Lithium (Li), a metal, is most commonly used for rechargeable batteries. In medicine it is has been approved and prescribed since 1970 for bipolar disorder and depression.

Burying the Lead:

Unfortunately, early news stories like these get amplified and misconstrued by the large and anxious body of affected patients, their families, and all of us worried older folks. The readily available news and information sources focused on the correct, but overly optimistic conclusion that lithium reversed Alzheimer’s changes in mice, skipping or burying the fact that these were lithium deficient mice. When a scientific study like the Nature article, demonstrates that there are benefits to giving lithium to mice fed a lithium deficient diet it is an important step in the study of Alzheimer’s disease, but such a finding is neither new, nor news. The simple concept of preventing a nutritional deficiency or reversing its effects by returning the missing element to the diet dates back centuries. Scurvy (Vitamin C deficiency common in sailors on long sea voyages without access to fresh fruit) comes to mind. It was first treated in the 1700’s with lemons, limes and oranges. From a scientific perspective the problem lies in doing the hard work over decades to determine if extra lithium (or anything else as a supplement), can prevent a specific disease without causing harm.

Lithium is Dangerous.

As has become painfully obvious from scary in-flight news stories and exploding cars buses and laptops, lithium is highly reactive and flammable. Medically, lithium is classified as a mood stabilizer and has been prescribed as such for over 50 years. Lithium is classed as a high-risk medicine because of its narrow therapeutic index (the difference between the blood concentration at which it is effective and the level where it becomes toxic). Like with many medications, its risks increase with the age of the patient. The recognized medical uses require careful dosing and often blood-level monitoring by licensed prescribers. “Lithium toxicity may occur in some patients despite a normal lithium level.”(3)

I became aware in the 1970’s when using lithium chloride to poison rats for my Masters and Doctoral theses. I was studying the mechanisms by which these incredibly hardy rodents learn to avoid dangerous foods.(4,5)

In this day and age, anyone can start selling lithium supplements, and I’m sure they will. Every over-the-counter supplement you buy is subject to the concerns in my prior post: Playing it Safe in the Supplement Aisle   

[NOTE: The only known changes one can make to potentially prevent or modify Alzheimer’s disease are found in the extensive and authoritative 2024 Lancet Commission Report.(6)]

ZERO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE Exists to Support Lithium Treatment in Patients

(As two Very Recent Meta-Analyses Found:)

1. Kishi et al. Lithium for Alzheimer’s disease: Insights from a meta-analysis. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 2025(7)

“To date, six studies have investigated LIT [Lithium] supplementation in individuals with mild cognitive impairment(MCI) and AD [Alzheimer’s disease].. . . Our meta-analysis included the six studies (n =435)” . . and revealed that lithium (LIT) “supplementation did not significantly delay cognitive impairment progression in individuals with MCI and AD compared with placebo. Moreover, we revealed no superiority of LIT over placebo in all subgroups other than the high-risk subgroup for overall ROB[Risk of Bias]. We conclude that the pooled LIT treatment group, comprising LIT-C, LIT gluconate, and LIT sulfate, is not effective in attenuating cognitive decline in patients with AD when incorporating the most recent trials and applying a methodology capable of detecting even small between-group differences. These results, representing the highest clinical evidence level, provide complementary support to the preclinical observations of Aron and colleagues (Aron et al., 2025), which were derived from an animal model.”

2. Pereira da Silva, et al.  Efficacy and Safety of Lithium for Behavioral and Cognitive Symptoms in Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia: A Systematic Review With Frequentist and Bayesian Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2025(8)

“We searched . . . through April 2025 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing lithium with placebo or standard therapy in patients with AD dementia or amnestic mild cognitive impairment. . . . Six RCTs involving 394 participants (196 lithium, 198 placebo) met inclusion criteria. Lithium did not significantly improve global cognition. . . . Memory outcomes were mixed, with possible benefit for figure recall but not delayed verbal recall. No consistent benefits were observed for episodic memory, functional outcomes . . . neuropsychiatric symptoms, or CSF biomarkers. Conclusions: Lithium demonstrated an acceptable safety profile within the dosing regimens studied. However, current evidence does not support consistent cognitive or functional benefits in AD [Alzheimer’s disease] dementia. Larger, well-designed RCTs are warranted to clarify its potential therapeutic role.”