John's Discussion on Lithium for Alzheimer's

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFmsMaTmBaY

25% of people between 72 and 77 will have personality changes due to Alzheimers
Alzheimers is a disease of mood as well as learning and memory
first signs of Alzheimers is anxiety
ATN profile: Amyloid, Tau, NFL (neurofilament light)
biology is continuous, as such there is no specific dose for lithium
lithium oritate
endocrine system is systemic
pericrine system is local
microglia
6 synapses associated with Alzheimers
mutations that allow cancer metastasize are mutations that produce local (pericrine) anti inflammatory
  signals that turn off tissue resident macrophages
lithium carbonate is usually prescribed in psychology
lithium oritate is used by naturopaths, dose: 40-50
if NFL isn't elevated, usually no atrophy on MRI (no cell death)
lithium is more effective before neuron loss
some (non bipolar) patients taking lithium say they think clearer and handle stress better
lithium in bipolar patients dedifferentiates the astroglia
lithium upregulates autophagy
50% of Alzheimers genes are microglia
proximal cause is excitatory nerve cells
a bunch of humans have a gain of function in TORC2
lithium is a targeted drug across many phenotypes because "lithium is hitting source code"
lithium downregulates TORC2 causing cells to not senesce as quickly, and die cleanly through apoptosis
nerve cells are postmitotic for a reason
temporal lobe and olfactory lobe are the only regions that grow new nerve cells
25% of women have migraines
1% has epilepsy
10% will have an epileptic seizure
lithium blocks final step adding iodine to thyroxine