Despite being a scoffer at the type of person who, like Jerome K Jerome, could fancy himself the victim of every malady he ever read about ... i firmly believe i have a problem with lithium. I think the mechanism is through the autoimmune connection -- lithium exacerbates autoimmunity.
Too many members of my family have developed thyroid problems while living in Arizona -- a place notorious for high levels of lithium in the soil and water. When i was living in Salt Lake City (where there is also a goodly amount of this mineral), i started to develop slight "essential tremor," and the quantity of my conventional thyroid (Armour) dose hadn't changed in years; nor had my diet. The tremor didn't change until i started using sea-salt exclusively in my cooking, living here in a major river valley (where there is generally more lithium in soils) ... when it got worse.
Why do some us seem to have a problem with it and others seem to benefit by getting more? Allow me to quote the doc in the second link, above -- "This has not been studied." There's obviously a shitload of stuff that hasn't been studied, when it comes to lithium. They know it can reduce testosterone, but they don't know what it does to female hormones (and women receiving lithium treatment are five times more likely to become hypothyroid than men are. FIVE TIMES). Although it's found all over the body (and concentrated in some organs), what it does in every one of them is NOT KNOWN. As the doc said, "this will take a lot more research to determine; research of the kind not easily funded, because there is no pharmaceutical company in a position to make money...."
I've identified a few ways to help myself detoxify. The rest of the chili is going into the freezer and ditto for the cheese. I'll also be using plenty of refined salt and taking my mag-zinc supplements more religiously, drinking lots of RO water, avoiding other dairy foods and nightshades (which are particularly good at concentrating lithium from soil and water), and using aspirin instead of ibuprofen if painkillers are called for.
Next time i'm in AZ -- because there's no way to avoid visiting your mother* -- i guess i'll be drinking Aquafina....
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* well, actually, there IS ... but i'm not going there. ;-)
You could try distilled water for a bit but not long term. A mineral leaching beverage, if there ever was one. Not recommended for drinking. It also has an odd taste, but make strong tea.
ReplyDeletei drink RO water at home, which is pretty well stripped. but i get lots of minerals in my food and in some of my supplements as well.
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