Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lithium compound can reverse Alzheimer’s in mice: study

hms.harvard.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 108 posts

Re: Lithium compound can reverse Alzheimer’s in mice: study

#61

Post by vczf »

connicpu wrote: post #37
modeless wrote: post #4

Lithium orotate is available over the counter. People could try it today. > Since lithium has not yet been shown to be safe or effective in protecting against neurodegeneration in humans, Yankner emphasizes that people should not take lithium compounds on their own I reject this kind of blind safetyism. A cursory search suggests that lithium orotate has been used for decades, and the article suggests that "profound e…

My spouse was prescribed lithium by doctors and it messed up her thyroid, it's not a drug to be taken lightly.

Sure, but the amount and form of the lithium matters. 5mg of lithium orotate (as a supplement) versus 600mg lithium carbonate (as a mood stabilizer) will have vastly different acute and chronic health effects.

Re: Lithium compound can reverse Alzheimer’s in mice: study

#63

Post by vczf »

nahikoa wrote: post #62

Given that tens of millions people have been treated for bipolar disorder with Lithium Carbonate, shouldn't researchers have already seen a correlation with Alzheimer's in patients?

From the abstract of the paper:

  > Replacement therapy with lithium orotate, which is a Li salt with reduced amyloid binding, prevents pathological changes and memory loss in AD mouse models and ageing wild-type mice.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09335-x

Another source on lithium orotate:

  > LiOr is proposed to cross the blood–brain barrier and enter cells more readily than Li2CO3, which will theoretically allow for reduced dosage requirements and ameliorated toxicity concerns.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8413749/

Re: Lithium compound can reverse Alzheimer’s in mice: study

#64

Post by prmph »

MaxPock wrote: post #2

Things I love to read. I went to visit my aunt one day, and my favourite uncle couldn't recognize me. It made me think that Alzheimer's is probably the worst thing that could happen to a person. I mean, what's worse than not being able to recognize those closest to you? You work a lifetime, and then you go out in such an undignified manner. I pray for a cure in my lifetime.

worse than familial insomnia?

Re: Lithium compound can reverse Alzheimer’s in mice: study

#65

Post by Nifty3929 »

modeless wrote: post #4

Lithium orotate is available over the counter. People could try it today. > Since lithium has not yet been shown to be safe or effective in protecting against neurodegeneration in humans, Yankner emphasizes that people should not take lithium compounds on their own I reject this kind of blind safetyism. A cursory search suggests that lithium orotate has been used for decades, and the article suggests that "profound e…

Indeed!

Sure, maybe lithium orotate can be bad in high doses.

You know what's super-bad for sure? Alzheimer's!

If I have Alzheimer's, please let me try whatever long-shot you have. I'll be your gunnie pig.

Re: Lithium compound can reverse Alzheimer’s in mice: study

#66

Post by wonderwonder »

I was curious if there was any correlation, inverse or other between people with Bi-polar disease treated with lithium and dementia.

Seems like a good real world example that should prove out if lithium works as we know people with BD take it.

Turns out there is a study that says there is.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31954065/

"Conclusion: Individuals with BD are at higher risk of dementia than both the general population or those with MDD. Lithium appears to reduce the risk of developing dementia in BD."

Overall people with Bi-Polar have a much higher rate of dementia but lithium treatment appears to reduce that.

People treated with valproate instead (a mood stabilizer) do not enjoy the same benefit.

So I'll commit to adding low dose lithium to my daily supplements

Re: Lithium compound can reverse Alzheimer’s in mice: study

#67

Post by wonderwonder »

bawolff wrote: post #44
wonderwonder wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if after a long time its proven that it does prevent Alzheimer's, was the deaths of everyone that would have been taking lithium to prevent it due to this anecdotal article worth it? Would you be willing to die of Alzheimer's in order to serve as a placebo for the control group? What about your parents? I don't really understand this mindset. I already ordered 5mg tablets of lithium orate as soon as I read this. I…

> So if after a long time its proven that it does prevent Alzheimer's, was the deaths of everyone that would have been taking lithium to prevent it due to this anecdotal article worth it? And if it actually makes Alzheimer's worse? We are talking about a mouse model of a disease that very famously doesn't work the same way in mice and humans. The most likely scenario is it does nothing. With this level of evidence yo…

Probably nothing

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31954065/

"Conclusion: Individuals with BD [Bi Polar Disorder] are at higher risk of dementia than both the general population or those with MDD. Lithium appears to reduce the risk of developing dementia in BD."

Re: Lithium compound can reverse Alzheimer’s in mice: study

#68

Post by xkcd-sucks »

kovek wrote: post #48
stivatron wrote: post #33

Watch out, there is no reliable Mouse Model for Alzheimer's. I was deeply involved with mouse models at some point before quitting my phd in neuroscience and I quite remember that.

Could you share some sources that show this to be true?

It's like kind of challenging to prove this kind of negative, and the supposed proof here comprises no more than pedigreed words on a page, but here consider the section "What constitutes a good model for AD?": https://sci-hub.se/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41583-01...

Re: Lithium compound can reverse Alzheimer’s in mice: study

#69

Post by amanaplanacanal »

lawlessone wrote: post #26
modeless wrote: post #4

Lithium orotate is available over the counter. People could try it today. > Since lithium has not yet been shown to be safe or effective in protecting against neurodegeneration in humans, Yankner emphasizes that people should not take lithium compounds on their own I reject this kind of blind safetyism. A cursory search suggests that lithium orotate has been used for decades, and the article suggests that "profound e…

I've heard of suggestions that it should be added to water(in low doses of course) to see it reduces suicide rates. I like the idea but can only imagine the anti-flouride crowd would freak out.

Pulling this out of my ass, but lithium is associated with weight gain, and has been suggested to be a possible causative agent on the obesity epidemic. (Extremely low confidence on this one)

Re: Lithium compound can reverse Alzheimer’s in mice: study

#70

Post by victorbjorklund »

cypherpunks01 wrote: post #12
adamgordonbell wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People use it in much smaller dosages then it's usually prescribed to apparently beneficial effect. I believe its also in the water supply in certain places, so if it works for dementia there are natural experiments already running on this. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/low-dose-lithium-a-new...

Yes, it's already thought that there's an association between naturally occurring lithium in drinking water and decreased suicide rates: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-... I would think naturally occurring lithium in some people's water would give pretty good control conditions to do a wide study of this effect on Alzheimers as well?

And crime in general.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7576670/

Post reply on HN