It’s better known to us for its use in batteries, but could lithium – also found in drinking water, cabbages, wholegrains and potatoes – help to protect against dementia?
This is the suggestion behind several recent studies investigating whether this light metal – used for decades at high doses to treat depression and bipolar disorder – could play a role in brain health, albeit in much lower doses.
Lithium occurs naturally in minerals and rocks and enters the soil, rivers and lakes after being dissolved in rainwater.
As a result, it’s naturally present in some foods and water in very small amounts.
It is
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