• Lithium occurs naturally in spring water in the Georgia Piedmont. Lithia Springs, about 35 miles west of our front porch, was once famous.
• Lithium is in the water in small amounts, far below the therapeutic levels used to treat people with bipolar disorders.
• Since the levels in spring water are below therapeutic levels, people assumed that the lithium in drinking water had no effect at all.
• If that were true, you would not be able to look at lithium levels in a community’s water supply and make predictions about obvious indicators of mental health, such as suicide rates. But you can.
• Imagine a bizarre game in which players are asked to guess whether the suicide rate in a Texas county is above average or below. Since the game is played in Texas, betting is fierce. But one contestant knows the level of lithium in the water supplies of all 254 Texas counties. She doesn’t win every round, but she wins all the money, night after night. If you are confusing the laws of nature with a game of pure chance, you’re going to lose a lot of money.
• When I was a boy, our understanding of the effects of smoking tobacco was limited. We understood the correlation between smoking cigarettes and all kinds of health problems. But we didn’t understand the mechanism, allowing the tobacco industry to say that there was no proof that smoking caused cancer. We are in a similar situation now in our understanding of lithium: we have correlations, rather than explanations.
• The correlations are strong enough to have sparked interest in lithium as a neuroprotector. You can find scientific literature about its potential as a defense against Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
• Warning: Lithium has not been served well by the medical profession. High dosages are toxic, a fact that became apparent to doctors in the 1940s when patients started dying. Some forms of lithium sold to consumers cause kidney damage. If this topic interests you, read and think before you act.
• Lithium, like carbon and oxygen, is an element. That means it can’t be patented by a pharmaceutical company. You can do your own speculating about the implications of that fact on research.
I wouldn’t take a large dose of lithium. But I’m intrigued by the evidence that microdoses of lithium in natural spring water do protect the brain in ways that aren’t understood.
• Sources and notes: If you’re scientifically inclined, I’d try O.V. Forlenza, V.J.R. De-Paula and B.S.O. Diniz, “Neuroprotective Effects of Lithium: Implications for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Neurodegenerative Disorders”; ACS Chemical Neuroscience, April 25, 2014, and available through the National Library of Medicine here:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4063497/
For an article by a psychiatrist in English, see Anna Fels, “Should We All Take a Bit of Lithium?”; The New York Times, Sept. 13, 2014. It’s here:
Finally, this whole train of thought started when I saw a photo of a soda truck on Michael Leddy’s blog, Orange Crate Art. Lithium used to be in a lot of soft drinks, including 7 Up. Michael’s post is here:
https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2025/03/cheer-up.html
Thanks, Michael.
I see that Lithia Spring Water is sold only in five-liter bags. Not especially practical. I’d rather have a bottle of Cheer Up. :)
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