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Neuroprotective Properties of Lithium

09.20.2019 by Molly McHugh // Leave a Comment

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Neuroprotective properties of lithium refers to ways the mood stabilizer lithium chloride may affect the nervous system in positive ways i.e. protect or help regenerate damaged neurons or glial cells. The drug is known to be very toxic, so how could that be a good thing?

A Neuron - Specialized Cells of the Nervous System.
A Neuron – Specialized Cells of the Nervous System.

The below is quoted from a Journal of Clinical Neuroscience article:

“By definition, neuroprotection is an effect that may result in salvage, recovery or regeneration of the nervous system, its cells, structure and function. It is thought that there are many neurochemical modulators of nervous system damage.”

Source: Neuroprotection and Neurogenerative Disease.

[bctt tweet=”Lithium Used for Bipolar Disorder is Neurotoxic, Not Neuroprotective.”]

Lithium Chloride Increases Thickness of Myelin Sheath

One study used mice and created a facial nerve injury in half their face. Thy then treated half the mice with lithium chloride and the other half – the control group – received saline solution (placebo).

The mice who received the drug recovered more quickly than the placebo group. They had a thicker myelin sheath after recovery and “… the percentage of myelinated axons doubled after LiCl treatment.”

They created the injury in the mice. With humans it’s a little more complicated. There are many ways someone can be affected by a peripheral nerve injury.

Quoted from the study:

“Acquired neuropathies may be caused by aberrant immune responses, local injury, ischemia, metabolic disorders, toxic agents, or viral infections. To date, few therapeutic treatments are available. They are mostly based on anti-inflammatory agents.”

They also damaged the sciatic nerve of mice, gave half LiCL, half placebo for one week then killed the mice and performed tests.

They report the results as follows:

“Taken together, our observations demonstrate an increase of myelin sheath diameter around the axons of sciatic nerve in LiCl-treated mice vs. placebo-treated ones.”

Source: Lithium Enhances Remyelination of Peripheral Nerves.

Lithium Was Banned Due to Deaths From Toxicity – Now Health Promoting?

This is the problem. The science above may be sound and applicable for a short course of treatment for nerve damaged patients, but then using that as validation for long-term use for bipolar disorder is a huge leap.

The mice study was for 14 days. I initially improved with lithium treatment – maybe it should have then been discontinued after a few weeks or month. That’s as logical to think as not… based on the research.

As is the norm, I was kept on lithium though got sicker and sicker (increase in depression with suicidal ideation) and then prescribed trials of other meds (antidepressants) to treat the unwanted effects of the lithium.

After a year I’d had enough. I ended care, started reading and learning about the phony Chemical Imbalance Theory, lack of scientific credibility for psychotropic medications and how my experience getting worse was common.

Related post: There Are No Abnormalities in a Mentally Ill Person’s Brain.

What would have happened to the mice if they were kept on the lithium long-term? The mice used in the study were 8 weeks old. An 8 week old mouse is equivalent to a 20 year old human. Source: Mouse Age Calculator.

That’s young.

Mice live on average 2 years – equivalent to a 70 year old. I’d like to see a similar study that doubles the length of time of lithium treatment (say… 28 days or more) then reports effects seen.

Will the mice die? Was the amount of drug given to the mice equivalent to human dosages? Any adverse effects observed and noted?

Manic Depression is Not a Lithium Deficiency

This is a more applicable way to think about lithium related to bipolar disorder. As once a doctor gets you on it and sees initial improvement, they automatically think you ‘need the drug’ and should take it for life.

There’s no research supporting that. There is no ‘lack of lithium chloride’ identified in a bipolar disorder sufferer. Yes, it calms someone down during a manic episode but long-term adverse effects are many.

And it is not in any way a ‘miracle drug’. Here is what British psychiatrist Joanna Moncrieff, M.D. has to say.

“The sedative and slowing effects of lithium, although usually described as side effects, account for why lithium can help reduce arousal and activity levels in people with acute manic symptoms. So there is nothing magic or specific about lithium’s action in manic depression.”

“In theory, these effects might suppress the emergence of a manic episode, as well as reduce the severity of symptoms once an episode has started. The evidence that long-term lithium treatment reduces the occurrence of manic or depressive episodes is actually very weak, however.

Source: Reasons Not to Believe in Lithium.

Lithium is a Neurotoxin, Not Neuroprotective

After my year of high-dose lithium treatment were some of my nerve cells covered in a thicker myelin sheath? Do I really give a rat’s arse, or should anyone?

I wasn’t in treatment for nerve damage to tissues, I was in treatment for a mood disorder.

Bipolar disorder is a cyclic condition. Illness states may be severe but there are periods of normal functioning in-between episodes. It’s not a permanent impairment of nerve tissue of the brain that somehow needs regneneration.

Lithium actually causes tissue damage. Neurotoxicity is a well documented effect.

“Lithium salts have been used in treatment of depression and bipolar disorder for more than
50 years. Neurotoxic side-effects such as nystagmus, ataxia, tremor, fasciculation, clonus, seizure and even coma have been well described in the literature.”

Source: A Rare Neurological Complication Due to Lithium Poisoning.

It also leads to diabetes and causes kidney damage – which can become permanent.

“Lithium may cause problems with kidney health. Kidney damage due to lithium may include acute (sudden) or chronic (long-term) kidney disease and kidney cysts. The amount of kidney damage depends on how long you have been taking lithium. It is possible to reverse kidney damage caused by lithium early in treatment, but the damage may become permanent over time.”

Source: Lithium and Chronic Kidney Disease.

There is no way to predict the course of the illness, it varies from person to person. And psychotropic medications are a guessing game, a crapshoot style of treatment.

Why we need to have a better understanding of bipolar disorder and more effective treatment options that lead to better long-term outcomes.

Image of neuron from Clker.com.

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Categories // Bipolar Disorder Research, Lithium

Lithium Strengthens Cells in the Brain

06.09.2017 by Molly McHugh // 9 Comments

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Lithium strengthens cells in the brain.

You always knew you were special – most of us have many positive qualities – and that being diagnosed with Bipolar 1 Disorder in your late teens or early adulthood may also mean you have a good dose of intelligence packed into that noggin of yours; even be smarter than most others.

Lithium Strengthens Cells in the Brain
You are Now a Badass Bipolar Ninja. No More Slouching Please…

But did you know you were a ninja in training?

Destined to enter into a special zone – the psych void – and be treated by brilliant physicians who are going to put that brain of yours that went haywire on a map that hasn’t even been drawn yet?

Really.

[bctt tweet=”Due to Death From Toxicity Lithium Was Banned From Use in U.S. Until 1970.”]

You will surpass the stratosphere, reach mental heights never observed before and… wait, this is the best part: get a drug that is going to make the brain cells they think are causing this craziness even stronger. Stronger!

No more weak bipolar brain cells. No sirree. This illness is not for the meek, you know. It’s for ninjas!

You will be prescribed drugs to help in this process as we all know the world needs more ninjas. More smart folks like you with super powers of the brain and that brain needs to be fortified with… wait for it… the bionic-empowered salt lithium.

Related post: Neuroprotective Properties of Lithium.

Seriously, is that not the coolest thing ever?

How Was Lithium Discovered?

An Australian psychiatrist – John Cade, M.D. – happened upon it by chance in 1949 by doing experiments with mentally ill persons urine and guinea pigs. The very short version is that he discovered the urine from the mentally ill made the small mammals die faster than urine from normal persons.

He postulated the reason for this difference was the mentally ill persons had high concentrations of uric acid in their urine. You may think of gout when you hear the term uric acid and you would be correct. But we are talking about bipolar.

So what did Dr. Cade then discover?

He added some things to the solution he was injecting into the guinea pigs to test his hypothesis and to try to increase the water solubility of the urine and make it less toxic (so the little guys wouldn’t die as quickly).

One thing he played around with was lithium ion. He found lithium ion had a calming effect and surmised it may have the same effect on humans.

He took a little himself and experienced the same effect, so went on to give it to patients and the rest, as they say, is history.

Note: lithium was used in psychiatry before this discovery by Dr. Cade and after his discovery the new miracle drug (but of course, only miracles create ninjas you know…) caused many patient deaths due to toxicity. Source: John Cade.

Does Lithium Strengthen Brain Cells?

How miracles go, besides creating badass ninjas, is that they fade away or become more prominent, more miraculous. That’s happened with lithium and the treatment of bipolar disorder.

Now that if they need to prescribe a high dose there are blood tests that can determine if you are becoming toxic and drug companies have patents for more forms of it… it’s become better than just having an observable therapeutic effect.

Note: That is what lithium does – gives a calming effect. It does not correct any imbalance in your brain. Re-read this please if you still are thinking that and if so I am going to have to take away your ninja certificate. Hmmmph. What is the Chemical Imbalance Theory?

Now, not only is lithium as a drug warranted for use in the treatment of Bipolar 1 Disorder it is said to have identifiable positive effects on your brain cells.

It makes them stronger maybe, or encourages their growth. Learn more here: Neuroprotective Properties of Lithium.

Many are Intolerant to Lithium Treatment

Lithium is the treatment of choice for bipolar, but this illness is not simply a biological state of ‘lithium-deficiency’ in your brain and body.

Like me, some are intolerant to the treatment. I was given lithium twice for bipolar – once for a year at a dose needing blood monitoring – and my condition worsened.

I did not become manic while on the med but it led to a significant increase in depression creating a serious depressive episode with suicidal ideation – not fun and it was awful.

After I went off lithium treatment and ended care with the non-ninja psychiatrist, I improved.

I also ended-up hospitalized a few times in the years that followed. It can be hard to avoid that when you are Manic Depressive and I was not, unfortunately, an exception to that general rule.

It’s a bitch of an illness, a pretty horrific illness at times – suitable only for true to form real life badass ninjas.

If you want to know some potential side effects from taking lithium here is a good source that separates them into categories also (less common, common, rare) including a section on what happens if you overdose on lithium: Side Effects.

A Ninja I am Not – My Brain and Body Were Simply Sick

Let’s understand this illness better – and get at the root causes so treatments can be given that can help a sufferer heal.

We know for certain now it is not a lithium-deficiency causing things to go on in the body that then contribute to some of its pathological states… but that lithium can help control these out of control or extreme states.

What other things can have this effect i.e. cause severe depression or mania? What is really going on in the body? It’s crucial work. We all know the world needs more ninjas.

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Categories // Lithium

If I Can Get Off Psych Meds Anyone Can

02.12.2017 by Molly McHugh //

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If I can get off of psych meds anyone can. I firmly believe that. There’s nothing special about me that is different from any other human being on the planet. Individual differences between all of us, of course, but we are all made of the same basic stuff, same biology, same genetic structure.

A Female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. Isn't She Gorgeous?
A Female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. Isn’t She Gorgeous?

In my next life I’m planning on morphing into a hybrid human-hummingbird… but that’s not the focus of this post. 🙂

I’m Similar to Anyone Who Is Manic Depressive

There is nothing special about me that somehow makes my Manic Depression different from anyone else’s. Bipolar 1 Disorder has a basic clinical presentation that most suffereres fit into to a certain extent.

I had the classic late teen onset (age 19), severe mania that appeared out of the blue (no previous mental illness issues) and was hospitalized. Many others have experiences that are very similar.

I do not think a psychiatrist would look at my becoming ill as somehow unique. I think they’d simply look at it as classic onset of one of the most severe mental illnesses they have on their books.

[bctt tweet=”We Need Better Treatments for Manic Depression from Time of Onset Throughout Someone’s Life.”]

How the illness will then play out in the person’s life is very unique, and like any illness dependent on a multitude of factors. A few primary ones are:

1.   Access to Care i.e. financial status.

2.   Support System i.e. being accepted and helped or rejected.

3.   Available Treatments i.e. doctor that just writes prescriptions then hospitalizes when the medications worsen someone’s symptoms or physicians who search for underlying health issues and find ways to treat.

I got lucky with #3 above and is why I am alive today. That’s where I want you to get to. If possible. Or your child, relative, neighbor, coworker’s grandchild i.e. off of psych meds and searching for ways to be well.

We know what goes on in the body when we fart. What happens in the body during cardiac arrest. What a seizure presents as. When someone is or is not in a coma. And on and on.

Let’s get to the point where we have a better understanding of what is going on in the body when someone develops Manic Depression.

Or better yet – the field of psychiatry to start taking a more medical approach to treating Manic Depression from the time of onset and throughout the person’s life. To stop lying about a chemical imbalance they know does not exist.

Related post: Undertanding the Placebo Effect of Antidepressants.

Medical treatments meaning anything other than brain damaging psychotropic medications that are only useful short-term for crisis intervention (mania, psychosis, sucidical depression). Long-term they kill. Shorten lifespan, trigger suicide and worse – are implicated in many mass murders.

Lovely. Shouldn’t we be moving away from that madness?

So a person can go on to live a healthy, productive life. Not become permanently disabled by side effects from toxic meds, put in jail or dead.

Progression Of Illness Is Unique

The core features of how this illness presents clinically has been identified (or else there would be no real way to diagnose it) but where it goes from there is highly individual.

This is where all sufferers are very unique. And all are going to have different responses to treatment, different underlying causes of their mood issues (what triggered the onset of BP-1), different responses to medical and adjunctive care, etc.

Examples: Melatonin is a huge help to me in regulating moods by getting deeper, more restful sleep at night. Some people can’t tolerate it or it does not help them. Yoga isn’t my thing. For some it’s a lifesaver.

And on and on.

You Can Withdraw From Psych Meds. No, It Will Not Be Easy.

I can’t share the specifics of my tapering off of lithium (large doees for a year, plus trials of antidpressants) when I was around 23 years old or so. I have very little clear memory of that time.

I remember my life at that time (I don’t have memory issues, have never had ECT) but I had two incidences of trauma that has clouded my recollection of events. When I try to think of what I did exactly, and how, how long it took etc. I cannot remember the specifics.

I basically read a ton, started to receive medical care from qualified physicians for my primary complaints of fatigue and daytime drowsiness and made a ton (or attempted to make) of lifestyle changes: dexox, getting off suger, candida diet, trials of supplements, thyroid hormone medication.

A bunch of stuff. And that’s what withdrawl will most likely be for others i.e. a very complicated and drawn out process that is not going to be easy or quick.

The below is from a nice, simple article on the basics of what to expect, written by psychologist John M. Grohol:

“Although this will not come as news to anyone who’s been on any one of the most common psychiatric medications prescribed — such as Celexa, Lexapro, Cymbalta, Prozac, Xanax, Paxil, Effexor, etc. — getting off of a psychiatric medication can be hard. Really hard.”

“Much harder than most physicians and many psychiatrists are willing to admit.”

Source: Withdrawl from Psychiatric Meds Can Be Painful, Lengthy.

And you need help from a physician. I did not have specific, direct care for withdrawing, but I was receiving medical care and they knew my history and that I was off of psych meds.

Today There is An Abundance of Information To Help With Drug Withdrawl

An abundance of information and many qualified physicians (and therapists working with a physician) who can help you.

Many have shared their personal stories online. Here are links to a few of those plus other excellent resources: Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Resources.

The bottom line is it is simply up to you. No one can force you. You need to decide to take control of your body and mind. It’s in your control. The choice is yours.

Whether your Big Pharma doctor has training to help, or will support your decision is another matter.

The below is from a Mad in America article by psychiatrist Vivek Datta, M.D.:

“One of the most damaging aspects of current psychiatric practice is that we convince people that they somehow themselves are damaged, whether this due to broken brains, crooked molecules, intrapsychical conflicts, damaged cognitive sets, abusive childhoods, traumatic lives, and so on.”

“In doing so we erode a sense of personal agency, a narrative of resilience and autonomy, and instead create a dependency and helplessness. I think one of the keys to coming off psychiatric drugs is for the individual to have their own coherent narrative of their experiences, and to see these experiences as within their control.”

Source: Withdrawing From Psychiatric Drugs: What Psychiatrists Don’t Learn.

Related post: There Are No Abonormalities in a Mentally Ill Person’s Brain.

Holistic Psychiatrists in the U.S.

Check out this free list of Holistic Psychiatrists in the U.S. for some names in or near where you live: Holistic Psychiatrists in the United States.

I’ll be continually updating it – if you know of a great doc to add, send me the info!

Cheers, Molly

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Categories // Alternative Treatments, Antipsychiatry, Lithium, Psychiatric Medications and Withdrawal

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