Posted on 08/12/2025 7:17:14 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
What is the earliest spark that ignites the memory-robbing march of Alzheimer's disease?
Researchers may have found an answer: lithium deficiency in the brain.
The work shows that lithium occurs naturally in the brain, shields it from neurodegeneration, and maintains the normal function of all major brain cell types.
The findings are based on experiments in mice and on analyses of human brain tissue and blood samples from individuals in various stages of cognitive health.
The scientists found lithium loss in the human brain is one of the earliest changes leading to Alzheimer's, while in mice, similar lithium depletion accelerated brain pathology and memory decline.
The team further found reduced lithium levels stemmed from binding to amyloid plaques and impaired uptake in the brain. In a set of experiments, the team found a novel lithium compound that avoids capture by amyloid plaques restored memory in mice.
One of the main discoveries is that as amyloid beta begins to form deposits in the early stages of dementia in both humans and mouse models, it binds to lithium, reducing lithium's function in the brain. The lower lithium levels affect all major brain cell types and, in mice, give rise to changes recapitulating Alzheimer's disease, including memory loss.
The authors identified a class of lithium compounds that can evade capture by amyloid beta. Treating mice with the most potent amyloid-evading compound, called lithium orotate, reversed Alzheimer's disease pathology, prevented brain cell damage, and restored memory.
Other lithium compounds are already used to treat bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder, but they are given at much higher concentrations that can be toxic.
Yankner's team found lithium orotate is effective at one-thousandth that dose—enough to mimic the natural level of lithium in the brain. Mice treated their entire adult lives showed no evidence of toxicity.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
It would seem such a dose is 1/1,000th of 600 mg - 1,800 mg of the lithium compound given to people with mania and other disorders.
That’s a just a fraction of a typical 5 mg capsule from various sources I found, but at least one brand has a 1 mg form (1,000 mcg) (Life Extension).
I have yet to take it.
Lithium Ion ignites. Period.
The feel good supplement.
Lithium even occurs naturally in some water sources.
Understatement of 2025...
Many foods we eat routinely provide lithium - lentils particularly; and avocados, radishes, spinach, cauliflower, cabbage...
if you try all the things you list in the articles, one day the bottles gonna fall out your medicine chest and crush you. Even at that Li must be a super trace metal in body.I wondr if there areenough people on lithium that it contaminates water supply like they say hormones do.
Lithium has been used since WWII to treat some types of mental illness. There was a military psychiatric hospital in Australia, which because of shortages, didn’t have any sodium table salt (NaCl) for their tables. So they substituted readily available Lithium Chloride (LiCl).
Then out of the blue, some of their patients stubborn conditions quickly became much better, for a time.
Eventually this led to the pharmaceutical use of lithium.
Lab Mice have gotta be the healthiest creatures on earth. Not sure about taking litium- doesn’t it have pretty severe possible side effects?
Back in the day, psychiatric centers used to treat manic depressive disorders with lithium. They don’t use that term anymore and prefer the bipolar definition.
Maybe we should load up leftists with some lithium and it might turn them into conservatives
Lithium was one of the early psych meds but it was replaced by the dangerous ones with lots of side effects.
I think it ruins teeth or something like that- we had a neighbor with a child on it- the father said what the side effects were, but I don’t recall now
We need to electrify our brains with more lithium.
Stop making electric cars with lithium batteries!!
.
Lithium also occurs in some natural spring waters that have always been claimed to have healing properties.
I studied this years ago bc my (now ex) wife had signs
of bipolar mental illness. One treatment was lithium but
only the medical community was allowed to prescribe and
monitor ($$ cha-ching) bc the health springs were not
allowed to test for,& make claims for healing properties!
Unrelated? note...
Today in Indiana we were just hit with a 50 cent/gallon
gas tax. The powers that be hate us and want to steal
all ofour health and wealth!
She was truly charming for a day or two, then middle of the road and just “normal” a day or two, then crying and mad at me and picking fights for absolutely no reason—then throwing things at me or complaining to family or friends about how I was an absolutely terrible person. It then all cycled back to the beginning.
I thought if you loved someone and stayed with them through difficult times, two people could work that out and the future would be fine.
Years later, I found a great lady without such issues and we are very happy together, as I married her, instead.
Toxic people suck.
It is often puzzling for normal people to realize they cannot argue or persuade a mentally ill person to not be mentally ill.
Well said.
I dated her for over a year and just had to end it.
I met her at church and she seemed reasonable and intelligent, for a while. Once dating, she unloaded her true self.
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