Excellent Article on Lithium

[susiestar]

http://discovermagazine.com/2010/th...0-years-lithium/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C=

This article has some really amazing things to say about lithium and its' potential as a treatment for mental illness - including bipolar but not limited to bipolar.

What are your opinions?

 

[1 Day At a Time]

There is a small suburb near our city that is named "Lithia Springs". It has a spring with very high amounts of naturally occurring Lithium. There was a famous spa at Lithia Springs in the 1800's, and people came from long distances to "drink the waters". Spas fell out of fashion and Lithia Springs became a sleepy , small town. However, there was a devoted group of people who continued to drink the spring water. Around 20 years ago , a commercial group began selling the bottled water. It's interesting how research shows that some ideas from the past have some merit. I think that this is one of those ideas, and I hope that more people can benefit from this treatment.

Valerie

 

[TerryJ2]

No profit it in? I thought the pharmaceutical industry had a handle on it. Hmm.This is an interesting part of the intro: Lithium is as puzzling as it is potent. It was the first drug used to treat mental illness, and more than 50 years later, it is still one of the most widely used psychiatric medications. But the doctors who prescribe lithium to their patients still do not know how it works or even why it works. “It is the most mysterious drug in psychiatry,” says De-Maw Chuang, a biologist at the National Institute of Mental Health. “It’s so small, but it is so powerful.”Unlike other psychoactive chemicals—large, complex molecules like Prozac (fluoxetine) or Abilify (aripiprazole)—lithium is extremely simple. It is an element, the lightest of the metals, and its chemical properties are similar to those of the sodium in table salt. Nonetheless, researchers have recently found that lithium could be something close to a psychiatric wonder drug. It has two remarkable powers in the brains of mentally ill patients: protecting neurons from damage and death and alleviating existing damage by spurring new nerve cell growth. Far beyond its current application as a mood stabilizer, lithium could be helpful in treating or preventing Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, stroke, glaucoma, Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), and Huntington’s disease—an impressive tally that earned it the nickname “the aspirin of the brain” in the journal Nature.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[HaoZi]

its chemical properties are similar to those of the sodium in table salt.

Hmm.... trileptal works on the sodium pathways of the frontal lobe, and kiddo and I both have massive salt cravings, always have.