Lithium and Alzheimer’s Disease

[Puppycow]

(There have been several previous threads about Alzheimer's disease (AD). See Here and Here for two relatively recent threads.)

This one is about a blog post I saw on Dr. Steven Novella's blog about new research involving lithium as a potential treatment for AD.

Some of these studies are quite promising.

Lithium and Alzheimer’s Disease - NeuroLogica Blog

This is an interesting story, and I am trying to moderate my optimism. Alzheimer's disease (AD), the major cause of dementia in humans, is a very complex disease. We have been studying it for decades, revealing numerous clues as to what kicks it off, what causes it to progress, and how to...

theness.com

This brings us to the new study. Researchers looked at the effect of lithium orotate in a mouse model of dementia and found that is not only slowed but reverse memory loss and brain changes in the mice.

Taken together, this is a nice story, with lots of circumstantial evidence but mostly pointing towards a consistent conclusion. Low brain lithium levels may contribute to the onset and progression of AD, exacerbated by amyloid plaques further sequestering lithium. Supplementation with lithium orotate, which is not sequestered by amyloid, may therefore restore brain function and slow or even reverse the anatomical changes that result from the disease.

He seems to be cautiously optimistic about it. Obviously studies in mice are still an early step, but fortunately lithium is already being used to treat other conditions like Bipolar Disorder, so we know that it can be given to humans. In fact, when I Googled lithium orotate, I found that it is already being sold over the counter apparently, and it can't be patented.

 

[arthwollipot]

A friend of mine who has been on lithium all his adult life is transitioning off it because of its increasingly severe side effects.

Steve talked about this in the latest episode of the SGU. One interesting thing he said (not sure if it's covered in the article) is that while the mouse model has been extremely useful in research and understanding the disease, treatment trials have a failure rate of 99.6%. This means that treatments that are tried in the mouse model do not lead to successful treatment in humans.

 

[Puppycow]

I'm curious about what sort of side effects your friend suffers from.

 

[catsmate]

The major side effects of lithium are loss of muscle control, thyroid problems and liver damage. There are various others

 

[Puppycow]

So obviously not something to be taken lightly or without consulting a doctor.

Here's an article about the possible benefits of lower doses (below those used to treat psychiatric conditions):

Beyond its Psychiatric Use: The Benefits of Low-dose Lithium Supplementation - PMC

Lithium is most well-known for its mood-stabilizing effects in the treatment of bipolar disorder. Due to its narrow therapeutic window (0.5-1.2 mM serum concentration), there is a stigma associated with lithium treatment and the adverse effects that ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

epidemiological studies in humans have shown that exposure to trace Li in tap water is inversely correlated with hospital admission for mental health, aggressive behaviour, all-cause mortality, suicide mortality, cardiovascular mortality, Alzheimer’s disease mortality, and the prevalence of metabolic diseases, such as obesity and diabetes [7-11]. Together, these studies provide the first indication of the possible benefits of low-dose Li on health and longevity.

 

[arthwollipot]

The major side effects of lithium are loss of muscle control, thyroid problems and liver damage. There are various others

In his case, ironically, short term memory loss.

 

[catsmate]

In his case, ironically, short term memory loss.

Yeah that happens.

 

[Darat]

This is why I really, really do not like this type of story, simplifies it so much and we know idiots will start popping lithium like sweets, charlatans will pop up to promote their lithium "cures".

 

[Eggs Ackley]

The story I heard on the radio said lithium is an essential nutrient. I'd never heard that before so I looked for an MDR, and there isn't one established, but the google AI said some people think it should be something like 2-3 mg. That same AI said therapeutic doses are in the range of a gram or more per day, so there's a lot of room for safe supplementation, seems to me. On amazon you can get lithium orotate supplements in as little as 1 mg, to 150 mg or so capsules. Also, the radio story I think said the prevalence of AD is correlatable with lithium blood levels and seems like they said something about local soil lithium levels varying a lot. I live in a place where it rains a lot and I've read our soil is low in trace essential minerals like for example selenium. So I ordered some 1 mg and some 5 mg lithium orotate caps. The 5 mg caps seemed to upset my GI tract a little so I decided to start on the 1 mg caps. I think this is a reasonable thing to do while I watch the story develop further.

 

[arthwollipot]

I wouldn't recommend that. Not on so little clinical evidence.

 

[thines]

Science Based Medicine had an excellent take on the lithium hype. The link is below. One of the most interesting things noted in that report is that over 99% of interventions that seemed to be beneficial in animal models of Alzheimer's Disease didn't show beneficial effects in human trials. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/lithium-and-alzheimers-disease/

 

[arthwollipot]

I think I already mentioned that.

 

[Eggs Ackley]

I'm taking 1 mg per day of Li orotate, which I think is about 1/1000th of a therapeutic dose for bipolar disorder. That seems pretty unlikely to cause toxicity when people on BD medication are tolerating (albeit often just barely) 500 or 1000 times more. I'm just trying to duplicate what's expected from drinking water in a place where there's a typical level of lithium in the water.

 

[ahhell]

A friend of mine who has been on lithium all his adult life is transitioning off it because of its increasingly severe side effects.

Steve talked about this in the latest episode of the SGU. One interesting thing he said (not sure if it's covered in the article) is that while the mouse model has been extremely useful in research and understanding the disease, treatment trials have a failure rate of 99.6%. This means that treatments that are tried in the mouse model do not lead to successful treatment in humans.

My sister stopped taking it on account of the side effects, unfortunately, that resulted in her mental illness worsening and likely causing her death.

 

[arthwollipot]

My sister stopped taking it on account of the side effects, unfortunately, that resulted in her mental illness worsening and likely causing her death.

Yeah, my friend is transitioning onto other meds in close consultation with their doctor.