Just make sure you’re getting the full 1mg because some supplement companies don’t account for elemental lithium vs the whole package. I am on 25mg/day empagliflozin, so I was thinking of taking 5mg KAL lithium for some time until I start taking telmisartan toward the end of the year, and then dropping lithium to 1mg/day hoping telmisartan counteracts the SGLT2i wrt. lithium excretion/sparing.
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The influence of food on side effects and absorption of lithium
“Lithium was completely absorbed when given after food, but when given on an empty stomach the absorption was lower in some subjects, apparently due to rapid gastrointestinal passage in connection with diarrhoea. Lithium should therefore preferably be administered after meals.”
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Lithium Battery of Tests
Did researchers just find a glimmer of hope in the quest to fight Alzheimer’s? “Seven years of investigation by scientists at Harvard Medical School have revealed that the loss of the metal lithium plays a powerful role in Alzheimer’s disease, a finding that could lead to earlier detection, new treatments and a broader understanding of how the brain ages. Researchers led by Bruce A. Yankner, professor of genetics and neurology at Harvard Medical School, reported that they were able to reverse the disease in mice and restore brain function with small amounts of the compound lithium orotate, enough to mimic the metal’s natural level in the brain.”
Research on reversing Alzheimer’s reveals lithium as potential key.
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You mentioned to me recently that we can test our lithium levels.
Do you happen to know what a good range might be?
My objective is around 25 micromol sadly the tests I use go down to 50.
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I don’t know, but I trust John on those kinds of things. I’ve never tested though.
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If I am not mistaken, the current lithium tests are only in place for bipolar patients so the ranges reflect that population of people. I asked for a lithium blood test last time I went to the lab and the range showed I was low despite being on 5mg and then I realized that was why.
However, there could be a superior test I am not aware of.
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It looks like lithium orotate is the form most of us should be taking.
“lithium orotate was more effective than lithium carbonate at preventing the accumulation of Aβ and phosphorylated tau, cognitive deficits and the expression of pro-inflammatory markers.”
“To replenish lithium in the brain, the authors identify a lithium salt, lithium orotate, that does not easily form ions and is therefore not readily sequestered by amyloid plaques. Treatment with lithium orotate prevents the worsening of amyloid plaque build-up, possibly by restoring the ability of microglia (the brain’s immune cells) to clear amyloid-β, and it protects against loss of cognitive function in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease and normal ageing.”
NEWS AND VIEWS 06 August 2025:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02255-w?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=b430ed5dda-nature-briefing-daily-20250807&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-33f35e09ea-49409460
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I’m memory serves me correctly, I think low-medium dosed lithium extended lifespan by 20% in the Ora Biomedical testing on nematodes.
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Anecdottely, two persons told me that their long covid was vastly improved after taking 5 mg lithium with meals twice a day. (And I think Modern Healthspan has had an interview with a Researcher who studied lithium for long COVID.)
I have seen a dose-dependent effect from lithium orotate on my mood. I have never taken more than 10 mg per day. Usually, I take 5 mg per day. I use lithium orotate from Swanson.
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That was my experience, too. The test in Australia is geared towards bipolar patients who have been prescribed high doses of lithium.
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Did it help with sleep? I see Life Extension has a 1 mg lithium oratate.
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Lithium at low doses, did not improve my sleep “only” my mood and psychological wellbeing. The effects have been dose-dependent up to 10 mg/day. 2×5 mg.
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Sounds good … and maybe now neurological health too. As low lithium may be related to alzheimers.
Recent studies in mice and human brain tissue suggest that loss of naturally occurring brain lithium is a potential early driver of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), leading to inflammation, amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and accelerated memory decline.
In experiments, restoring lithium levels through supplements reversed these neurological and cognitive deficits in mice.
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Good new article from Eric Topol here
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I am a huge fan of lithium orotate. It is one of the few supplements that I take that has a noticeable subjective effect. I am talking about the mental effects. It took several weeks of dosages of 10 mg (elemental) lithium orotate before I noticed the effects.
If coffee makes you cranky, if you are naturally short-tempered, if you are prone to road rage, etc., lithium orotate is your friend.
All of the other effects are a bonus.
There is little doubt that lithium orotate is the form most people should take.
“When LiO was administered to adult 3xTg mice, the physiological dose almost completely prevented Aβ plaque deposition and phospho-tau accumulation; by contrast, administration of LiC or the sodium orotate control had no significant effect.”
“LiO, but not LiC, increased the expression of the synaptic marker PSD-95”
"LiO shows reduced amyloid sequestration relative to LiC and more effectively elevates non-plaque Li in the brain.
“LiO also reduced the Aβ plaque burden by about 70% in older J20 mice with abundant and widespread Aβ deposition (Fig. 5e). Thus, LiO is highly effective at reducing Aβ deposition and phospho-tau accumulation.”
“The effects of LiO on genes involved in learning and memory prompted us to explore cognitive function in 3xTg mice, which show memory loss relative to wild-type mice (Fig. 5g). LiO at the lowest dose (4.3 μEq l−1) almost completely reversed the memory loss, whereas LiC and the sodium orotate control did not show significant effects.”
Lithium orotate and not lithium carbonate.
etc.
etc.
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His conclusion:
If lithium orotate does work, we don’t know the right or optimal dose. Even 10 mg would be a huge dropdown from the usual dose for lithium carbonate, which for BD in adults is between 600 to 1,800 mg/day. The amount of elemental lithium in lithium orotate is approximately 1/5th of lithium carbonate. So doses of orotate between 5 and 10 mg may be insufficient to achieve the effect (10 mg of lithium orotate is equivalent to about 0.4mg of elemental lithium).
As I previously discussed with p-tau217 and other blood markers, along with pace of aging brain clocks (using proteomics), it would be straightforward to do a randomized trial and see whether these surrogate metrics are favorably modulated by lithium orotate versus placebo. We hope to initiate such a randomized trial in the near future that would help illuminate whether low dose lithium orotate has efficacy in people.
Of course, everyone here taking lithium knows that even 1 mg is enough to feel the benefits.
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The target is gsk3 whilst missing the SLC13A2 and SLC13a3 transports.
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Took 5mg of Doublewood lithium for a couple of months, noticed…absolutely no effect.
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C’mon - it cleared any tau and amyloid tangles, you now have a crystal clear brain, you can shine a light through, brain will last you in tip top shape for the next 150 years 
- or at least that’s the idea. Maybe there are neurological benefits not connected with mood which you simply don’t perceive, but lithium is diligently but very quietly working in the background assuring a luminous future.
There’s always a cycle around any new (or renewed) molecule, with outsize hope attached. Right now lithium is having its moment. All supplement makers are rushing to cash in. Then the hype dies down, and it’s on to the next one. I don’t know if it measurably clears out any brain plaque, but at least it measurably clears out your wallet. Same as it ever was.
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