Lithium - Could It Be The Stopper?

A surprising result in the fight against ALS.

Italian researchers claim to have stopped ALS
dead in its tracks.
By stopped, they mean no progression.
By ALS, we
mean the incurable disease for which there has been no significant medical
breakthrough.
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, no slouch
as scientific journals go, has accepted the researchers' paper for publication.
We should see the details of their possibly landmark study in early February, a
journal spokeswoman said.
I want to avoid overstating the significance of
these findings from what is, after all, only a single, small clinical trial.
But on its face, it's significant.
Sixteen ALS patients were given two
drugs: Riluzole, the generic name for the only drug approved for treating ALS,
and lithium, a mood
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stabilizer
used for bipolar disorder and depression.
Another 32 patients took only the
Riluzole.
The patients - 16 on lithium and 32 not - were watched and
evaluated over a period of 15 months.
The results of the trial were
announced in early November at a Parkinson's disease conference in Italy. News
of the findings was carried in an Italian science journal.
At the end of the
15 months, 30 percent of the group not taking lithium had died. Those who
remained suffered on average 50 percent decline.
This is what one would
expect with ALS.
For those taking lithium, however, there were no deaths.
Additionally, the ALS patients taking lithium experienced no meaningful disease
progression, according to Francesco Fornai of the University of Pisa.
Eight
of the 16 were diagnosed with the more aggressive bulbar form of ALS that
attacks the motor nerves for talking, eating and breathing early on, Fornai
pointed out. They would be expected to die more quickly.
Two years after
starting on lithium, only two had died, one from a heart attack and the other,
who suffered from an advanced case of bulbar to begin with, from ALS-related
causes.
The rest remained stable with no progression.

Fullstory at http://www.sbsun.com/ci_8089973?source=most_emailed.