Lithium supplements to prevent Alzheimer’s disease: A poisoned chalice? Matthew J. Armstrong, Anthony E. Valenzuela, and Pamela J. Lein explore the use of lithium supplements to prevent Alzheimer’s disease and whether this approach is a poisoned chalice. Globally, an estimated 55 million people live with Alzheimer’s disease, a number expected to exceed 152 million by 2050. Alzheimer’s is a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease and the most common form of dementia. There are no cures for Alzheimer’s, and currently available treatments only modestly slow disease progression. Identifying effective therapeutics has been difficult because while genetic factors contribute to Alzheimer’s, cases with single causative mutations are rare (1-5%).
Armstrong et al. (Fri,) studied this question.