Posted on 05/01/2009 1:03:00 PM PDT by JoeProBono
Drinking water which contains the element lithium may reduce the risk of suicide, a Japanese study suggests. Researchers examined levels of lithium in drinking water and suicide rates in the prefecture of Oita, which has a population of more than one million. The suicide rate was significantly lower in those areas with the highest levels of the element, they wrote in the British Journal of Psychiatry. High doses of lithium are already used to treat serious mood disorders.
But the team from the universities of Oita and Hiroshima found that even relatively low levels appeared to have a positive impact of suicide rates. Levels ranged from 0.7 to 59 micrograms per litre. The researchers speculated that while these levels were low, there may be a cumulative protective effect on the brain from years of drinking this tap water.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Well thats a way to control the population - drug’m.
So does Jack & water.
Well Lithium is the long time treatment for Manic Depression, but supposedly the effective dose is very close to the toxic dose.
Reminds me of Brave New World, Soma pills.
Oh, swell.
I’ll never drink city water.
Where the heck is Norm MacDonald these days? I miss him.
Me too. The only place I’ve “seen” him recently was doing a voice cameo on the “Fairly Oddparents” as Norm the Genie.
I confess I have wondered what DC would be like if a little prozac were added to the water supply.
They can’t put it in my well without trespassing.
Tampering with our precious bodily fluids.
Personally, I’ve always believed that our drinking water was supposed to be higher in trace minerals than what we get out of the tap.
But then I’ve always believed that we were supposed to be eating more red meat and that a high-carb diet was bad.
Lithium is not a drug. It is a trace mineral essential for brain health.
In large doses lithium is toxic. In this way it is similar to selenium, which is essential to health in trace amounts, but toxic in large amounts.
http://www.tahoma-clinic.com/lithium1.shtml
http://www.tahoma-clinic.com/lithium2.shtml
VOLUME 29 , NUMBER 9 -September 1998
Lithium?s mood-stabilizing effect is explained
Lithium works to curb both the elation and despondence that are the hallmark of manic depression by stabilizing levels of the neurotransmitter glutamate, according to new research in animals.
Lithium has been used for nearly 50 years to curb the dramatic mood swings experienced by people with bipolar disorder, but exactly how the drug worked was unclear until now.
It appears that lithium exerts a push?pull effect on glutamate, which is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in 85 percent of the brain, according to research by pharmacologist Lowell Hokin and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.
Normally, to send a signal to a neighboring neuron, a nerve cell releases a flood of glutamate into the space between the two cells. Then to shut off the signal, the releasing neuron reabsorbs glutamate, pumping it back into the cell for reuse using a structure called a reuptake transporter.
Malfunctions in any part of this process can lead to inappropriate glutamate levels, which in turn may cause depression?in the case of too little glutamate?or mania?in the case of too much glutamate, the researchers postulate.
Based on studies in mice, the researchers find that lithium can both slow down the glutamate reuptake system, and speed it up. Indeed, when they exposed functioning slices of mouse brain to lithium, glutamate levels rose as reuptake slowed. In contrast, in live mice exposed to lithium for two weeks, glutamate dropped as reuptake increased. Overall, lithium appeared to stabilize glutamate levels within a narrow range, the researchers report in an article published in the July 7 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 95, No. 14, p. 8363?8368)
http://grande.nal.usda.gov/ibids/index.php?mode2=detail&origin=ibids_references&therow=207599
Lithium in drinking water and the incidences of crimes, suicides, and arrests related to drug addictions.
Thanks that was a very informative link...I guess my old timers disease is not as bad as I though. I was right on it being Texas...For others on this thread it would be informative to go to HangnJudge link....
“Well Lithium is the long time treatment for Manic Depression, but supposedly the effective dose is very close to the toxic dose”
That’s only because lithium carbonate passes the blood-brain barrier poorly, so primitive allopathic medicine employs massive doses.
Lithium orotate, designed by Dr Hans Nieper, passes the blood-brain barrier well, so small doses are effective. Lithium orotate is available without a prescription, and is quite inexpensive.
Here’s another good article on lithium:
http://www.selfhealthsystems.com/archiveletter.php?id=8
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