LITHIUM! ...But ya know what, it's harder than hell to find out exactly how much is in common foodstuffs! One website says, grain is a major source and beef is not, and the next site states it vice-versa. :-( I searched for hours for a chart listing generalized quantities, and there seem to be NONE. (And they'd have to be generalized, because soil and water samples vary significantly from place to place.)
It's truly impressive -- the lack of knowledge about what this stuff does in the body! In large doses, lithium can be very effective in mental disorders, but what it does in the "normal" brain and body is still a bit of a mystery. Certainly it's known that lithium can damage the thyroid, and there's a list of nasty overdose symptoms, but descriptions of mechanisms are sadly incomplete.
Nevertheless, i feel that this might be a very important substance when it comes to thyroid problems. One site i found revealed that THERE at least, they know what this stuff does -- "lithium increases intrathyroidal iodine content, inhibits the coupling of iodotyrosine residues to form iodothyronines (thyroxine [T4] and triiodothyronine [T3]), and inhibits release of T4 and T3." Hmmmm.... It's no wonder that lithium administration can cause either hypO- or hypERthyroidism.
Having properties similar to sodium and potassium, and other minerals too, there's a lot of evidence that lithium interferes with all kinds of processes pertaining to them. In another place, i was reading about how lithium interacts with various supplements, herbs and spices, exacerbating some and limiting others. This site simply has some good general info....
Well, obviously i need to spend a lot more time reading up on the stuff. My preliminary impression is that it isn't really NEEDED by the body, but can be put to use the way other "natural medicines" are. The danger looks like it comes from our not knowing nearly as much about it as we should. ...And i STILL suspect it of being one of the elements in food that a thyroid-challenged person should beware of!
Interesting that half the symptoms of lithium toxicity are the same as hyperthyroidism symptoms. My ultrasound showed and enlarged thyroid with a cyst. Not quite sure where to go from here. Will be talking to several doctors next week. :D
ReplyDeleteyes, the symptoms made me suspicious!!! i'm wondering if upping one's salt intake and drinking a boatload of water may not flush lithium better.... also, since lithium concentrates iodine in the thyroid, increasing selenium might be beneficial, too.
DeleteLOL! I didn't know that I was, "I'll never tell." It's my google account. But it's me Aunt T, Lori. Hahaha!
ReplyDelete:-D from your note, that's what i suspected!
DeleteAn old trick to get a patient to take lithium is to emphasise it's totally natural, salt of da earth. ;)
ReplyDelete(dammit, :-( i wrote a reply and failed to hit the publish button so now i have to figure out what i said....)
Deleteif you know of any sources i should read, do please tell! i'm going to tackle PubMed today.... from the little i've found already, i suspect lithium is one of those "toxins" that we can shrug off in small quantities (as in food), but gets significant in larger amounts. even toxins CAN be beneficial in certain circumstances, but for those of us who have "weak" thyroids, i'm forming a hypothesis it's significant in smaller quantities.
I'm not familiar with the literature on lithium and thyroid at all, sorry. Where do you get the impression that you'd be ingesting lithium in large quantities? Surely, it's only present in trace amounts, especially on an all-meat diet.
Delete:-) oh, some days i have more plant-material in my diet than i should.... but i'm having a hard time digging up information about how much Li is in the foods i eat, and what a "physiological" dose might be! i'm reading a particularly interesting treatise right now, the chapter on lithium in "The Relation of selected trace elements to health and disease" By U.S. National Committee for Geochemistry. Subcommittee on the Geochemical Environment in Relation to Health and Disease....
DeleteThose links you posted discuss lithium in the context of treatment of manic depression where patients take megadoses, probably 1,000 times of what you'd normally eat or drink. What lithium does at those doses is irrelevant to anyone who doesn't take it as medication. I have no idea how much is in food but no doubt it's negligible. AFAIK, there is no RDA for it since it's not an essential nutrient. I wouldn't worry about physiological levels or anything like that since many people live just fine for many years taking like 1,200 mg/day with no hypothyroid problems.
Deletefor most people, i'm sure that's right. what i read today implies that it's possible to get significant quantities in food and drink, though. and i wonder if some of us aren't more sensitive to the stuff, for reasons that are undiscovered so far. :-) i'm so sensitive to some other dietary substances, i wouldn't be surprised to find i'm "lithium intolerant" too.
DeleteReminds me of the Andrew Bird song "Tea and Thorazine."
ReplyDelete:-) i had to look it up (music, lyrics, and explanation of things like Dr. B) -- great song! now i'm going to have to listen to more of his stuff....
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