Welcome to Straight Talk on Health. I’m your host Dr. Chet Zelasko. Straight Talk on Health is a joint production with WGVU in Grand Rapids MI. I examine the practical application of health information. Nutrition. Exercise. Diet. Supplementation. I look at the science behind them and let you know whether it’s something to consider or not. You can check out other things that I do on my website Drchet.com and sign up for my free emails.
The health field has been buzzing about a study that was recently published related to Alzheimer’s disease markers and the mineral lithium, a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. You can use it in batteries, nuclear reactions, and many other industries; it’s also used in medications to stabilize mood.
Researchers decided to find out the relationship between markers for Alzheimer’s such as types of amyloid structures in the brain. There have been associations with reduced lithium intake and mild cognitive impairment in prior studies, so researchers decided to examine how mice on a reduced-lithium diet would respond. They measured several other minerals as well, but the only one associated with an increase in amyloid structures was lithium. It seems that when there’s not enough lithium in the diet, the brain cannot function as normal and sequesters the lithium in the amyloid bodies; brain function decreases further as lithium levels drop, including cognitive impairment. More simply, it impairs our ability to learn, something that’s important at every age.
The normal amount of lithium found in the diet suggests we get between 0.6 to 3 mg per day, mostly from water and food. That amount is able to sustain the 7 mg typically found in an adult human. The next logical question would be “how much lithium it would take to reverse cognitive impairment?”
Before we go there, you may recognize lithium as a treatment for some mental health issues such as bipolar disorder. That would require a pharmacological dose of 600–1,800 mg of lithium per day; levels that high can create severe side effects. But prior research showed that people who were treated with lithium had lower rates or a delayed onset of cognitive impairment. The next step in the study was what form of lithium and what amount could help reverse the cognitive impairment and potentially be used to prevent mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers examined a variety of organic and inorganic salts to find the form which prevented or reduced the sequestration of lithium in amyloid plaque. Lithium carbonate, the inorganic salt form most used in pharmacological doses, did not prevent the pathology in low-dose supplemental form. An organic form called lithium orotate was successful in amounts consistent with dietary intake. Over a period of weeks, the mice drinking lithium orotate in their water reversed the cognitive impairment and other negative effects.
The first thing you may be thinking is, “I gotta get me some of that!” Slow down. Remember, these were tested in mice—there are no human trials yet. While there are tests for assessing lithium levels, they’re generally reserved for patients with mental disorders. With such a small range found within the blood, testing requires medical interpretation, and we don’t really know what that level may be in someone with mild cognitive impairment.
We need a couple of good human trials to determine the proper dosage and any potential side effects if there are any at low doses. Tremors and nausea are routine side effects when lithium is used to treat mental conditions, but at normal food and water intake levels—1 to 3 mg per day—there should be none. There are many lithium orotate products in the marketplace that range from 1 to 5 mg, but let’s not get ahead of the science. Is it safe? Yes as far as we know at this point.
Coincidentally, I received a question from a long-time reader after the study was published. They asked, “What is the difference between lithium orotate and the lithium in batteries?” The short answer is simply that they are the same metal. Here are a few more details.
Lithium is the lightest metal on the Periodic Table. It is a soft, lustrous metal and, while it is found in quantity in mines, it is everywhere. As an element, it can be toxic. What makes it less so is that it can naturally bind to so many other elements. Depending on what it binds to, that can determine whether it’s safe to use.
Lithium orotate is an organic salt and far supersedes the efficacy of other organic salts and inorganic salts such as lithium carbonate. In batteries, the value of lithium is its ability to freely give up ions that can result in the production of energy, but there’s about 38.4 mcg of elemental lithium contained in 1 mg of lithium orotate. That’s at least 1,000 times less than found in a single AA lithium battery and without the toxic solvents necessary to make the battery work.
Someone else asked about the highest sources of lithium in the food supply. That’s something I would provide, but it all depends on the water supply and whether the soil has lithium in it. For now, there is no way to provide a list.
I think there are still questions to be answered before we all start supplementing with lithium orotate. While there is no RDA for lithium, there is a provisional target of 1 mg per day from diet. However, because the amount of lithium in water and food can be so variable, taking 1 to 5 mg per day of lithium orotate seems like a reasonable thing to do if you are over 50 years and are starting to experience memory issues beyond the normal where-are-my-keys problems.
It will take a while before we have the results of human trials. It would also help if you eat better, drink water, and get some exercise; those also help reduce the development of amyloid plaque. So when I know more about lithium orotate, so will you.
Here’s a little comment about specificity of training. Short explanation – it you want to run faster, you’ve got to run faster while training to run. That specificity also includes any physical act. We think in terms of sport and athletics and those are appropriate. But every physical task can require specific training.
The other day, I decided to clean all the exterior windows in the house. I decided on the best way to do that and then got out my extension ladder. As a rule, I don’t usually lift the ladder myself, adjust it to the correct height while stabilizing it. I don’t practice climbing the ladder, stand on one rung for 5 minutes while cleaning a window, walk down the ladder, move it a few feet to another window, and repeat that. By the time I was done cleaning the windows, I was completely drained and my feet were on fire. While it may not be practical for you to actually train to do something you may do twice a year, if I had trained for that specifically, it would had the muscles fire in the exact correct order to climb, stabilize legs, climb down, and repeat. But here’s the thing: if it were a task that I knew I was going to be doing in a new job, I could have trained specific to the task. Not earth shattering but that’s the essence of specificity of training.
That’s all the time I have for this episode. If you like this podcast, please hit the share button and tell your friends and colleagues about it. Until next time, this is Dr. Chet Zelasko saying health is a choice. Choose wisely today and every day.
Reference: Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09335-x
