Posted by Barbara Cat on July 4, 2003, at 11:08:46
In reply to Re: rapid cycling and mind noise, posted by ELENI4 on June 23, 2003, at 15:42:48
I take lithium and occasionally have metal mouth. It's accompanied by unquenchible thirst. My mouth feels sticky and my breath comes out sharp and hot ('Ugh! Hon, do you know your breath is bad?', as my husband keeps reminding me). It's not all the time. The thing is, I used to get this occasionally even before I went on lithium, usually when I was out of my mind with panic attacks and severe agitated depression. Someone once told me that this could be due to mercury amalgam fillings. I don't know.
What to do about it? I drink 8 oz hot water with 1/2 lemon squeezed into it (gotta be fresh lemon) in the morning, sometimes with fresh ginger water as well (simmer fresh peeled chopped ginger for 20 min.). This seems to balance the chemistry. Then I chew xylitol gum I get from my natural foods market. This keeps the saliva going and neutralizes the metal taste. I guess regular gum would help too as long as it's not full of crap. Xylitol however is getting good marks for preventing tooth and gum problems among other good things. Somthing else to do is to chew well and swallow fresh parsley or drink parsley tea. Parsley has alot of cholophyll which neutralizes bad breath and bad stomach, and it's a great nerve tonic as well. - BCat
>I took Lithium briefly to stabilize my moods, but developed "metal mouth" and decided the metallic taste was too bothersome to continue. I guess that's another question. If someone out there has taken Lithium and also developed metal mouth, does it go away? I was only on a very low dose of 300mg and the taste came on after only three to five days.
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poster:Barbara Cat
thread:9730
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030701/msgs/239220.html