containing supplement pills.”

Again. I have to say Brewer’s summary is another lie. Here is the study:

Dietary supplements and mortality in older women: the Iowa Women’s Health Study
Jaakko Mursu, PhD,1,2 Kim Robien, PhD,1 Lisa J. Harnack, DrPH, MPH,1 Kyong Park, PhD,3 and David R. Jacobs, Jr., PhD1,4
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4114071/

Again, he contradicted the study’s conclusions. The study’s conclusion blamed iron for increased mortality risk, not copper!

“Conclusion
In older women several commonly used dietary vitamin and mineral supplements may be associated with increased total mortality risk, most strongly supplemental iron, while calcium, in contrast to many studies, was associated with decreased risk.”

So, the study conclusion was that iron creates the most risk, not copper.

And by the way, the study was a survey of supplementation, and most Americans who take copper supplements get copper within multi mineral supplements that contain loads of iron, supplements that are manufactured by big pharmaceutical companies!

Furthermore…

Iron lowers copper and copper lowers iron

Iron overload can induce mild copper deficiency
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0946672X01800092

High-Iron Consumption Impairs Growth and Causes Copper-Deficiency Anemia in Weanling Sprague-Dawley Rats
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4990348/

And copper lowers iron:

Copper supplementation reverses dietary iron overload-induced pathologies in mice
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6467079/

Next, Brewer simply says copper is as toxic as lead, by relying on misquoting the articles we just went over, which said nothing of the sort. Then he contradicts himself, saying that lead is toxic immediately, but copper “acts over many years”.

Well, then it’s not as toxic as lead then, even if copper did cause cognitive decline, which the studies did not show at all, because it was trans fats, and cholesterol, and copper deficiency that caused it.

Next, Brewer mentions radioactive copper II, and how it is processed by the body. He does not mention which of many forms of copper II he is talking about. Ok. This takes the cake. He expects us to believe that copper in a form with one less electron is toxic, but radioactive copper acts exactly the same as regular copper in the body? How is this sort of reasoning rational?

Next, Brewer muses about plant copper being copper I, but says that it moves back and forth between copper I and copper II in plants, and becomes copper I when the plants die. Well, if it did that in humans, too, then how could copper II be toxic? And wouldn’t the form in dead plants be the more toxic form? I usually eat my plants while they are alive. The leaves are green and fresh in salads.

He muses that copper is “potentially toxic”. I think the only form of toxic copper is copper II fluoride. It’s the fluoride, not the copper, that’s toxic.

He claims the CTR1 transporter can’t transport Copper II to the liver. And he shares no evidence.

Brewer says that copper in the blood is toxic, especially to cognition, relying on studies above which do not show that. But copper in the blood is easily absorbed and taken up by albumin.

Copper is taken up efficiently from albumin and α2-macroglobulin by cultured human cells by more than one mechanism
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2544443/

“Ionic copper entering blood plasma binds tightly to albumin and the macroglobulin transcuprein. It then goes primarily to the liver…”

Brewer makes no mention of the form of copper in meat. Copper in meat, presumably, would be bound into proteins and enzymes, as that is how it is found in the body.

Brewer concludes that the Alzheimer’s epidemic is entirely due to copper II, which could be any number of different molecules of copper.

Brewer makes no mention of any of the numerous actual neurotoxins in the human body that exist in higher concentrations than copper: fluoride, bromide, excess iron, excess zinc, lead, and aluminum. See https://revealingfraud.com/2022/03/health/chapter-35-mineral-composition-of-the-human-body/

Brewer fails to realize that copper actually detoxes all six of those other neurotoxins, primarily by helping the body to make at least 5 other copper-containing enzymes that detox the body: metallothionein, ceruloplasmin, glutathione, super oxide dismutase, etc.

Brewer compares copper plumbing in the USA to Japan, and then Alzheimer’s rates. Japan also vaccinates far less than the USA. Also, in Japan, since the 1980’s, no dentist is allowed to place mercury in new fillings.

Lessons from Countries Phasing Down Dental Amalgam Use
https://issuu.com/zoienvironment/docs/dental_amalgam_pages –see pg. 13:
Mar 11, 2016 — Japan – Since the 1980s Japan has moved almost completely away from amalgam for aesthetic and environmental reasons.

Brewer concludes that any copper over .1 ppm is unsafe. Based on his overall shoddy work, I don’t see any evidence that he even realizes that is 0.1 mg per Liter. I don’t see any evidence that he realizes that the average American gets 0.6 mg of copper per day. I don’t see any evidence that he realizes that the RDA is 0.9 mg copper per day. Based on his ideas, it’s a wonder all Americans don’t have seriously advanced Alzheimer’s by age 20.

However, based on my book, my summary of what copper does for the nerves, an excerpt from
https://revealingfraud.com/2022/01/health/the-copper-revolution-ch-1-coppers-effects/

Nerves and Brain:
1-4: Copper boosts 4 neurotransmitters: serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine (adrenaline).

5. Copper acts as a neurotransmitter itself.
6. Copper increases the re-uptake of neurotransmitters.
7. Copper increases the electrical conductivity of the fluid around the nerves.
8. Copper restores the myelin sheath, which is the fatty coating around the nerves, which greatly speeds up nerve response, and is responsible for “motor learning” and coordination, deep thinking, nerve health, and so much more.
9. Copper binds to fluoride, detoxing it, carrying it out of the body, and fluoride is a nerve toxin.
10. Copper increases blood supply in various ways, all of which are great for the nerves, which need access to a blood supply: copper clears out cholesterol, copper increases the life of red blood cells, copper helps the body create new blood vessels, as needed, and copper is directly good for the heart, which gets stronger with more copper.
11. Copper helps the mitochondria in nerve cells make ATP for energy.
12. Copper strengthens cell walls, including the cell wall of the nucleus.
13. Copper lengthens the telomeres of the DNA, as short telomeres are a key aging sign.
14. Copper boosts DHEA, the master hormone, and therefore boosts testosterone, known for building muscle. But why does it help lifters build muscle? Because testosterone heals. Testosterone also heals the nerves in many ways.
15. Copper is needed to make and activate several copper-containing detox enzymes, one of which is SOD, which eliminates many chemical poisons, many of which are toxic to the nerves. Clearing out chemical poisons heals nerves.

But based on Brewer’s ideas, I, who take up to 65 mg of copper per day, am taking 650 times his “toxic” 0.1 ppm level, and I’m taking a supposedly toxic form, copper II sulfate. Actually, I’ve been taking about 20 mg for 3 years, and about 50 to 65 mg for the last year.

Brewer: “Overall conclusion: It is clear that ingestion of copper (II) is toxic.”

So apparently, my brain must be super copper toxic, and I must have very advanced dementia. And now it’s time to let the reader judge whose brain is working better.