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Clinical use of Lithium Orotate

By Dr Steven Haltiwanger

Why I recommend the use of lithium orotate?

Doctors for decades have known that minerals have beneficial roles in the body. Psychiatrists actually use a form of mineral therapy in psychiatric patients when they administer lithium salts in the form of lithium carbonate and lithium citrate.

These types of lithium mineral salts are classified as drugs and can only be obtained with a prescription. A standard dose of lithium carbonate is 300mg, which contains 56.34mg of elemental lithium (Merck Index 1996). In contrast 300mgs of lithium orotate only contains 11.5mg of elemental lithium, which is approximately 5 times less lithium.

The drugs forms of lithium have to be administered with care under a doctor’s supervision. Typical doses of lithium carbonate range from 600 to 1200mg per day. A dose of 600mg of lithium carbonate contains 112.68mg of elemental lithium, whereas 1200mg of lithium carbonate contains 225.36mg of elemental lithium.

Psychiatrists are trained to use these drug forms of lithium mineral therapy by monitoring blood levels of lithium. Monitoring blood levels of lithium is critically important in lithium drug therapy because high amounts of elemental lithium are required in order to achieve a clinical effect. When taken orally these types of lithium salts are broken down in the digestive tract delivering almost all of the ingested lithium into the bloodstream in the form of free lithium ions. Since free lithium ions do not readily pass from the bloodstream into the brain, these drug forms of lithium require the administration of high doses of elemental lithium in order to elevate blood lithium levels to the point where lithium is able to diffuse through the blood brain barrier into the brain. Unfortunately, since the blood level of lithium required to achieve therapeutic effects is very close to the toxic level, many individuals experience side effects when prescribed lithium therapy.

Why should an individual consider using a trace mineral supplement that contains lithium?

Lithium orotate on the other hand is a compound where lithium is attached to the amino acid carrier orotic acid. This form of lithium is manufactured to be acid resistant so that when lithium is delivered into the bloodstream it is still attached to its orotic acid carrier (Nieper 1985)

I believe lithium orotate should be viewed not as a drug, but as a trace mineral supplement that contains lithium. Each 120mg lithium orotate tablet only contains 4.6mg of elemental lithium, which is about 5 times less elemental lithium by weight than an equivalent weight of lithium carbonate. When used as a trace mineral supplement three tablets of lithium orotate only expose the body to 13.8mg of elemental lithium.

Basically lithium orotate is a supplement that effectively delivers lithium into the brain without increasing blood levels of lithium to high levels. In fact blood levels of lithium usually remain very low when lithium orotate is taken, since smaller amounts of elemental lithium are utilized. In addition the orotic acid carrier assists in transporting lithium from the blood stream into the brain.

Regular use of lithium has been found to protect brain neurons from cell death and to stimulate the growth of new brain cells (Moore et al; 2000 Gray et al; 2003). Recent studies have found that lithium binds to and inhibits the activity of brain enzymes such as glycogen synthase kinase-3 (Pilcher, 2003) and protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes  (Manji et al; 2001) that may be involved in processes leading to brain cell death. In addition lithium administration increases the production of a brain cell protecting protein (Manji et al 2000). In summary, use of lithium as a trace mineral supplement may serve an important role in safeguarding the health of the brain.

• Manji HK, Moore GJ, Chen G. Clinical and preclinical evidence for the neurotrophic effects of mood stabilizers: implications for the pathophysiology and treatment of manic-depressive illness. Biol Psychiatry 2000 Oct 15;48 (8):740-54.

• Moore GJ, Bebchuk JM, Wilds IB, Chen G, Manji HK, Menji HK. Lithium induced increase in human brain grey matter. Lancet 2000 Oct 7; 356 (9237): 1241-2.

• Nieper HA. Chronic Inflammation of the Liver and Atrophied Liver; Lithium Orotate. In: Dr. Nieper’s Revolution in Technology, Medicine and Society (May1985):224 – 226.

• The Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, and Biologicals 12th edition. Whitehouse Station, NJ: Merck Research Laboratories, 1996.

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