Is Low-dose lithium legal in the United Kingdom?

The tap water studies people quote are not tests on people. A review pooled 15 studies that compared lithium in local water with local suicide rates. Places with more lithium had fewer suicides, but the authors warn that patterns across places may not apply to people. The studies that actually gave people lithium used prescription lithium carbonate at 150 to 600 mg, adjusted by blood test. That is a different thing from the few milligrams of lithium orotate sold in shops.

Low-dose lithium is a whole product category built on a kind of study that cannot support it. And the real tests in people used a different dose of a different form.

How it works: Lithium blocks an enzyme called GSK3 beta. That enzyme sits upstream of tau build-up and of how amyloid is made, two hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

Approval history: Lithium carbonate and lithium citrate are FDA-approved prescription medicines for bipolar disorder. People taking them must have regular blood tests to check their lithium level. Lithium orotate is sold as a dietary supplement. It has no approved use and no required blood tests.

Licenses medicines for sale in the UK. A compound without a licence to be sold (a marketing authorisation) is an unlicensed medicine. The law only lets it reach people through a prescriber, under the specials scheme (unlicensed medicines made for one patient's needs). It cannot be sold as a research product.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency listings for Low-dose lithium on the reviewed date. It is not a legal opinion. Rules change. Bringing a compound into the country, prescribing it and owning it can each be treated differently. Check with the agency before you act on anything here.

Check MHRA directly

Whether Low-dose lithium is banned in sport is set by the World Anti-Doping Code and by military rules, not by its legal status in the United Kingdom. Before you compete or get tested, look up Low-dose lithium by name on the Prohibited List, or look up a named product in Global DRO. Under the World Anti-Doping Code, category S0 bans, at all times, any drug-like substance that meets two tests. No other section of the List covers it. And no government health regulator anywhere has a current approval for it as a treatment in people. Many substances that are approved somewhere are banned by name in another section. So approval does not mean a substance is allowed in sport.

• WADA Prohibited List
• Global DRO (check a named product)
• USADA (US athletes)
• Operation Supplement Safety (US service members)

The rules you compete or serve under decide this, not this page.