Lithium is a trace mineral that was one of the first elements after the Big Bang together with hydrogen and helium. It is the third element in the periodic table, with an atomic weight of 6,94 g/mole. Lithium is bound to rocks or in the soil but dissolved as lithium ions in the water. See water has about 0,2 mg/L and fresh water about 0,01 mg/L.
It enters the food chain through uptake in plants from the soil and water. The level you find in plants is thus dependent on the lithium level in the soil and water, but also what kind of plant it is.
A substantial amount of evidence for the last 15 years indicates that lithium is a neglected essential trace mineral, and that a small addition could have many positive effects on people’s health.
It’s most likely that the optimal dose required for gaining these health benefits can vary due to where you live, what you eat and drink and general lifestyle, but it might also be an inherited factors of importance.
We know that lithium inhibits the constitutional enzymes GSK3-β and GSK3-α, two kinases that phosphorylate serine and threonine amino acid residues on more than 100 different enzymes, and by that balance reaction pathways that affect both gene expression, metabolic processes and the immune system.
Lithium does it by inhibiting GSK3 in a dose dependent manner. It can be done in three different ways, e.g. displacing magnesium, a co-factor for GSK3, inhibit the PP2A/βArr2- complex, so the complex can’t inhibit the kinase Akt, and finally by stimulating the kinase PI3K that indirectly activate Akt which will phosphorylate GSK3 and make it inactive.
We also know that lithium ions in pharmaceutical doses of 150-200 mg per day can displace magnesium ions from some enzymes like IMPase, which requires 3 magnesium ions for its optimal function. IMPase is a key enzyme for the PI3P-reaction pathway which GSK3 also is a part of at a downstream position.
It’s also known that lifelong treatment with therapeutical doses of lithium give some side effects like hypothyroidism and kidney dysfunction, but well monitored patients have less risk, and 10-35 % experience only mild side effects.
There is no scientific evidence that lifelong doses of 1-10 mg per day give any side effects at all, and that therapeutic doses up to 50 mg per day, for short term treatment (1-2 weeks), give any side effects either.
The positive health effects from lithium were fist confirmed in studies in goats, mice, and lower animals like fruit flies and roundworms.
Some clinical studies on humans have also been done with micro doses of lithium 0.3-1 mg that show increased mental wellbeing and less progression in Alzheimer’s.
Positive effects have also been seen in a number of ecological human studies, reflecting a natural intake of lithium, that shows better mental wellbeing, less risk of suicide, drug abuse, crime rate, Alzheimers and a longer life in areas with more lithium in the ground water.
Since GSK3 was discovered in 1980 more than 16.500 scientific articles have been published on PubMed dealing with the enzyme, and more than 1.400 on lithium and GSK3. But also, almost 1.200 on lithium and suicide.
Key implications of an increased intake of 0,5-5 mg elemental lithium may be:
• Better mental health
• Less risk for suicide
• Less risk of drug abuse
• Less risk for Alzheimer’s
• Less risk of neuropsychiatric maladies like ADHD and autism
• Less inflammation in the body
• Less risk of type 2 diabetes
• Less risk of osteoporosis
• Less risk of stroke and faster recovery
• Less risk of AMI and other heart diseases
• Less risk of sarcopenia
• Better immune response to virus and bacteria
• Better mitochondria function
• Stimulate autophagy
• In general, longer and more healthy life
But it may also help the body to fight cancer, displace aluminum and cadmium and stimulate regeneration of new cells, both in the brain and the rest of the body.
For this reason, lithium in low dose (1-5 mg) should be available as a food supplement.
Pehr-Johan Fager/2024-11-24
