We then looked for dietary sources of lithium. I began consuming beef or pork with salted potato dishes to prevent the wild mood swings. It worked.
/Anecdata
But what made you suspect lithium deficiency?
Pork, beef, and salted potatoes sounds like a standard American diet. It's the core of the McDonald's menu :-)
I've had a few bipolar friends. I was having pretty severe mood swings that were very out of character for me. They reminded me of what little I knew of bipolar behavior.
If you have any other insights that one could derive from the periodic table that would be much appreciated as well. Thank you!
In general, chlorine is missing one electron from its full configuration, while the first column has a lonely electron in its outermost S-orbital — so they’re pretty happy to do a dance and make a molecule.
(Which is why HCl is also a thing.)