Naturally Occurring Lithium in Texas Drinking Water Reduced Alzheimer’s Mortality Rates

February 19, 2018 · Posted in Potential Treatments 

woman drinking water

Several studies have found that trace levels of lithium that naturally occur in the drinking water of certain regions are associated with reductions in dementia compared to regions with less lithium in the water. The latest such study found that higher trace levels of lithium in certain Texas counties were associated with less mortality from Alzheimer’s disease compared to Texas counties with lower levels of lithium in the water.

The research by Val Andrew Fajardo and colleagues was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in 2017. Fajardo’s team obtained 6,180 water samples from 234 of Texas’ 254 counties. They also calculated that there was an increase in the Alzheimer’s mortality rate from the period 2000–2006 to the period 2009–2015. However, regions with higher trace levels of lithium were negatively correlated with this increase, suggesting that the lithium in the water had a protective effect on people in those counties.

The researchers controlled for gender, race, education, rural living, and air pollution. Physical inactivity, obesity, and type 2 diabetes seemed to be confounding factors. Obesity and type 2 diabetes were positively correlated with Alzheimer’s mortality and negatively correlated with lithium levels in drinking water, meaning that it is possible that lithium also protects against these conditions.

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