Lithium in Tap Water Associated with Reduced Alzheimer’s Mortality Rate
Lithium is a water-soluble metal in mineral springs and rocks formed by fires. Studies have shown that it can protect nerve cells. In addition, the element is the gold standard for treating bipolar disorder.
Now, a study at the Brock University in Ontario has found an interesting link between trace levels of lithium in drinking water and Alzheimer’s patients’ rates of mortality, obesity and diabetes.
Postdoctoral fellow Val Fajardo and Rebecca MacPherson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Sciences, collected statistics on various lithium levels in drinking water in 234 counties across Texas. The research team, which included Associate Professor of Health Sciences Paul LeBlanc, compared lithium levels naturally found in tap water with Alzheimer’s disease mortality rates, along with the incidence of obesity and diabetes, in the Texas counties.
The team looked at 6,180 water samples collected from public wells since 2007. They compared the samples with changes in Alzheimer’s death rates. They adjusted the rates for such risk factors as sex, race, education, living in rural areas versus cities, air pollution, physical inactivity, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
“We found counties that had above the median level of lithium in tap water (40 micrograms per liter) experienced fewer increases in Alzheimer’s disease mortality over time,
” Dr. Val Fajardo, a postdoctoral fellow at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, said. “Counties below that median level had even higher increases in Alzheimer’s deaths over time,” said Fajardo, the lead author of the study.“We are one of the first groups to show that lithium’s potential protective effect against Alzheimer’s disease, obesity and diabetes may translate to the population setting through very low levels of lithium in tap water,” said Val Fajardo.
The results retained statistical significance even after adjusting for the risk factors.
The number of people developing obesity and type 2 diabetes also went down when they were drinking tap water with above average levels of lithium, the team said.
In UK tap water, there are between one and 21 micrograms of lithium per litre, according to a recent British Geological Society report.
Fajardo said: “There’s so much more research we have to do before policy makers look at the evidence and say ‘okay, let’s start supplementing tap water with lithium just like we do in some municipalities with fluoride to prevent tooth decay’.”
British expert Professor David Smith, a pharmacologist from Oxford University, said: “This is a high-quality study in a large population. The association between the levels of lithium in drinking water and a diagnosis of dementia was significant.
“However, it was not a linear relationship. We should not be adding lithium salts to our tap water because we would not know what amount to use.”
Dr James Pickett, head of research at the Alzheimer’s Society charity, said: “It’s almost too good to be true that something as cheap and plentiful as lithium might have a role in future prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.
“However, more research including clinical trials are needed, and until then we should not consider increasing lithium in drinking water.”
