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Lithium in water 'curbs suicide'
bbc ^ | Friday, 1 May 2009

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 ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: lithium; suicide
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1 posted on 05/01/2009 1:03:01 PM PDT by JoeProBono
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To: JoeProBono

Well thats a way to control the population - drug’m.


2 posted on 05/01/2009 1:04:47 PM PDT by svcw (There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who know binary and those who don't.)
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To: JoeProBono

So does Jack & water.


3 posted on 05/01/2009 1:09:27 PM PDT by SouthTexas (When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people.....)
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To: JoeProBono

Well Lithium is the long time treatment for Manic Depression, but supposedly the effective dose is very close to the toxic dose.


4 posted on 05/01/2009 1:11:23 PM PDT by Lucius Cornelius Sulla ("men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters." -- Edmund Burke)
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To: JoeProBono

Reminds me of Brave New World, Soma pills.


5 posted on 05/01/2009 1:12:00 PM PDT by gattaca (Great things can be accomplished if you don't care who gets the credit. Ronald Reagan)
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To: JoeProBono

Oh, swell.


6 posted on 05/01/2009 1:12:50 PM PDT by Constitutions Grandchild
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To: JoeProBono


"Also reducing the risk for suicide is not killing yourself."

7 posted on 05/01/2009 1:13:56 PM PDT by library user
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To: JoeProBono

I’ll never drink city water.


8 posted on 05/01/2009 1:14:45 PM PDT by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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To: library user

Where the heck is Norm MacDonald these days? I miss him.


9 posted on 05/01/2009 1:15:51 PM PDT by Tony in Hawaii (NUTS!)
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To: Tony in Hawaii

Me too. The only place I’ve “seen” him recently was doing a voice cameo on the “Fairly Oddparents” as Norm the Genie.


10 posted on 05/01/2009 1:16:58 PM PDT by dfwgator (1996 2006 2008 - Good Things Come in Threes)
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To: JoeProBono

I confess I have wondered what DC would be like if a little prozac were added to the water supply.


11 posted on 05/01/2009 1:20:32 PM PDT by freespirited (Is this a nation of laws or a nation of Democrats? -- Charles Krauthammer)
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To: cripplecreek

They can’t put it in my well without trespassing.


12 posted on 05/01/2009 1:30:36 PM PDT by Gator113 ( IMPEACH HERE, IMPEACH NOW.......)
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To: JoeProBono

Tampering with our precious bodily fluids.


13 posted on 05/01/2009 1:36:58 PM PDT by Poison Pill (Given enough time, everything becomes illegal.)
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To: Lucius Cornelius Sulla

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.


14 posted on 05/01/2009 1:39:15 PM PDT by Marie
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To: JoeProBono

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


15 posted on 05/01/2009 1:44:59 PM PDT by devere
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To: JoeProBono
http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep98/lith.html
Lithium?s mood-stabilizing effect is explained

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)

16 posted on 05/01/2009 1:46:00 PM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: gattaca
Lithium is a natural occurring substance in some areas. Lithium was originally put out as a cardiac drug. But testing found out that as a cardiac drug it was not as effective as litmus for bi-polar disease. It can become toxic and if anyone is on it close monitoring of lith levels is important...Use to pass meds on the psych unit from time to time and blood/lith levels were closely monitored and were done at least once a week for those on lithium for manic-depression. I am trying to remember which parts of the US has natural lithium. I think it was Texas...low levels of suicide in those area's...and this is going back 20 years to when I worked in a hospital..
17 posted on 05/01/2009 1:46:31 PM PDT by goat granny
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To: goat granny
I am trying to remember which parts of the US has natural lithium. I think it was Texas...low levels of suicide in those area's...

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.

18 posted on 05/01/2009 1:51:02 PM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: HangnJudge

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....


19 posted on 05/01/2009 2:00:45 PM PDT by goat granny
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To: Lucius Cornelius Sulla

“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


20 posted on 05/01/2009 2:02:50 PM PDT by devere
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