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Michael Nehls
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Michael Nehls recommends 1 milligram of lithium orotate per day as the essential daily dose for optimal brain health and mental immune system function.
Nehls estimates that 90 to 95 percent of the human population suffers from lithium deficiency, which he terms 'mental immune deficiency syndrome.'
In modern societies, the hippocampus shrinks by an average of 1.4% per year by volume, so after 30-40 years it is roughly half the size it was at age 25.
The European Chemical Agency concluded that up to 85 milligrams of lithium per day causes no long-term harm — 85 times the recommended 1 mg dose.
A Cordoba study published in September 2020 found that giving COVID patients the vitamin D prohormone (25-hydroxy vitamin D) reduced the likelihood of going to intensive care by 25-fold.
A peer-reviewed randomized controlled trial found that COVID patients given lithium (2×40 mg/day) left the hospital in half the time, with no ICU admissions and no deaths, versus the control group.
Seawater contains 100 times more lithium than freshwater, and shellfish concentrate it a further 3- to 5-fold, making them the ideal natural lithium source.
Meta-analyses show that even 300 micrograms of lithium per day stabilized Alzheimer's patients for 15 months while the control group declined.
Americans average an omega-3 index of just 4%, far below the ideal 11% that the placenta tries to supply a developing fetus, with some children as low as 2.5-3%.
Nehls recommends lithium orotate specifically because orotate has dedicated transport systems across the gut and blood-brain barrier, delivering lithium more effectively than lithium carbonate or lithium chloride.
The original 7-Up formula, launched in 1929, contained exactly 1 milligram of lithium per glass; the '7' refers to lithium's atomic weight and 'Up' to mood elevation.
In 1949, the FDA prohibited lithium as a dietary supplement after three JAMA-published cases of toxicity from gram-level doses, clearing the market for pharmaceutical lithium drugs.
Nehls claims 90 percent of all chronic diseases, the pharmaceutical industry's largest market, are rooted in chronic inflammation, for which lithium is the natural antidote.
A 2023 South Korean study found that Alzheimer's rates increased a few months after mRNA COVID injections, a result Nehls says he predicted in his book The Indoctrinated Brain.
Nehls argues that a handful of humans — possibly only a few hundred — survived a 70,000-year African ice age by eating lithium-rich shellfish on the South African coast, sparking the evolution of the mental immune system.
Around 200,000 years ago, only a few hundred humans survived a 70,000-year African ice age by eating shellfish on the South African coast. Shellfish delivered abundant omega-3s and lithium, fueling the hippocampus and giving rise to the 'mental immune system' that defines humanity.
Autophagy — the process by which cells digest their own damaged components — is the oldest cellular defense in life's history. Lithium activates it by inhibiting the IMPASE enzyme; without lithium, even fasting cannot fully engage it, leaving neurons to accumulate toxic debris.
Every time a dog locks eyes with you, oxytocin floods both your bloodstream and the dog's — stimulating hippocampal growth. Nehls recommends dogs as a literal therapy against Alzheimer's: a bigger hippocampus means lower risk.
Chronic neuroinflammation — from mRNA spike proteins, stress, or poor lifestyle — shuts down the hippocampus's daily production of new nerve cells. In the short term this causes depression and anxiety; over decades it produces Alzheimer's.
Nehls predicted in his book The Indoctrinated Brain that mRNA injections would increase Alzheimer's rates. A 2023 South Korean study confirmed that Alzheimer's incidence rose in the months following mass vaccination.
Case reports in August 2020 and a subsequent randomized controlled trial showed that lithium given to severe COVID patients halved hospital stays, eliminated ICU admissions, and prevented all deaths in the treatment group. None of this reached public policy.
Lithium is one of the first three elements created after the Big Bang, which is why it exists in every rock, every body of water, and every food — just usually in too-small amounts for optimal health. Its name comes from the Greek word for stone.
Discovered in 1828 by a German agricultural scientist, the law of the minimum states that growth is constrained by the scarcest essential nutrient. Nehls applies it directly to the brain: no matter how much protein you eat, if lithium or omega-3s are missing, the hippocampus cannot grow.
The hippocampus should grow throughout life, but modern lifestyles shrink it by 1.4% per year. After 30-40 years, it is half its peak size. This measurable shrinkage is the biomarker for approaching Alzheimer's — and it begins long before any diagnosis.
Meta-analyses show even 300 micrograms of lithium per day — less than a full milligram — stabilized Alzheimer's patients for 15 months while untreated patients declined. Nehls argues comprehensive nutritional intervention can reverse early-stage disease entirely.
The hippocampus produces new 'index neurons' every day to catalog when and where each experience happened. Without these cells — lost when neurogenesis stops — memories become unretrievable. This is not just forgetfulness; it is the biological mechanism of Alzheimer's disease.
Nehls recommends 1 milligram of lithium orotate per day, available on Amazon or at a drugstore in the US. Orotate's dedicated gut and blood-brain transport system makes it the most effective form — a finding independently confirmed by a Harvard-linked Nature study published August 2025.
Every major longevity blue zone in the world — Okinawa, Sardinia, and others — sits in a lithium-rich geological area. Nehls argues this is not coincidence: lithium in the water explains why these populations age well and avoid Alzheimer's.
A Harvard-linked study published in Nature in August 2025 analyzed 27-28 trace elements in the brains of deceased Alzheimer's patients. Of all of them, only lithium deficiency correlated significantly with disease severity.
In 1949, the FDA banned lithium supplements immediately after three JAMA papers reported deaths from gram-level doses used as a salt substitute. Nehls argues this was orchestrated — patients were deliberately given toxic overdoses to create a scandal, clearing the path for pharmaceutical lithium drugs. The same year, 7-Up was forced to remove its 1 mg lithium from its formula.
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