Posted by barbaracat on March 26, 2005, at 20:57:52
In reply to Re: Cymbalta - teensy weensy dose still working great! » barbaracat, posted by KaraS on March 26, 2005, at 17:08:05
Lithium Orotate: No, I think they were very sincere. I responded with one of them a few times whose child was still doing great on it and he recommended it very highly. Don't remember his name but a search would find him. In fact, there were a number of people who tried it, but as I followed their experiences, it seemed they were either disappointed or were never heard from again. But that sometimes happens when people start feeling better on this board.
The first time I tried, I ran out of carbonate and figured it was a good time to try the orotate. I took the recommended 1 pill a day, then 2. Stuck it out for 3 weeks but went manic anyway. That one was a doozy. I spent over a thousand dollars on garden projects, pumps and fixings to make fountains, kept buying pallets of bedding plants and not digging holes to plants them. My husband was alarmed since neither of us were employed at the time. Carbonate pulled me out in a few days before I broke the bank. Nothing got completed, of course and the stuff joined the piles of my other grand projects in the garage.
The next time, the same thing, ran out of carbonate, still had some orotate around, but this time used 4 orotate pills day and went hypomanic. Figured it was because I had discontinued the carbonate abruptly and so the next and last time I slowly tapered off the carbonate while ramping up the orotate from 3 pills to eventually 5 pills a day. That time it took a little longer and I thought it was finally working, but nope. Each time I was impressed at how quickly it took for the carbonate to clear my head, calm me down, center me. Each time I remember saying 'I'll never do that again.'
The whole idea behind the orotate is it's supposed enhanced bioavailable transport system allows less to be used, thereby avoiding the problems of having to metabolize the typical high doses used in carbonate. But at 5 pills, I was taking more milligrams than with the carbonate, and it plain didn't work. I tried both the Serenity brand and the Advanced Research brand, supposedly the best one.
I honestly don't know what to think of the possible marketing hype angle. Alot of websites sell it and make fantastic claims and the rationale sounds good. Perhaps if you're mildly bipolar (hmmm, isn't that like 'mildly pregnant'?) you can benefit from orotate. Also, research is showing that lithium is neuroprotective, and a darn good brain nutrient. So maybe if someone isn't bipolar but wants the benefit of lithium, orotate in a mild form will provide it. But for real bipolar illness the word out there as well as my own experience says that there's no substitute for carbonate. It would be interesting to do a search and see what recent threads say. It was a hot topic on the Alternative board for a while. I think there were alot more 'does it work?' than success stories, however. I don't need any more convincing it doesn't work for me, but let me know what you think.
On the home front, I'm needing a bit of my own philosophy. I read some of my pep talks and think 'was that me?' when I'm down. Fighting off a respiratory bug that had my husband in bed for 2 weeks and I'm feeling yucky. Makes me realize how important health and energy are to mood. - Barbara
> Interesting. Are you suggesting that the 2 posters who talked about success with lithium orotate were just sales plants?
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poster:barbaracat
thread:475145
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050326/msgs/476011.html