Affiliations
- 1Department of Kinesiology, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON.
- 2Department of Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON.
- PMID: 35236261
- DOI: 10.2174/1570159X20666220302151224
Abstract
Lithium is most well-known for its mood stabilizing effects in the treatment of bipolar disorder. Due to its narrow therapeutic window (0.5-1.2 mM serum concentration), there is a stigma associated with lithium treatment and the adverse effects that can occur at therapeutic doses. However, several studies have indicated that doses of lithium under the predetermined therapeutic dose used in bipolar disorder treatment may have beneficial effects not only in the brain but across the body. Currently, literature shows that low dose lithium (≤0.5 mM) may be beneficial for cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, metabolic, and cognitive function, as well as inflammatory and antioxidant processes of the aging body. There is also some evidence of low dose lithium providing a similar and sometimes synergistic effect to exercise in these systems. This review summarizes these findings with a focus on low dose lithium’s potential benefits on the aging process and age-related diseases of these systems such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, obesity and type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and the chronic low-grade inflammatory state known as inflammaging. Although lithium’s actions have been widely studied in the brain, the study of the potential benefits of lithium, particularly at a low dose is still relatively novel. Therefore, this review aims to provide possible mechanistic insights for future research in this field.
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Browse Studies
Should We All Take a Bit of Lithium?
The idea of putting a mind-altering drug in the drinking water is the stuff of sci-fi, terrorist plots and totalitarian governments. Considering the outcry that occurred when putting fluoride in the water was first proposed, one can only imagine the furor that would...
Lithium treatment and human hippocampal neurogenesis
There is a PDF available for this article. Please click here to read the article.Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-021-01695-yBrowse Studies
A Low Dose of Lithium May Slow Kidney Aging
Best known therapeutically as a treatment for bipolar disorder, lithium has long intrigued researchers with its potential age-defying properties. The element has been shown in lab experiments to extend the lifespan of fruit flies and roundworms, while observational...
Systems Biology Understanding of the Effects of Lithium on Cancer
Weihao Ge1,2 Eric Jakobsson1,2,3* 1National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States 2Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United...
Low-dose lithium impact in an addiction treatment setting
There is a PDF available for this article. Please click here to read the article. Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468171720300053 Browse Studies
Efficacy and Safety of Lithium Treatment in SARS-CoV-2 Infected Patients
At the beginning of the pandemic, we observed that lithium carbonate had a positive effect on the recovery of severely ill patients with COVID-19. Lithium is able to inhibit the replication of several types of viruses, some of which are similar to the SARS-CoV-2...
Lithium in Drinking Water and the Incidences of Crimes, Suicides, and Arrests Related to Drug Addictions
G N Schrauzer 1, K P Shrestha PMID: 1699579 DOI: 10.1007/BF02990271 Abstract Using data for 27 Texas counties from 1978-1987, it is shown that the incidence rates of suicide, homicide, and rape are significantly higher in counties whose drinking water supplies contain...