61 replies to this topic

[pycnogenol]

Here is an interesting article about lithium: "Lithium Promotes the Formation of New Brain Cells"

http://www.life-enha...ate.asp?id=1675

[Solarclimax]

Here is an interesting article about lithium: "Lithium Promotes the Formation of New Brain Cells"

http://www.life-enha...ate.asp?id=1675

I've got some orotate and was in 2 minds about taking it as i have read both positive and negative things. I think i will give it a shot, was only taking 120mg before so see how i react to 5g

[Logan]

Anxiety and mild depression is greatly helped by my lithium dosage. I'm not noticing any side effects at 20mg a day. Now the only time I really feel anxious is the first thing in the morning (presumably when my blood levels of lithium are the lowest). I seem to have crazy/stressful dreams a lot. Too bad I don't have lucid dreams every dream

Thanks for the info I am probably ready to try a bit. Probably won't go that dose at first. Did you/do you have any panic symptoms or above normal adrenaline responses? That's my main deal.

My symptoms were mostly generalized anxiety more than acute panic attacks. Low level but constant worrying even though I know worrying doesn't do any good.

I need some of this cus i seem to have the anxiety problems and the depression too. I have tried everything, perika, sjw, kira, etc and i still haven't found a favourite i can swear by!

Have you tried Rhodiola? Holy basil is good too. I combined New Chapter's Rhodiola and Holy Basil with good results. You can always throw low dose lithium into the mix-it's good for the brain.

[niner]

http://www.iherb.com...lets/22628?at=0 this one is doctors best which cost brand $11.98
http://www.iherb.com...blets/6766?at=0 this one is nutrients carriers brand $15.22

They boh contain same stuff but the second one is cheaper, and also have 100 more comments with good rating, unlike doctors best which has 1 comment. Could this mean the second one might be more worthy of buying despite paying 3 dollars more?

I would get the Dr's Best. NCI has used some deceptive labeling which I think is a bad sign, and DB is a solid company. Comments at iherb unfortunately are meaningless.

[nito]

Here is an interesting article about lithium: "Lithium Promotes the Formation of New Brain Cells"

http://www.life-enha...ate.asp?id=1675

Article ends with,

"It has also been speculated that his first serious exposure to lead may have occurred accidentally when, at the age of 16, he visited the famed spa at Baden-Baden, whose mood-healing waters owed their efficacy to … lithium."

Looks like even Bethoveen used to experience with Lithuim!

[stephen_b]

Anxiety and mild depression is greatly helped by my lithium dosage.

Have you tried niacin? I've found it to help mild social anxiety.

[health_nutty]

Anxiety and mild depression is greatly helped by my lithium dosage.

Have you tried niacin? I've found it to help mild social anxiety.

I did try niacinamide in quite high doses (500mg) to see if it would help. I read somewhere that niacinamide, but not niacin helps with anxiety. It didn't seem to do much for me so I stopped using it.

[nito]

http://www.iherb.com...lets/22628?at=0 this one is doctors best which cost brand $11.98
http://www.iherb.com...blets/6766?at=0 this one is nutrients carriers brand $15.22

They boh contain same stuff but the second one is cheaper, and also have 100 more comments with good rating, unlike doctors best which has 1 comment. Could this mean the second one might be more worthy of buying despite paying 3 dollars more?

I would get the Dr's Best. NCI has used some deceptive labeling which I think is a bad sign, and DB is a solid company. Comments at iherb unfortunately are meaningless.

unfortunately i have been persuaded in most of my buya through the comments as i don't really know much about the supplements. But you're right, maybe over relying on them is wrong!

[nito]

Anxiety and mild depression is greatly helped by my lithium dosage. I'm not noticing any side effects at 20mg a day. Now the only time I really feel anxious is the first thing in the morning (presumably when my blood levels of lithium are the lowest). I seem to have crazy/stressful dreams a lot. Too bad I don't have lucid dreams every dream

Thanks for the info I am probably ready to try a bit. Probably won't go that dose at first. Did you/do you have any panic symptoms or above normal adrenaline responses? That's my main deal.

My symptoms were mostly generalized anxiety more than acute panic attacks. Low level but constant worrying even though I know worrying doesn't do any good.

I need some of this cus i seem to have the anxiety problems and the depression too. I have tried everything, perika, sjw, kira, etc and i still haven't found a favourite i can swear by!

Have you tried Rhodiola? Holy basil is good too. I combined New Chapter's Rhodiola and Holy Basil with good results. You can always throw low dose lithium into the mix-it's good for the brain.

Rhodia has stopped working for me. Previously it managed to keep me slightly more relaxed but not much for depression. Have not tried holy basil.

[nito]

Here is an interesting article about lithium: "Lithium Promotes the Formation of New Brain Cells"

http://www.life-enha...ate.asp?id=1675

I've got some orotate and was in 2 minds about taking it as i have read both positive and negative things. I think i will give it a shot, was only taking 120mg before so see how i react to 5g

wow 5 gram would be considered as quite a lot would it not?

[NDM]

http://www.iherb.com...lets/22628?at=0 this one is doctors best which cost brand $11.98
http://www.iherb.com...blets/6766?at=0 this one is nutrients carriers brand $15.22

They boh contain same stuff but the second one is cheaper, and also have 100 more comments with good rating, unlike doctors best which has 1 comment. Could this mean the second one might be more worthy of buying despite paying 3 dollars more?

I would get the Dr's Best. NCI has used some deceptive labeling which I think is a bad sign, and DB is a solid company. Comments at iherb unfortunately are meaningless.

The main reason Dr Best doesn't have more reviews is because it is "New product at iHerb- January 2010". And the other product probably benefits from a positive feedback loop/ first mover advantage.

[nito]

http://www.iherb.com...lets/22628?at=0 this one is doctors best which cost brand $11.98
http://www.iherb.com...blets/6766?at=0 this one is nutrients carriers brand $15.22

They boh contain same stuff but the second one is cheaper, and also have 100 more comments with good rating, unlike doctors best which has 1 comment. Could this mean the second one might be more worthy of buying despite paying 3 dollars more?

I would get the Dr's Best. NCI has used some deceptive labeling which I think is a bad sign, and DB is a solid company. Comments at iherb unfortunately are meaningless.

The main reason Dr Best doesn't have more reviews is because it is "New product at iHerb- January 2010". And the other product probably benefits from a positive feedback loop/ first mover advantage.

Makes sense. Missed that one!

By the way i was on drugsforum.com and someone was sayng that it was too risky to play around with lithium and it would be better going for less toxic supps like deprenyl. Don't know which one to buy really.

[health_nutty]

I did an experiement of trying 40mg of lithium for 4 days to see how I would feel. It was fine the first 2 days but then I started getting just a bit spacy and started getting a bit of apathy. It was a bit harder to get motivated to get started working.
I've dropped back to 20mg and it seems just right for me. Just thought I would share my experiment with you guys.

[Logan]

http://www.iherb.com...lets/22628?at=0 this one is doctors best which cost brand $11.98
http://www.iherb.com...blets/6766?at=0 this one is nutrients carriers brand $15.22

They boh contain same stuff but the second one is cheaper, and also have 100 more comments with good rating, unlike doctors best which has 1 comment. Could this mean the second one might be more worthy of buying despite paying 3 dollars more?

I would get the Dr's Best. NCI has used some deceptive labeling which I think is a bad sign, and DB is a solid company. Comments at iherb unfortunately are meaningless.

The main reason Dr Best doesn't have more reviews is because it is "New product at iHerb- January 2010". And the other product probably benefits from a positive feedback loop/ first mover advantage.

Makes sense. Missed that one!

By the way i was on drugsforum.com and someone was sayng that it was too risky to play around with lithium and it would be better going for less toxic supps like deprenyl. Don't know which one to buy really.

One capsule of lithium orotate a day is not going to be toxic. I was taking 2 a day and lithium didn't even show up in my blood tests. Now whether this means it's not toxic I'm not totally sure of, but I would guess that is the case.

[Solarclimax]

Here is an interesting article about lithium: "Lithium Promotes the Formation of New Brain Cells"

http://www.life-enha...ate.asp?id=1675

I've got some orotate and was in 2 minds about taking it as i have read both positive and negative things. I think i will give it a shot, was only taking 120mg before so see how i react to 5g

wow 5 gram would be considered as quite a lot would it not?

Thanks for pointing that out, i thought i saw someone say 5g, but it was 5mg. I haven't taken 5 grams though so i can't comment on the effects of such dose. Most i had is one 120mg tab a couple of times, lets hope i can actually read the thread properly and do some research and figure out a good dose, like everyone should be doing.

Oops!!

What are poeples thoughts on this ?
http://www.crazymeds...hiumorotate.htm

Edited by Solarclimax, 01 April 2010 - 10:28 PM.

[Logan]

Here is an interesting article about lithium: "Lithium Promotes the Formation of New Brain Cells"

http://www.life-enha...ate.asp?id=1675

I've got some orotate and was in 2 minds about taking it as i have read both positive and negative things. I think i will give it a shot, was only taking 120mg before so see how i react to 5g

wow 5 gram would be considered as quite a lot would it not?

Thanks for pointing that out, i thought i saw someone say 5g, but it was 5mg. I haven't taken 5 grams though so i can't comment on the effects of such dose. Most i had is one 120mg tab a couple of times, lets hope i can actually read the thread properly and do some research and figure out a good dose, like everyone should be doing.

Oops!!

What are poeples thoughts on this

Whateva. Lithium orotate works just fine. It may not be best for people suffering bipolar mania, but I'm sure it is fine to take a little of if your just looking for promoting of neuroprotection and neuroplasticity.

[pycnogenol]

Another Lithium article:

Activation of Autophagy for Neuroprotection: Lithium Induces Autophagy, Delays Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

http://www.life-enha...ate.asp?id=1956

[chrono]

Here's the article. For what it's worth, the study didn't actually involve lithium. It's mentioned a couple times in the full text, but only as an example of a substance which indirectly inhibits PKC. Nowhere is any conclusion as direct as the title of this thread stated, though I don't think it's an unreasonable one.

Inhibition of protein kinase C signaling protects prefrontal cortex dendritic spines and cognition from the effects of chronic stress.
Hains AB, Vu MA, Maciejewski PK, van Dyck CH, Gottron M, Arnsten AF.

The prefrontal cortex r regulates behavior, cognition, and emotion by using working memory. Prefrontal functions are impaired by stress exposure. Acute, stress-induced deficits arise from excessive protein kinase C (PKC) signaling, which diminishes prefrontal neuronal firing. Chronic stress additionally produces architectural changes, reducing dendritic complexity and spine density of cortico-cortical pyramidal neurons, thereby disrupting excitatory working memory networks. In vitro studies have found that sustained PKC activity leads to spine loss from hippocampal-cultured neurons, suggesting that PKC may contribute to spine loss during chronic stress exposure. The present study tested whether inhibition of PKC with chelerythrine before daily stress would protect prefrontal spines and working memory. We found that inhibition of PKC rescued working memory impairments and reversed distal apical dendritic spine loss in layer II/III pyramidal neurons of rat prelimbic cortex. Greater spine density predicted better cognitive performance, the first direct correlation between pyramidal cell structure and working memory abilities. These findings suggest that PKC inhibitors may be neuroprotective in disorders with dysregulated PKC signaling such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and lead poisoning--conditions characterized by impoverished prefrontal structural and functional integrity.

PMID: 19805148 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[chrono]

Here are a few papers which more directly examine the ability of lithium to prevent stress-induced changes to the brain.

Some of the results indicated protective changes only when stress-inducing factors were present. This doesn't mean that lithium only works for stress, since stress factors were the focus of these studies, but it's interesting to note that at least some of these neuroprotective effects were not the result of a more generalized neurogenesis mechanism, but specific to stress alterations.

Lithium treatment prevents stress-induced dendritic remodeling in the rodent amygdala.
Johnson SA, Wang JF, Sun X, McEwen BS, Chattarji S, Young LT.

Amygdala function is altered in patients with bipolar disorder (BD), but may be normalized by treatment with mood stabilizers. Lithium remains the most effective mood stabilizing therapy for BD, but the relevance of its neuroprotective effects in pre-clinical studies to clinical outcomes is unknown, and the targeting of amygdalar neurons by therapeutic interventions for BD has not yet been examined. Chronic stress in rodents increases activation of the amygdala and induces dendritic hypertrophy, thus providing a quantifiable marker of neuronal structural pathology that may be reversed by lithium treatment. Rats underwent restraint stress for 21 days, with or without concurrent administration of lithium in their diet. The overall length and complexity of neuronal dendritic arbors of principal pyramidal neurons in the basolateral amygdala were quantified using Golgi-Cox impregnation and three-dimensional neuron tracing. Lithium treatment prevented stress-induced increases in dendritic branching of amygdalar pyramidal neurons by reducing total dendritic length (18.0%; P=0.006) and the number of dendritic branch points (21.0%; P=0.02). Despite its protective effect when administered during stress, lithium did not alter amygdalar dendritic morphology when administered to non-stressed control rats. Our results demonstrate that lithium attenuates structural remodeling in the amygdala during stress, but has contrasting effects on neuronal morphology under pathological versus healthy conditions. This may reflect an ability of lithium to stabilize excitatory neurotransmission in the amygdala of individuals with BD, reducing the need for compensatory adjustments of dendritic architecture.

PMID: 19501634 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Lithium blocks stress-induced changes in depressive-like behavior and hippocampal cell fate: the role of glycogen-synthase-kinase-3beta.
Silva R, Mesquita AR, Bessa J, Sousa JC, Sotiropoulos I, Leão P, Almeida OF, Sousa N.

Mood disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders. Although the mechanisms implicated in the genesis of mood disorders are still unclear, stress is known to predispose to depression, and recently, studies have related hippocampal neurogenesis and apoptosis to depression. In the present study we first examined the balance between cell birth-death in the hippocampus and subventricular zone (SVZ) of pre-pubertal and adult rats subjected to chronic-mild-stress (CMS). CMS led to increased corticosterone secretion and induced depressive-like symptoms (assessed in the forced-swimming test); these endocrine and behavioral effects were paralleled by decreased hippocampal, but not SVZ, cell proliferation/differentiation and by increased apoptotic rate. In order to determine if lithium, a known mood stabilizer with antidepressant properties, could prevent the stress-induced events, we analyzed the same parameters in a group of rats treated with lithium during the stress exposure period (CMS+Li) and observed that the hormonal, behavioral and cell turnover effects of CMS were abrogated in these animals. Subsequently, to search for possible pathways through which CMS and lithium influence behavior, cell fate and synaptic plasticity, we analyzed the expression of glycogen-synthase-kinase-3beta (GSK-3beta), as well as some of its downstream targets (B-cell-CLL/lymphoma2-associated athanonege (BAG-1) and synapsin-I). CMS increased GSK-3beta and decreased synapsin-I and BAG-1 expression in the hippocampus. Interestingly, co-administration of lithium precluded the CMS-induced effects in GSK-3beta, synapsin-I and BAG-1 expression. Our observation that specific inhibition of this kinase with AR-A014418 blocked the effects of CMS in depressive-like behavior and in BAG-1 and synapsin-I expression confirmed the involvement of the GSK-3beta pathway in stress-induced effects. In summary, these results reveal that lithium, by regulating the activity of GSK-3beta, prevents the deleterious effects of stress on behavior and cellular functions.

PMID: 18291594 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Lithium attenuates stress-induced impairment of long-term potentiation induction.
Lim KY, Yang JJ, Lee DS, Noh JS, Jung MW, Chung YK.

Stress impairs the induction of long-term potentiation in the hippocampus as well as hippocampus-dependent memory. Lithium, a classical mood stabilizer, is known to have beneficial effects on stress-induced impairment of spatial memory. In the present study, we investigated lithium effects on the impairment of long-term potentiation induction after exposure to acute immobilization stress. As previously reported, immobilization stress impaired long-term potentiation induction in the CA1 region of rat hippocampal slices. Treating the slices with 0.6 or 1 mM lithium attenuated impaired long-term potentiation induction in stressed animals. Lithium was without effect on long-term potentiation induction in unstressed animals or baseline synaptic responses in unstressed or stressed animals. These results demonstrate a protective effect of lithium against stress-induced impairment of long-term potentiation induction.

PMID: 16148754 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Edited by chrono, 09 April 2010 - 09:54 PM.

[tunt01]

so i just tried lithium for the first time. about 2.5-3mg, seems pretty noticeable. how worried should I be about this thing effecting my heart? and what kind of tests should have done to prevent toxicity when I see the doc in a few weeks?

[thevaughny]

so i just tried lithium for the first time. about 2.5-3mg, seems pretty noticeable. how worried should I be about this thing effecting my heart? and what kind of tests should have done to prevent toxicity when I see the doc in a few weeks?

What effects are you seeing? What are you taking it for?

I have purchased some but only taken like a quarter of a pill or 1.25mg's. My brain is so messed up I have anxiety about taking things that are supposed to be good for the brain.

[tunt01]

What effects are you seeing? What are you taking it for?

mostly just feel remarkably mellow, but it feels like it has a pretty depressing effect on my system (cardiovascular/CNS). figured i'd try it for neurogenesis + autophagy purposes. dont really have an anxiety issue.

[mikeinnaples]

What effects are you seeing? What are you taking it for?

mostly just feel remarkably mellow, but it feels like it has a pretty depressing effect on my system (cardiovascular/CNS). figured i'd try it for neurogenesis + autophagy purposes. dont really have an anxiety issue.

It made me giggle like a school girl (make it worse cause I am a dude) the first couple times I took it. Of course, that is pure ancedote and that has sense disappeared.

[tunt01]

It made me giggle like a school girl (make it worse cause I am a dude) the first couple times I took it. Of course, that is pure ancedote and that has sense disappeared.

how much do you take, how much do you weigh?

[mikeinnaples]

It made me giggle like a school girl (make it worse cause I am a dude) the first couple times I took it. Of course, that is pure ancedote and that has sense disappeared.

how much do you take, how much do you weigh?

5mg .. 208 lbs

[Logan]

so i just tried lithium for the first time. about 2.5-3mg, seems pretty noticeable. how worried should I be about this thing effecting my heart? and what kind of tests should have done to prevent toxicity when I see the doc in a few weeks?

You're taking such a low dose I doubt it would have any negative effect on your heart.

Maybe the mellowing effect will subside with time.

When I was taking lithium orotate(maybe 10 mg a day) it did not even show up when I had my lithium serum levels checked.

[NDM]

I hate splitting my 5 mg pill...would it be OK to take one 5 mg pill every other day? Any info on lithium half-life, etc? Main side effect super smelly farts.

[chrono]

I hate splitting my 5 mg pill...would it be OK to take one 5 mg pill every other day? Any info on lithium half-life, etc? Main side effect super smelly farts.

If the issue is that it's hard to break in half, maybe buy a pill splitter at the pharmacy?

[amere]

I hate splitting my 5 mg pill...would it be OK to take one 5 mg pill every other day? Any info on lithium half-life, etc? Main side effect super smelly farts.

Lithium pills are indeed a pain to split.

Capsules here:

http://www.iherb.com...ules/20753?at=0
http://www.iherb.com...Caps/22777?at=0

[kalibtweli]

Does anyone make capsules smaller than 5mg?