The Role of Lithium in Alzheimer’s:  Breakthrough?

By Shlomo Maital

         A paper just published in Nature (August 6, 2025) reports:  “New hope for Alzheimer’s: lithium supplement reverses memory loss in mice. Studies in rodents and humans suggest that low levels of the metal contribute to cognitive decline.”  Here is a summary:

        “Replenishing the brain’s natural stores of lithium can protect against and even reverse Alzheimer’s disease, suggests a paper published  today in Nature.  The paper reports that analyses of human brain tissue and a series of mouse experiments point to a consistent pattern: when lithium concentrations in the brain decline, memory loss tends to develop, as do neurological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease called  amyloid plaques and tau tangles. The study also found evidence in mice that a specific type of lithium supplement undoes these neurological changes and rolls back memory loss, restoring the brain to a younger, healthier state.”

     “If confirmed in clinical trials, the implications could be profound. Dementia affects more than 55 million people globally; most have Alzheimer’s disease. Anti-amyloid therapies on the market slow cognitive decline, but “they don’t stop it. They don’t restore function,” says co-author Bruce Yankner, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.”

      Alzheimer’s has been researched for decades.  It has been “a tough nut to crack”, say the researchers – a vast understatement.   If lithium holds the key, it would be a huge surprise.  What in the world is lithium, a metal, doing in the brain?  What role does it play anyway?  What irony, if the world that runs on lithium iron batteries should find that our brains run on lithium, too!

       And a postscript:  Co-author Bruce Yankner’s research grant has been slashed by actions of the President of the United States.