Lithium has been used to help treat a variety of mental disorders. The pathway lithium takes to help keep cells from undergoing apoptosis involves many factors. The involvement of lithium has a positive influence for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, as well as schizophrenia, bipolar, and depression. However, lithium is used differently in certain types of neurodegenerative diseases. For bipolar disease it is used to help with the manic stages, and with diseases such as schizophrenia, it helps with the depressive side of the illness. I found this to be particularly interesting in that it can help with both extreme mental stages, and helps to return the brain to a “normal” functioning level. Also, for many of these illnesses, when taking lithium as a medication, it is used in conjunction with other pharmaceutical drugs. I would assume this is to keep patients from over compensating in one direction, and if lithium is taken for depression, without other drugs it may cause the patient to have manic episodes.
As many drugs do, lithium is involved in deactivating the GSK-3 pathway. As we have learned before, this pathway is involved in so many functions within the brain. My thought is that there has to be some reason the GSK-3 pathway is in our brain, and even if we keep targeting it, there is bound to be some not so good side-effects from these drugs. There has to be a reason why lithium is not naturally made within the body, and that goes for many of the other pharmaceuticals that are prescribed. Yes, the GSK-3 activated pathway leads to apoptosis, or cell death, but it has to be involved in something that benefits our brain, or else it would not have been made. Same goes for p53. It helps keep cancer cells from forming, and by using lithium, p53 is essentially deactivated via the GSK-3 pathway.
The scientists who are involved in all of these long term studies for many of the medication for neurodegenerative diseases, I believe at least, are going to be finding some very interesting information. With all the unnatural things we put into our body, it is bound to backfire at least a little bit. When we evolved into what we are today, there has to be a purpose for whatever is in us, or at least there was, and if we keep adding substances that are not natural, the findings are going to be very interesting.
I believe that lithium is a wonderful treatment for people who are willing to try anything to help them feel better now, and are not concerned about the later (for some people there might not be a later if the now isn’t fixed promptly). We can only test, retest, and test again to see how our hypotheses actually affect people, and until we are certain how different chemicals act within our body, I believe it is only a measure that should be taken in desperate measures. As I have said before, we have become a society that just wants to have everything fixed right now, but what if we were to take the time to actually look at what is cause the diseases in the first place instead of always looking for a cure?
Searching for a Solution
