In individuals with mild cognitive impairment, blood tests may show normal lithium levels even when the brain itself is deficient, as something is disrupting its availability specifically in the brain.

Initial clinical trials that found no benefit from lithium may have failed because they used lithium carbonate, a form that gets easily bound to amyloid plaques.

Despite promising research, it may be wise to pause on supplementing with low-dose lithium until we have more data on optimal dosing and risks, as we already get it from food and water.

A groundbreaking study in the journal Nature suggests that lithium deficiency in the brain could be a key mechanism that leads to the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

A Danish study found an inverse relationship between the incidence of dementia and the levels of lithium naturally present in the local drinking water.

In mice, lithium orotate was dramatically more effective than lithium carbonate because it avoided being captured by amyloid plaques, boosting lithium in healthy brain regions and blocking disease progression.

As amyloid plaques build up in the brain, they soak up available lithium, and in a vicious feedback loop, these resulting low lithium levels then speed up the formation of more plaques.