When you’re a health writer, every little symptom is cause for concern. Dry skin might signal eczema, a blue mood might mean depression, a mole may be skin cancer. But I knew I’d crossed the line when I got suspicious about a pan.
Not long ago, I was at my neighbor’s Pampered Chef party, scouring the catalog for my next purchase when I spotted an aluminized pan. My friend and I had just been talking about Alzheimer’s, and somewhere in the deep recesses of my memory, I recalled a link between Alzheimer’s and aluminum.
So I asked the hostess if she knew anything about whether the aluminized pan might be a health problem. “Hmmm…I don’t really know,” she said diplomatically. I can only imagine what she was really thinking at the moment.
I sauntered over to a friend with an iPhone and asked her to do some on-the-spot research for “aluminum” and “Alzheimer’s.” A page on the Alzheimer’s Association website told me that scientists had never confirmed a link.
I breathed a sigh of relief – I really liked the pan – and plunked down my credit card. Sometimes, writing about health can be dangerous to your mental health.
