What happened

Researchers at Harvard Medical School reported Wednesday that the depletion of lithium in the brain appears to play a significant role in the development of Alzheimer's disease. The findings, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, open up possibilities for new treatments using small amounts of the common metal, found in several foods and drinking water.

Who said what

The Harvard study could be the "holy grail that prevents and even reverses Alzheimer's," The Boston Globe said. Feeding a small dose of lithium orotate to lithium-deprived "aging mice" with fading memories "actually reverted their memory to the young adult, six-month level," study leader Bruce Yankner, a professor of genetics and neurology, told The Washington Post . "It seems to somehow turn back the

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