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Comment by helloworld653 | Hacker News Reader

Can anyone share their experience consuming Lithium Orotate?

Years ago I remembered reading this article - https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/magazine/i-dont-believe-i...

The one compound I've used (on and off, for maybe a few weeks at a time over the past 18 years) intermittently is Clonazepam. Recently however I don't find the dosage to be very effective, and reading the literature, upping benzo dosage has a high risk of increased dependency. I'd like to avoid that.

I happened to randomly start Googling about Lithium and stumbled upon Lithium Orotate, which is sold as a supplement pretty much everywhere. There's a little bit of literature on Pubmed, but not much.

I bought this - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PB4II68/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

And it arrives on Friday. The reviews on this and other Lithium Orotate seem almost too good to be true, but for $10, I'm willing to give it a shot.

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I take this exact brand and it is really great. just be careful if you stack with SSRIs. if I take a bit too much I started getting headaches/serotonin syndrome-esque effects. I stepped down to 2.5mg since I take some prescription meds but if you're vanilla 5mg is great to start. For me it does help relieve anxiety and boost my mood a bit. If you have a NY Times subscription or free article viewing you might also be interested in the article "Should we all take a bit of lithium?" which inspired me to try it. Here is an article with some info on dosing from a practicing doctor. https://www.chandramd.com/blog/low-dose-lithium-supplements

Good to hear, thank you for sharing.

The problem with self-medicating lithium is that doses low enough to be harmless were not shown to be effective, and doses proven to be effective are too close to dangerous. The only way to get the dosage right is very careful blood testing.

Go to a doctor, and get set up correctly.

I have a bipolar diagnosis but with medication I've been symptom free for over 5 years now. For the past two years I've been taking 5mg Lithium Orotate nightly as a supplement to my main medication Lamotrigine [1]. I started taking the Lithium as a prophylactic against dementia. Research has shown that a history of bipolar disorder is associated with significantly higher dementia risk [2-3]. Low-dose lithium has shown promise as being preventative against the progression of dementia [4].

After starting the Lithium Orotate I noticed some subjective improvements in mental clarity and mood within a couple weeks. The effect is very small though and not comparable to that of my main medication. Although it's possible that I'm only experiencing the placebo effect, I suspect that the Lithium actually is helping somewhat.

The 5mg dose in most commercially available Lithium Orotate supplements is a couple orders of magnitude less than the doses typically used to treat bipolar, but I think it would still be good idea to bring it up with a doctor. Also, try to manage your expectations. It's probably not going to change your life all at once, but you may notice some small subjective benefits over the longer term, and the research on low doses of lithium being partially preventative against dementia seems pretty solid.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamotrigine

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5365367/

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6994228/

[4] https://journalbipolardisorders.springeropen.com/articles/10...

Thank you for the detailed reply and literature citations.

I intend to try Lithium Orotate and see how I feel, as it seems like a safe first step.

I highly recommend not using lithium without medical supervision. All of the bipolar people I know have significant side-effects from it. You also need to be careful with hydration because lithium toxicity is dangerous. If you get confusion as a side-effect of toxicity, you become less able to recognize what is happening.

From my own experiences with atypical anti-psychotics, getting dehydrated or running low on carbohydrates can affect my motor control severely enough that I can't drive. (I always have water and energy bars on me.) It resolves within an hour after rehydrating.

Interactions with other medication or supplements can also be dangerous.

I can't say anything about low-dose lithium so I'm sorry if this is out of scope.

I did however take 600mg daily of Lithium Carbonate for a long time and it really helped me with my anxiety, and, importantly, it reduced my suicidal thoughts/self harm urges to basically zero from multiple times a day. This isn't as low as the doses people seem to use with Orotate, but it's still "subclinical".

I’ve known people that took lithium for bipolar. It’s not a drug I’d recommend taking without professional supervision. Its side effects can include personality disassociation, weight gain, and memory loss. The people that I knew fought tooth and nail to get off it.

Obviously, the effects will differ between people, but best to go into things with your eyes open and a professional to supervise things.

As you likely know, but some people replying to you seemingly don’t- lithium orotate is not the same as prescription lithium (carbonate? It’s been a while).

Takes more of the latter form to be effective, and lithium toxicity is no joke- it’s landed a family member (who’s been on it for decades) in the ER multiple times.

Lithium orotate is safe at the doses on the label of otc supplements.

In my experience if has a subtle but distinct effect in terms of reducing anxiety. Particularly if taken with water on an empty stomach. Can’t speak to its effect on bipolar type issues.

I tried this for a short time. Hard to recall the affect on me, I don't feel depressed any longer so safe to say it probably worked.

I'd say the bigger impact on me was def. psychedelics though.

It's good as a micronutrient supplement with a good placebo effect. I take it on and off with no side effects (low dose).

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