No Diet is Complete Without Trace Minerals. Part Three: (Lithium)

My goal has been to share what I’ve discovered about the importance of trace minerals and how necessary they are in one’s diet. In this article, I will discuss the trace mineral, Lithium. This trace mineral is known for helping to controlling one’s emotion.

When one first hears the word, ‘Lithium,’ one thinks of the rechargeable battery and, yes, that’s true! Lithium is used in this capacity, but it is also a trace mineral. All human tissue contains some level of Lithium. This trace mineral helps stimulate the endocrine glands, brain function, and enhances the absorption of cobalt and vitamin b-12. Lithium deficiency results in reduced fertility, a depressed growth rate, reduced longevity, depression, uncontrollable emotions, and suicidal tendencies. The use of Lithium, in the form of “Lithium Carbonate,” could be used as a treatment for a type of mental illness, “manic depression,” was discovered by a researcher named Cade in 1949. After years of study, Lithium Carbonate has been widely used as a therapeutic drug for this condition.

Lithium has been discovered in the mid-1970’s as having an additional role in maintaining mental health. Researchers in Texas, discovered that the levels of Lithium found in water was inversely associated with the incidence of admissions and readmissions of patients for psychoses, neuroses, and various personality disorders in 27 Texas state mental hospitals. Since these researchers were unsure of their findings, they conducted a second more thorough study two years later. In the second study, the researchers not only confirmed their earlier findings but they found that homicide rates were inversely correlated with the lithium levels in drinking water.

However, in both studies the incidence data was only collected for a period of two years. Therefore, two longer periods were studied by independent researchers at the University of California and the University of Oriente in Venezuela. In the first study, the incidence of suicide, homicide, and rape were studies over a five-year period. In the second study, the incidence data included many more offenses over a ten-year period. Using data from both of these studies, it was found that the incidence rates of suicide, homicide, and rape were significantly higher in counties whose drinking water supplies contained little or no Lithium than in counties with water Lithium levels ranging from 70 to 170 micrograms per liter; the difference remaining statistically significant after considering such factors as population density. The corresponding associations with the incidence rates of robbery, burglary, and theft were also statistically significant. Comparisons of drinking water Lithium levels with the incidence of arrests for possession of heroin, cocaine and their derivatives also produced statistically significant inverse associations.

These results suggest that Lithium has moderating effects on suicidal and violent criminal behavior at levels that may be encounters in municipal water supplies. The authors of these long-term studies concluded that, “Lithium at low dosage levels has a generally beneficial effect on human behavior, which may be associated with the functions of Lithium as a nutritionally-essential trace element.” These researchers suggested that a Lithium dosage level of about 2 milligrams a day might be considered as the dose effectively lowering the incidence of aggressive and/or self-destructive behavior.

Disclaimer: I am an avid reader with a craving for learning about life itself, especially when concerns health, happiness, outer and inner beauty. I am not a medical professional. I am just someone having a need to share what I’ve learned and discovered.

My Sources
Trace Elements and Other Essential Nutrients, by David Watts
Minerals For the Genetic Code, Charles Walters, Jr.
Dead Doctors Don’t Lie, by Joel D. Wallach and Ma Lan
Minerals, Trace Elements, and Human Health, by Alexander G. Schauss

For the complete book, “Oh! Feeling Pretty! Can Trace Minerals Fight Viruses, Prevent Cancer, and Other Ailments,” click on this link:
https://www.24symbols.com/book/x/x/x?id=3462493