#285

Apparently the best way to test for lithium deficiency is a hair test. I’ll give this one a try: Heavy Metals Hair Test Kit | Heavy Metal Testing Hair UK | Mineral State

Has anyone ever done that?

2 Likes
#286

I have done a test like this. It may be this one.

#287

Did you learn anything new or interesting compared to blood tests (for lithium and other minerals)?

#288

I was a bit low on molybdenum. It also said I was low on copper, but I knew that. It is probably because of alcohol consumption.

Here it is:

image
image877×1148 99.9 KB

8 Likes
#289

I wonder if lithium orotate is the best form of lithium; an interesting comment in this study:

“Lithium aspartate was chosen over lithium carbonate and lithium orotate because lithium aspartate was the lithium salt used by the 10 patients with PCC previously treated by one of us, is readily available as a dietary supplement to maximize patient accessibility, and because orotate increases the occurrence of several cancers in animal models.34-36”

5 Likes
#290

Good catch! In France only lithium gluconate and citrate are available. I wonder if there’s a difference between these forms.

4 Likes
#291

I also came across this, but I’m a bit concerned whether it contains any unwanted heavy metals.

" Plant-based lithium: is a unique form of lithium made from vegetables that are grown in high-dose lithium soil. Currently, there is only one manufacturer who produces plant-based lithium. This form may be better absorbed and utilized, as our bodies are used to digesting lithium in plants. In my practice, some of the best reports and feedback come from patients with depression who use plant-based lithium."

#292

I got a stomach ache from lithium orotate (Life Extension 1mg).

#293

Did you have it on an empty stomach?

1 Like
#294

I have to believe that this is at much, much higher doses than what we are taking. Our dosing on orotate is really at almost a trace level… and lithium as used in mental health conditions is dosed at hundreds of times higher without (apparent) cancer incidence increase.

But - there is one listing for lithium aspartate on Amazon if people are interested:

6 Likes
#295

We previously chatted about our increased ‘mood’ and energy associated with Telmisartan on another thread. Telmisartan increasing the bodies lithium levels might be the cause.

I think I’ll add in 1mg Lithium and see if I have an discernable side effects mood wise.

2 Likes
#296

That was also my first thought, and I’m sure that’s the case, but it’s still interesting that the matter was mentioned in that way.

1 Like
#297

Telmisartan caused such severe anxiety for me that I had to stop using it. I wrote about this in another thread.

1 Like
#298

As said somewhere else, I don’t think it’s this because I take dapagliflozin that lowers lithium levels and it had 0 negative effects on my mood. And dapagliflozin use is associated with a lower rate of depression.

5 Likes
#299

https://www.ibroneuroreports.org/article/S2667-2421(23)00039-8/fulltext

We hypothesize that lithium may dissociate from the salt carrier aspartate more readily than from carbonate and/or cross cellular barriers more readily resulting in higher serum and/or intraneuronal “free lithium” levels at equivalent elemental lithium dosages of the two formulations. Because commercial lithium assays typically assess total, not free lithium levels, biological assays like PBMC Nurr1 expression represent a more objective way to compare dose-response relationships among different lithium formulations. This study’s findings of numerically higher magnitudes of PBMC Nurr1 and SOD1 mRNA expression associated with medium-dose lithium aspartate versus high-dose lithium carbonate support this hypothesis. In addition, one of the medium-dose lithium aspartate patients who withdrew due to side effects when receiving 45 mg/day subsequently reported no side effects when receiving 30 mg/day with a steady-state trough serum lithium level < 0.1 mmol/L. At 45 mg/day of lithium aspartate, the highest predicted serum lithium level in this patient would be about 0.15 mmol/L, which would be extremely unlikely to produce side effects if derived from lithium carbonate therapy. In support, a recent study showed 10–100-fold disparate potencies of several different lithium formulations when assessed on an array of biological assays (Torshin et al., 2022). Patient characteristics including levodopa equivalent dose and disease duration did not appear to contribute to the two patients withdrawals. Further research is needed examining the effects of different lithium formulations including lithium aspartate on lithium-sensitive biological assays. In order to minimize patient withdrawals, future clinical research on lithium aspartate therapy could utilize a dose titration schedule up to a maximum tolerated dosage of 30–45 mg/day based on an individual’s side effects.

They compared high dose carbonate to medium and low dose aspartate and found that aspartate at moderate doses was best. So the lithium form seems to matter a lot. What about orotate? :thinking: What do you think @John_Hemming?

2 Likes
#300

I would not myself go for carbonate. Orotate or aspartate are probably much the same.

When measuring the dosing it is important to know whether it is the elemental quantity or the total quantity. Those doses seem to result in surprisingly low serum concentrations, but if it the total mass then it may be about right.

Looking at the paper they seem to claim these are elemental dosing. Does not seem right to me.

4 Likes
#301

Lithium for Alzheimer’s and dementia prevention:

5 Likes
#302

Effect of lithium on circadian activity level and flexibility in patients with bipolar disorder: results from the Oxford Lithium Trial 2025

Lithium carbonate was provided as Priadel 200 mg prolonged-release tablets.
Participants in the treatment group started lithium at 400 mg/day taken as a single dose at night. The target lithium serum level was 0.7 mmol/L (range from 0.4 to 1.0 mmol/L). The dose of lithium was adjusted to maintain the serum lithium levels within the therapeutic range by following a predetermined schedule (Table 1).
Our findings indicate that lithium induces significant changes in circadian rest-activity as early as one week after initiation of treatment, independent of changes in affective symptoms. Specifically, lithium was found to reduce daytime activity levels and advance the onset time of daytime activity.
The stabilisation of circadian rhythms following lithium treatment could serve as an early marker of its efficacy, potentially guiding the personalised selection of mood stabilisers.

Subtherapeutic lithium supplementation causes physiological eccentric cardiac hypertrophy in young-adult wild-type male mice 2025

Six weeks of low-dose lithium (Li) supplementation has been shown to improve the activity of cardiac sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum calcium (Ca 2+)- ATPase (SERCA) in C57BL/6J wild-type (WT) male mice. Improvements in myocardial SERCA function can lead to improvements in systolic and diastolic function in various rodent models. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that 12 weeks of subtherapeutic Li supplementation (10 mg/kg/day) would enhance SERCA function and positively influence cardiac contractility and morphology. Cardiac function and morphology were assessed using high-frequency ultrasound in the final week of Li treatment. Subsequently, SERCA activity, Ca2+ uptake assays, and Western blotting for glycogen synthase kinase-3β, SERCA2, and its inhibitor phospholamban (PLN) were performed on isolated left ventricle tissue. After 12 weeks of subtherapeutic Li supplementation, the heart underwent eccentric remodeling, exhibited by increased left ventricle internal diameter and volumes during systole and diastole, ultimately leading to greater stroke volume. However, we did not find any specific alterations in systolic or diastolic functional measures; nor were there any changes in SERCA activity and its content relative to PLN after Li supplementation. Thus, while Li supplementation appears to positively influence cardiac morphology to increase stroke volume, these changes are independent of changes to SERCA function.

To briefly summarize, male wild- type C57BL/6J mice (16 weeks of age, n = 12) were supplemented for 12 weeks with low-dose Li treatment (10 mg/kg/day dose in drinking water, serum [Li+] = 0.02 mM ± 0.004) (Hamstra, Kurgan, et al., 2020). […] A stock bottle of 50 mg/mL lithium chloride (L4408; Sigma-Aldrich; St. Louis, MO, USA) in distilled water was prepared for the lithium treatment group.

ChatGPT says that the dose used is equivalent to about 60 mg/day in a human adult (converting from the daily dose) or 6.7 mg (converting from the serum levels). @John_Hemming

3 Likes
#303

The longevity dosing is around 20mg per week. Human Mental health is around 0.5g per day. Lithium inhibits some of the citrate transporters. I think SLC13A2 and A3, but possibly not A5, but I have not checked this. In any event I think the nephrotoxic aspects of lithium come from inhibiting citrate transport into the kidney.

5 Likes
#304

I’ve been taking 1mg of lithium per day. Easy decision because it’s in my daily multi and low enough that no thinking was involved :slight_smile:

I’m now seeing you mention longevity dosing is 20mg per week

Also, this week I saw @Joseph_Lavelle say he read taking an sglt2 might reduce our lithium levels by 50%.

Google told me:
“Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, such as empagliflozin and dapagliflozin, may increase the renal excretion of lithium and lead to decreased serum lithium levels”.

Is this something the hivemind agrees with?

If so, maybe I’ll increase my dose a bit. I have not yet looked into if there are any downsides to 5mg per day, but I’ll consider that or at least 2mg per day.

Would love opinions!

1 Like