Posted by Rob25 on April 26, 2004, at 13:32:41
In reply to Re: Lithium Orotate « Michael Motter, posted by Dr. Bob on December 22, 2003, at 16:35:31
Hi, Michael --
Your other comment to me in a different thread got moved and the move didn't show who the posts were to, so I decided to comment here.
You suggested that I read articles about Dr. Nieper and talk to a pdoc before using lithium orotate.
Actually, I had previously read YOUR article above about Hans Nieper and lithium orotate. : ) And I had formerly read info about Dr. Nieper's products not being let into the US. One of the articles had the exact paperwork describing the reason, which was because the labels were in German.
And despite what the reasons may or may not have been, I've had a long and ugly history with this illness. I've been all over the place and never had those nice periods of stability that other bipolars seem to get. I've been taking lithium orotate with the blessing of my pdoc, mainly because nothing else has worked well for me. Some things probably would have except I'm apparently ultra-sensitive to side effects.
I've now been completely stable for the many months now for the first time in my life. The only time during this period I wasn't doing well is when I went off the lithium orotate for two weeks because I couldn't believe something so cheap and easy to take could be doing all this--maybe I had just hit one of those great stable periods of the cosmic bipolar cycle. But two weeks off was enough for me--and everyone around me--to realize what was making the difference.
Yeah, I know that as far as some people are concerned, my case is just anectodal. S'ok with me. I'm just glad this stuff works for me. And it has worked for lots of people I've told about it, too. So people can try to dredge up anything negative they can find about lithium orotate. All I know is that the stuff works for me and lots of other people too.
Also, I believe that kidney info you refer to is flawed.
My understanding of the test that was done regarding the kidney fuction comparison between lithium orotate and lithium carbonate is this: (btw, I have studied both the abstract and the full text of the article of the research done in 1979 by Smith and Schou.)
They injected rats with both lithium carbonate and lithium orotate (and a neutral injection of sodium chloride) and then measured kidney functioning, urine flow, etc. The results were that the lithium orotate seemed to cause lower kidney functioning.
However, the HUGE and apparently completely overlooked point here is this--they injected the rats with the SAME amounts of lithum orotate and lithium carbonate. Anyone see a problem here?? The point is, people DON'T TAKE the same enormous amounts of lithium orotate as they have to take with lithium carbonate and lithium citrate!! An effective dose is typically like 15 mg of elemental lithium from lithium orotate compared to 126 mg of elemental lithium from lithium carbonate, which is more than 800% more lithium!
So when I see people quote that study, I wonder why nobody's comparing apples to apples. Instead the study compares grapes to watermelons and the results end up skewed and completely indifferent to the way lithium orotate is administered in actual use.
Thank you for your concern and input, though. I think it's very helpful for people to present their thoughts to each other as we all try to get through this.
Rob
poster:Rob25
thread:259704
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20040418/msgs/340230.html