#366

Ok be aware that lithium taken on an empty stomach is absorbed less than when lithium is taken with food. P.S. really old reference.

THE INFLUENCE OF FOOD ON SIDE EFFECTS AND ABSORPTION OF LITHIUM - Jeppsson - 1975 - Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica - Wiley Online Library

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#367

Hahaha
I eat cheese before bed and knock down my supplements with whole milk.

Thanks for the heads up.

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#368

ACE inhibitors do the same (it may also be the mechanism of Telmisartan raising lithium)

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#369

Very interesting. Maybe some of the claimed health benefits of taurine could be due to that. By increasing the levels of lithium in the body, you get more of the benefit from lithium intake in the diet or even from supplements.

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#370

Yes, and EXCELLENT find @Curious !!!

I was taking 1mg of lithium, but then when I learned an sglt2 might decrease it 50-70% ish, I started taking 2mg
. and then, this week I ordered 5mg based on all the new data, knowing my effective dose might wind up being around 2.5
But eureka, I take 6g of taurine daily so who the heck knows- I’m getting whiplash :slight_smile:

I did ask about labs for lithium the other day but it was brought up that often labs are designed for people on high dose for BPD, so our low levels might not register.

Watching this space closely!!!

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#371

I am not a chemist, so this question is extremely naive (perhaps appropriate for my first post).

If lithium orotate and lithium carbonate are both salts, and both dissolve upon contact with water into their constituents—lithium ions and the corresponding orotate and carbonate ions, respectively—why should there be any difference in how strongly the lithium ions from these salts bind to amyloid in the brain?

I know the Harvard paper showed this empirically in the mice they studied, but it still seems odd to me.

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#372

They are both not v soluble

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#373

Thanks. That would explain it.

#374

The acid in the stomach should dissolve them though.

#376

Yes! Cheese for the fat content and satiety, but I use a casein shake instead of whole milk.

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#377

Thanks to those who posted the heads up on the lithium orotate supplements and the question about whether the “5mg” denotes the amount of lithium or lithium orotate. I am coming to the conclusion it’s probably just lithium orotate. The marketing verbiage on the Doublewood bottle says “Just 5 mg of lithium orotate may help support 
”, and the facts box says “Lithium (as lithium orotate) 5mg”, not “Lithium (FROM lithium orotate) 5mg”. Both suggest just 5 mg of Li Orotate, such that one is getting a fraction of a mg of Li.

I notice there is lithium chloride salt available (about 15% Li by mass). And there is orotic acid powder available. In solution, at physiologic pH, the carboxyl group on orotic acid should deprotonate yielding the orotate anion, and lithium chloride should produce the Li+ cation. At which point I don’t see how that is distinguishable from lithium orotate in solution.

So can anyone sanity check my chemistry with regard to the idea of supplementing lithium chloride + orotic acid as a means of being sure one is getting as much lithium as one intends?

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#378

I would just buy the KAL brand version of lithium orotate, which is what I use. They are an extraordinarily reputable brand with decades of experience, and the ingredients label is very clear – Lithium 5mg, as lithium orotate.