Posted by john1022 on February 15, 2004, at 10:34:11
In reply to Re: Lithium orotate instead of Lithobid? » john1022, posted by Sooshi on February 15, 2004, at 10:22:21
no problem. I don't think you can get Lithium orotate through health food stores (I think they only carry lithium aspartate for some reason or another and I am not sure about the effectivness of this lithium). You can order it online through findserenitynow.com I believe. My doc gives me it from the company Vitamin Research Products which can probably be found online.
Each capsule has 4.8 mg elemental lithium, but a total of 120 mg lithium orotate. I guess the rest is orotate.
The recommened amount is 2-3 pills a day at different times of the day. Up to 4 can be given as well. My doctor basically said try to work up to 3-4. Some people take as many as 6 though from what I have read. But I think if you are going to get results from it, around 3 pills a day would work.
I have zero side effects from it and it doesn't even seem like I am taking anything. no drugged or dumbed down feeling or anything.
I am beginning to think my problem has more to do with serotonin though because my doc added 5htp and I had an immediate strong response to it the last few days where my depression and fogginess pretty much lifted.
my doc also mentioned that they have found that bipolars usually have low levels of the amino acids taurine and tyrosine, which are both neurotransmitters. Taurine is involved with supressing glucose uptake (which is often the problem in bipolar) and it regulates other neurotransmitters that might be overactive or overfiring. I was low in Taurine and started supplementing 2000 mg a day. It also gave me a positive and beneficial effective no doubt about it. Quercitin is another vitiman or amino acid that is a natural glucose inhibitor that might be worth looking into as well
let me know if you have any other questions. I think everyone should try this first before going on prescription lithium just to see if it works first because of the safeness of it and it is side effect free
poster:john1022
thread:313390
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20040110/msgs/313561.html