My post above shows cities with high crime rates per capita. The suggestion of adding lithium to city drinking water was in jest, because there is no showing that those cities’ drinking water have low lithium content. The connection is made based on the untested hypothesis of Australian psychiatrist John Cade.
This theory led to ‘nutri-criminological’ studies which revealed that in areas where the drinking water contained more lithium there were lower serious crime rates and fewer suicides. [Biol Trace Elem Res. 1990 May;25(2):105-13.]
My lithium orotate arrived yesterday, in time for my weekend dosing of kaempferol, myricetin, and lithium. I started kaempferol and myricetin the weekend past. This is for my self-experimentation of a substitute for rapamycin (or everolimus), and trametinib (a MEK inhibitor and anti-cancer), as posted below.
I ordered it before reading your post so I didn’t decide based on that but I certainly appreciate your clarification. I do believe based on what I’ve read that both places I’ve lived during my lifetime have low groundwater lithium levels.
As promised, I finally had my lithium levels checked. Quite a surprise, makes me wonder if the lithium orotate supplement I am currently taking actually has any lithium in it.
FWIW: I am currently taking
“Lithium Orotate 5mg, 180 Vegetarian Lithium Capsules” by “Purely Holistic”
I think I will go back to the “NCI Advanced Research Dr. Hans Nieper Lithium Orotate Tablets”
I have been taking low-dose lithium orotate for decades, so I am completely surprised by the results.
When I took 5mg Lithium tablets I had a test result of 0.1 mmol/L. Your result is not clear as it says under 0.3 L when it probably means <0.3 mmol/L. However, that would be consistent with my result.
My result was too high for my purposes as I want a level under 0.05 mmol/L hence I reduced my intake.
That reference range is a mental health dosage range not a longevity low dose range.
Does anyone know what the desired blood level would be? Certainly don’t want to aim for therapeutic unless you’re bipolar. Toxic level is not far above therapeutic.
I don’t know what the desired lithium blood level should be, but I have been taking lithium orotate at 10 to 20 milligrams of elemental lithium for decades. Earlier this year, I had a lithium blood test and my lithium level was below the psychiatric therapeutic level.
Just because a blood marker is under the range, doesn’t mean it needs correction. This test is only done when on prescribed lithium carbonate. Besides for that trace lithium is enough for your daily lithium. Taking trace doses of lithium orotate (up to 2mg) and even low dose lithium orotate (2-5mg) will not cause any effect to your serum lithium levels. The dose is far too small hence “trace” lithium. So no need to check if taking. As for prescribed lithium carbonate, there is no point of experimenting unless there is a serious psyciatric condition which your psychiatrist prescribed this as a solution for. The therapeutic dose of lithium carbonate (900mg+) and the toxic dose are extremely close. Hence, why the prescribing physician dilligently monitors serum lithium levels in which this blood test is necessary.
I did the blood test for Lithium last week on Tuesday and got the result this morning. My results so far are
7mg per week under 0.05 mmol/L
35mg per week 0.1 mmol/L
15mg per week under 0.05mmol/L
Sadly what I really need is a lithium test in the range of 0.01 mmol/L through to say 0.2 mmolL in steps of 0.01 mmol/L. That would give a much better guide.
What I am aiming for is around the 0.05mmol/L mark and possibly a bit lower than that. Hence I am happy with the result I have now. I know I am not taking too much. Because some of the cell plasma membrane ion transport channels are inhibited by lithium there is a good reason to try to keep it really quite low so I think I will settle on 15 or 14mg per week. I was taking 2 mg on 6 days and 3mg on the 7th. I may simplify this to 2mg per day.
I might try increasing the lithium to say 21mg, but to be honest I think I am probably in the right area at the moment. It is clear from this that 5mg to day takes lithium up beyond what is perhaps the healthspan sweet spot. However, none of these things are completely certain and someone else may have completely different results.
I can see the argument for 1mg per day and it would be really good to have a high sensitivity lithium test that is sensitive to variations at the bottom end of the scale. In the end, however, some information is better than none at all. I would not be surprised if the serum levels linked in a limited way to dosage on a linearish basis, but a lot of this sadly is guesswork.
