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Who would have thought that a monovalent cation would become such a powerful weapon against a range of mental illnesses? Well, that seems to be the case. And if you're living with bipolar disorder or any other mood disorder, adding lithium as a part of your prescription plan wouldn't be a bad idea. Why?
Lithium is a power-packed medication for mood disorders, especially bipolar disorder, and may serve as an incredible solution for people with suicidal ideation. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Lithium protects neurons in the brain and may slow down aging, thereby preventing Dementia.
You may wonder. Doesn't all this sound a bit too fantastic? Not exactly, there is a bunch of research behind those claims.
Let's look at a few.
Lithium has become a go-to drug for treating mood disorders like depression and mania in bipopla disorder, as it may serve more or less like a mood stabilizer.
Lithium may be particularly effective in treating treatment-resistant bipolar disorder, as it may stabilize your mood midway between the high (mania) and low (depression). It's also great for ADHD as it may help curb hyperactivity. Lithium may even be a better alternative to stimulants for ADHD.
But arguably the best part about lithium for mood disorders is its impact on suicidal ideation. Patients with suicidal thoughts can greatly benefit from lithium as it can help reduce the tendency of self-harming behavior..
You see, suicidal thoughts usually come as a symptom of mental illnesses, and not because the individual really has a genuine reason for wanting to hurt themselves. And it's good to know that lithium may help restore mood, reducing risks of suicide.
Brain tissue shrinks over time as a person gets older. What results is a gradual, irreparable decline in cognition, social and communication skills, and loss of memory, i.e. dementia. OK, hold that thought for now.
In people who suffered manic episodes over time, the outer part of the brain, known as the prefrontal cortex (responsible for executive control, memory, learning, and emotion), shrinked significantly. Of course, the brain, including this prefrontal cortex, may shrink as one gets older.
But the shrinking is usually accelerated in people with bipolar disorder. And this may contribute to why dementia risk is about 3 times higher in bipolar disorder patients.
But interestingly, the cortex of bipolar disorder patients on lithium medication didn't thin much -- not even as much as that of healthy people. One possible explanation for why their cortex didn't thin was the presence of lithium, which is known to have neuroprotective effects. This helps to keep the brain younger and more functional as the patient ages, thereby preventing dementia.
Whether you're suffering from bipolar disorder or not, the study suggests that by using lithium throughout the years, you may push dementia further away.
Notably, that wasn't the first research on lithium and cognitive function.
It all started when researchers noticed a pattern among patients with bipolar disorder: those on lithium medications had lower rates of cognitive decline than those on other medications. So they went ahead to confirm their suspicion. The results were staggering.
Bipolar disorder patients on lithium therapy had an Alzheimer's risk of just 5% compared to the 33% of patients on non-lithium medications. (Nunes et al., 2007).
Excited by the findings, researchers would go on to try low-dose lithium on Alzheimer's patients, to see if it could be a cure or at least, a treatment. The results were rather disappointing. Apparently, lithium was more about preventing Alzheimer's than curing it when the brain had already degenerated.
To verify that hypothesis, there was another research on individuals with high risks of Alzheimer's (Forlenza et al, 2011). The disease wasn't already established, and neither had their nervous system started declining. But destructive tau proteins, associated with Alzheimer's disease, were already high in their system.
One group was put on lithium therapy, the other served as a placebo. After a year, the group on lithium had far lower tau protein present, whereas the tau protein in the placebo group had increased over those 12 months, increasing their Alzheimer's risk. Besides, cognitive function improved significantly in the lithium group.
This suggested that lithium has a significant impact on preventing dementia when used early enough before the decline had progressed.
Here, the effects of lithium on bipolar disorder come into play yet again. We know that BD has consistently been associated with age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's, heart problems, type 2 diabetes, and malignancies. It doesn't stop there though.
BD patients also show accelerated aging at the molecular level, from increased oxidative stress to epigenetic aging (your rate of aging influenced by your genetics).
Lithium has proven useful in slowing down these aging processes on occasions, typically by reversing the destructive effects of bipolar disorder.
US Environmental Protection Agency estimates the daily lithium intake of an adult is about 0.65mg to 3mg. You can get lithium from grains and vegetables, eggs, and milk. WHO has even added lithium to its list of nutritionally essential trace elements alongside zinc and iodine. But are these amounts from food enough to offer you the benefits?
Lithium, like all drugs, comes with its fair share of side effects, including diarrhea, nausea, and kidney problems. But when used at low-dose or subtherapeutic levels, these side effects plummet.
Thankfully, additional studies have shown that low doses of lithium such as naturally present in water and food or supplements are also effective. So, the risk of side effects may lower when you minimize your doses.
So, given the potentials of lithium, it isn't difficult to see why one may deem this naturally occuring mineral a miracle in the world of psychiatry.
So, what's the bottom line in all of these? Knowing the remarkable effects of lithium in treatment-resistant depression, bipolar disorder, suicidal ideation, and other mood disorders as well as cognitive decline, it's worth considering adding lithium to your treatment plan.
Even when you aren't experiencing any mental health issues, just having enough of it in your diet may help ward off dementia as you get older.
