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Lithium In Water "Curbs Suicide"
SpuriousLogic writes "Drinking water which contains lithium may reduce the risk of suicide, a Japanese study suggests. Researchers compared levels of lithium in drinking water to suicide rates in the prefecture of Oita, which has a population of more than one million. The suicide rate was significantly lower in those areas with the highest levels of lithium, they wrote in the British Journal of Psychiatry. And I was only worried about fluoridation affecting my precious bodily fluids before ..."
Where they spike the water to cure aggression in people? It doesn't end well.
Where they spike the air to cure aggression in people? It doesn't end well.
Concidering that Lithium is used to treat a number of mental illnesses like bipolar and depression that should be expected. Here in the US there are many living with undiagnosed depression and we are seen as a tollerant and accepting society in regards to mental health. In Japan there is far less social acceptance (at least when I lived there, maybe its changed) so I would expect and even higher percentage of non treated people.
It is not widely promoted since it can't be patented. This is not a conspiracy theory (even if it sounds like this), see it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_pharmacology
(Hey, it worked for Inconvenient Truth. :P)
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Doesn't Lithium react explosively with water?
That there are no suicides in Bolivia?
Sig this!
0% of people who commited suicide in the last year drunk water with Lithium in it.
The idea that "scientists" are going to be spiking water supply with Li+, a freaking powerful mood stabilizing aka mood altering drug for the "Greater Good"?! My wildly successful but bipolar Boss took this stuff to deal with his manic lows, and it he would become a zombie. Everything he accomplished as a businessman he did BEFORE taking lithium. I would rather see funding and energy expended to reduce suicides without "stabilizing" the humanity into a calm herd.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
Why not just flood all water supplies with every drug we can think of? Hey, thorazine seems to work! Is it really the governments job to inject vitamins/minerals/animals into our water supply? Sure, flouride seems to work, and I can see this study leading to lithium being added. I wonder if I could make Riddalin(sp?][TM] bottled water? Justs seems to be getting a bit nuts to me that we have to add something to everything.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
by the machines, to turn Humans into Lithium batteries!
lithium can cause cardiac birth defects when taken in the first trimester, so unless they're going to put pregnant women on a separate water system this is probably a bad idea. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/154447-overview
for its ability to suppress suicidal urges. It's significantly more effective at suicide reduction than any other drug available. For this reason, it's still commonly used for treating people with bipolar. Ironically, it's also one of the more toxic drugs and easy to commit suicide with.
Having drugs that reduce the incidence of suicide is extremely important especially for bipolar. Post diagnosis, there is approximately a 15 to 20% suicide rate for bipolar patients. I was almost in that 15 to 20% I know very clearly why people try to end their lives and I also know that if they're not terminally ill, it can and should be prevented.
If a friend or family member is seriously down, withdraws from social circles (and not just because they're on a bataan death march coding project), start giving away belongings or are talking about how it hurts too much to stay alive, ask them these three questions.
Do you have a plan to kill yourself? (Ask how)
do you have the materials to kill yourself with?
Do you have a place/time for killing yourself?
A single yes means stay close, call mental health in the morning. Two yeses or more means get the person to the emergency room and tell the doctor about these questions and responses. If the person will not go with you, call the emergency room, tell them what's going on and they will send emergency personnel to help.
Almost all people thinking of suicide will give you signals and, even though they may not show it, want someone to stop them. Most importantly, if you try and they kill themselves anyway, don't blame yourself.
Human body heat is only really good for base load power. Add storage to the mix and you have a way to deal with peak load. Sounds like a winner to me.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Araaag, drugs drugs drugs drugs. How about addressing the core problem of making life not SUCK so much?!
In similar news researchers have discovered that a small town in Canada built on an underground resevoir of naturally-occuring scotch had statistically higher rates of traffic accidents.
If Lithium reduces suicide, then why does Lithuania have the world's highest suicide rate? This story is bogus.
Putting mood stabilizers in water. Fuck, that's a creepy thought. I mean ... damn, isn't that supposed to be the realm of Coast to Coast AM?
my water provides mad voltage, bitches
You absolutely in no circumstances can ethically give a healthy person mind-altering substances without their consent... People quoted who say it's interesting for potential are on a massive ego trip.
Long term exposure to this and other heavy metals eventually cause the kidneys to fail. I see two options, live short and happy, or live long and be miserable.
Why not just flood all water supplies with every drug we can think of? Hey, thorazine seems to work! Is it really the governments job to inject vitamins/minerals/animals into our water supply? Sure, flouride seems to work, and I can see this study leading to lithium being added. I wonder if I could make Riddalin(sp?][TM] bottled water? Justs seems to be getting a bit nuts to me that we have to add something to everything.
We already have an abundance of prescription drugs in our water supply, through excretion as well as through the practice of "flushing" unused meds to keep them from the children.
It'll take 3 seconds on the NY Times, Google, or Wikipedia to uncover numerous reputable articles on this.
... in case I intend to kill myself eating lithium.
Mr. President, we cannot allow a lithium gap!
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
..since Lithium has been used as an antidepressive substance for atleast a few decades. Could be that it's been used for that for alot longer, all i know is that it was common in the early 90's
this is probably the most boring sig in the world
I've heard Parepin has this effect as well.
I'm drinking the water. You should, too.
Do we, as a society, really need more marginal people to survive?
There are plenty of non hereditary things one could kill off from the water supply, with more urgency than trying to save a small percentage of out of spec population.
Lithium, don't want to lock me up inside
Lithium, don't want to forget how it feels without
Lithium, I want to stay in love with my sorrow
Oh but God I want to let it go
Come to bed, don't make me sleep alone
Couldn't hide the emptiness you let it show
Never wanted it to be so cold
Just didn't drink enough to say you love me
I can't hold on to me
Wonder what's wrong with me
Lithium, don't want to lock me up inside
Lithium, don't want to forget how it feels without
Lithium, I want to stay in love with my sorrow
Don't want to let it lay me down this time
Drown my will to fly
Here in the darkness I know myself
Can't break free until I let it go
Let me go
Darling, I forgive you after all
Anything is better than to be alone
And in the end I guess I had to fall
Always find my place among the ashes
I can't hold on to me
Wonder what's wrong with me
Lithium, don't want to lock me up inside
Lithium, don't want to forget how it feels without
Lithium, stay in love with you
Oh I'm gonna let it go
How about some weaponized lithium spiking of Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan wells?
If you swallow a bunch of lithium watch batteries, they'll say you're suicidal. What gives?
Lithium is a hard-core drug used by psychiatrists. To quiet those, where nothing else helps anymore.
It has tons of site-effects. And afterwards, you are usually not the same person anymore. Which may be good, if you were destroying the place, including yourself, before it. But it's bad in any other case.
Of course I don't know what the dose is that they put in the water. But if it changes people's behavior, it obviously has an effect.
I know this, because a friend of mine was given this because of a feeling of extreme heart problems while trying to sleep. And when they noticed it did not help, he got something even stronger. He slept like a baby. But only as long as he was on the stuff. Typical symptom therapy with no care for the real cause.
He was only healed (no problems and no "medicine") after a very intense psychotherapy.
If they would put lithium in my water, I would sue them for deliberate aggravated assault (or how the lawyers call it in the US) and and psycho-manipulation (something like that).
Not funny. Not funny at all.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
People, please stop tagging every study on Slashdot with correlationisnotcausation. I know it's standard here to believe this community is somehow more enlightened than all others, but do you really think that researchers became researchers without being able to ask simple questions? In fact, in an idealized study, it's not even a relevant question!
Moreover, this moronic practice is especially stupid for this story because the neurological effects of lithium salts have been explored for decades. This is not a revolutionary study by any means. So unless years and years of studies have gone horribly wrong, then yes, in this case, correlation does, in fact, imply causation.
According to Epocrates, Lithium has side effects
Common Reactions:
tremor
polyuria
diarrhea
vomiting
drowsiness
muscle weakness
arrhythmias
anorexia
nausea
blurred vision
dry mouth
fatigue
Serious Reactions:
coma
seizures
ventricular arrhythmias
bradycardia, severe
syncope
goiter
hypothyroidism
hyperparathyroidism
pseudotumor cerebri
Raynaud's phenomenon
diabetes insipidus
In slow motion I turn to you, as 40 metric tons of metallic lithium tumble down into the national reservoir, "you mean this might be a bad thing"?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I found my friends...they're in my head
Considering that far, far more powerful mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics and other pharmaceuticals are routinely dumped into the US water supply (in sufficient quantities to deform the wildlife even at the level of dilution present), there really isn't much you could add to the water that could make it any more dangerous than it already is.
Why the hell the water companies don't properly filter the water they get, I don't know. But tap water is heavily polluted - contamination is sometimes orders of magnitude greater than what is permitted in the EU. Frankly, if they add lithium salts, it can't make it much more dangerous than it already is and might even improve the taste,
(One thing I -really- miss from the UK was water that tasted like water and not like a chemical waste dump.)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
If you start worrying about the side effects of everything, you wouldn't even dare to breath. And stop that living! It is the major cause of death!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure grain alcohol?
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
I think I saw a Law and Order episode where a person was using this to make their patients feel "better". I believe everything I see on TV.
the bottled water i usually buy already has 0.07mg/L of lithium.
I'd be curious to see a comparison of kidney and thyroid diseases in these areas, as well as other psychiatric indicators. Lithium doesn't just reduce suicide risk.
There's no failure quite as dissatisfying as a complete and total solution to the wrong problem.
. . . the weed will give everyone the munchies . . . thus stimulating the junk food industry. The whole world economy will be right on track, before you can say "Dor - ree - toes!"
. . . the booze will prevent suicide because all the folks will be too tanked to give a shit about anything any more.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I'm so happy 'cause today
I found my friends
They're in my head
I'm so ugly, that's okay, 'cause so are you
We broke our mirrors
Sunday morning is everyday for all I care
And I'm not scared
Light my candles, in a daze
'Cause I've found God
Someone noticed that if you study electrical engineering, you get taller than if you study chemistry. Statistics told that...
Then they realized that there was lot more guys in electrical engineering than in chemistry...
Statistics... statistics...
Correlation is not causation
Flip this on it's tail and look at it. This knowledge could be used as a WMD in a modern redefinition of the "poison the well" strategy employed by generals since Rome at least. It'd save taxpayers money on bombs and bullets if the bad guys would just kill themselves; well not counting the nutters with bomb belts out for a hug at a checkpoint.
I'm so happy. Cause today I found my friends.
They're in my head. I'm so ugly. But that's ok.
'Cause so are you. We've broke our mirrors.
Sunday morning. Is everyday for all I care.
And I'm not scared. Light my candles. In a daze cause I've found god.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.....
I'm so lonely. And that's ok.
I shaved my head. And I'm not sad, and just maybe
I'm to blame for all I've heard. And I'm not sure.
I'm so excited. I can't wait to meet you there.
And I don't care. I'm so horny. But that's ok. My will is good.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.....
(Chorus)
I like it. I'm not gonna crack.
I miss you. I'm not gonna crack.
I love you.I'm not gonna crack.
I kill you. I'm not gonna crack. (x2)
I'm so happy. Cause today I found my friends.
They're in my head. I'm so ugly. But that's ok.
'Cause so are you. We've broke our mirrors.
Sunday morning. Is everyday for all I care.
And I'm not scared. Light my candles.
In a daze cause I've found god.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.....
(Chorus)..
I only buy pepper spray that's been tested on anti-vivisectionists.
In other news, cyanide in the water curbs suicide by 100%. By killing anyone instantly.
You just got troll'd!
In fact, it's the complete opposite: depressed people are much more complacent than not. Depression is not "being sad."
If you'd ever met a bipolar person you'd know what I mean. In their manic phases they'd go fight an army by themselves, they don't care about rules and retribution. In their depressed phase they can't get out of bed, let alone rebel against the established social order.
Lithium is already prescribed to people who suffer from major mania , it is a very serious pill to take with very serious side effects. If we have a real MD on slashdot reading story, he/she can give more information.
Countries with serious health system may prevent any disaster occuring because of this BBC headline as people can't go and buy it but in some countries, prescription system is not taken serious at all.
So what BBC does for sake of having interesting ''weird'' news from Japan may actually kill some people. I am almost sure they will be protested by medical doctors.
It is 2009, people read the ''headline'' from RSS, Google news etc. and that is it. Japanese scientists aren't to blame, they do such research for actual science, not for general public.
(for sake of telling people lithium is a serious thing)
Lithium lyrics
Songwriters: Lee, Amy;
Lithium, don't wanna lock me up inside
Lithium, don't wanna forget how it feels without
Lithium, I wanna stay in love with my sorrow
Oh, but God I wanna let it go
Come to bed, don't make me sleep alone
Couldn't hide the emptiness, you let it show
Never wanted it to be so cold
Just didn't drink enough to say you love me
I can't hold on to me
Wonder what's wrong with me?
Lithium, don't wanna lock me up inside
Lithium, don't wanna forget how it feels without
Lithium, I wanna stay in love with my sorrow
Don't wanna let it lay me down this time
Drown my will to fly
Here in the darkness I know myself
Can't break free until I let it go, let me go
Darling, I forgive you after all
Anything is better than to be alone
And in the end I guess I had to fall
Always find my place among the ashes
I can't hold on to me
Wonder what's wrong with me?
Lithium, don't wanna lock me up inside
Lithium, don't wanna forget how it feels without
Lithium, stay in love with mmm
I'm gonna let it go
If there's Lithium in the water, it's likely that the populace won't -revolt- either.
That's why Lithium is an important ingredient of Soylent Green.
Aphorisms don't fix code. (Bart Smaalders)
as a person who took lithium for years, i would like to point the kind readers to Lithium toxicity. regular blood tests are highly recommended to prevent your blood from going toxic and killing your ass.
while lithium bicarbonate worked well for me for several years, the side effects got worse and the drug became ineffective.
the toxic levels for lithium are close to the therapeutic levels.
"You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."-- Fred Hampton
Reavers anyone?
Don't do it!
"compared levels of lithium in drinking water to suicide rates"
they mean
"randomly grouped areas into blinded control and test groups, then added lithium to the drinking supply of the test group. Researchers (who did not know which was the test which was the control) found
that the test group had a significantly lowered rate of suicide rates following the experiment as compared with both its previous levels and the control group's (unchanged) levels of suicide"
?
No? They just tested levels? [FACEHAND]
Of course they don't tell you that the other side effects are:
- women want equal rights
- men's balls triple in size
- Nobody wants to work anymore
All we need is more chemically induced social engineering. Has no one out there ever read "Brave New World" or "Fahrenheit 451"?
But surely the suicide prone are working to reduce the problem already?
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
The water, I assume, is still safe to drink in New York, huh? ...another trick question, but it's just a set up, 'cause I don't really care about
Actually, I gotta be fair with you!
I'm only setting you up a little bit, it's just that...
the water, to tell you the truth...!
I just love to hear the answer to that question!
I ask that question everywhere I go!
Everywhere I go, I say: "How's the water?" Haven't got a positive answer yet! Not one!
Last year I was in forty states, a hundred cities... Not one audience was able to say to me:
"Yes! Enjoy some of our fine local water!"
"It is pure, and it is good!"
Of course, I know, a lot of people don't talk that way anymore, but nobody trusts their local water supply! Nobody! And that amuses me! I like that! I admit I'm a bit perverted! But it amuses me that no one can really trust the water anymore!
Lithium is a very old drug used for Manic Depression. What it actually does is takes the top and bottom off your moods. So someone with manic depression (which is actually characterised by extremes of mood, not just 'really depressed') will attempt to take those extremes out, hopefully rendering them 'normal'. It is, however, extreme, and most people who take it aren't happy with it, because they don't feel themselves.
I would imagine, if you had a constant stream of Lithium administered to you throughout your life, you wouldn't know what your were like without it. I wonder if these people are generally less 'extreme' than the majority of people. I am no psychologist/psychiatrist (IANAP if there is such a phrase), but I wonder if you could experimentally determine this, shown in more ways than just a lack of suicide.
IANAMD. The concentrations of Lithium in Texas and Japan were measured in MICROGRAMS/liter. A typical theraputic dose of Lithium is 1 GRAM twice daily.
Maybe the people of this area simply commit less crime/fail less often than other parts of Japan. Keep in mind, suicide is the solution to a lot of problems in Japan.
This is right. Lithium is a heavy metal, like lead, and is toxic in the same way. You shouldn't eat too much of it.
To prevent this day from getting worse, I'll just read ERROR as GOOD TH
I don't remember which site had the story (I didn't see it in a quick search of /.), but in some cities drinking water contains trace elements of various pharmaceuticals. Since our waste water is processed and used again for drinking water, it's not being filtered out.
So we don't need to add in the meds....everyone else is already on so many meds that it's finding its way into the drinking water on its own.
Insightful.
And ditto for the economic side effects caused by said backstabbing, lying, and greed.
In fact I bet it curbs just about every form of actual activity.
Lithium is the third element in the periodic table, and the first metal. In other words, it is as far from being a heavy metal as it is possible to get.
Warning: The intelligence of this post may be larger than it appears.
The higher the level of Meth found in company water coolers, a higher work output per capita was found
Stolen from Grosse Pointe Blank -
Mr. Grocer: Here's the new stuff, kid. Durazac 15. Makes Prozac seem like a decaf latte. Want a couple? I've got jars.
Marty: I don't do that stuff anymore.
Mr. Grocer: No wonder you got the shakes. And don't say "do it," because I don't "do it." I *ingest* it, on orders from my neurophysiologist. It's legal. In five years they'll be putting it in the water for the citizens, like fluoride.
That is so 1984.
Living in Chile
I resemble this remark. Fortunately for me, there is a mineral hot spring LOADED with lithium an hour away from me.
So, ah, I'm curious. Who else here has this problem, and how bad? I'm cyclothymic, which is a pretty mild version of bipolor disorder, and I've been keeping it (mostly) under control with sertraline.
I've had suicidal ideation, mainly as a teen, but no actual attempts. Mostly, I just get totally manic about a project for a month or two, and have a hard time sleeping, eating, or focusing on anything else. Then a couple weeks of normal. Then a month or two of eating too much and not being able to focus on anything, then a week or two of normal again.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I wonder if that's where the Lith, sorry Lite, comes from in bottom corner beers like Bud, Miller Etc? Maybe it's just me but after a couple of "real" beers from Seattle's own Maritime Breweries and Baron Etc I feel ready to rock, but after a couple of Buds I feel like going to sleep!
my right to be able to kill myself with no government intrusion.
don't ask me how I know that. FYI. And HCTZ too. FYI.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Bolivia, happiest place on earth.
Quack, quack.
All your brain are belong to us.
http://www.anxietyinsights.info/common_salt__natures_antidepressant.htm
Deleted
Lithium is a heavy metal, like lead
Nope. Here's a definition of metals, alkali metals and heavy metals and here is the SG of Lithium.
I come here for the love
Seriously. If someone wants to end their life, that's their choice. Don't fuck with the drinking water. PS No one who has committed suicide has ever reported regretting it. So, consider that.
Of course if you're an astrophysicist anything heavier than helium is considered a "metal". Even things that are not actual metals.
[...] regular blood tests are highly recommended to prevent your blood from going toxic and killing your ass. [...]
I'm not a $health_related_profession but I'm very interested in this. How does lithium target your ass?
I have a few lady friends* who might be interested in this.
* - No I don't.
Oh, thatâ(TM)s good news as I was hoping for lithium-lite to keep the calories down.
Next thing you know, we'll have to give up all media that has the potential to stir the human spirit in any way. Gosh, how I look forward to my white on white on white life!
-Oz
"Heavy" metals depress you so, it stands to reason, "light" metals cheer you up.
...not another international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids!
Not quite true. Read Brent Runyon's "Burn Journals" for a counterexample. (Author pours gasoline all over himself and sets himself on fire -- not exactly a call for help, but he managed to survive and write about the experience.)
http://cltracker.net -- powerful craigslist multi-city search
Yerba Mate -- a popular tea in Argentina and other parts of South America has lithium in it. It is interesting that many claim that this tea makes them happier and more productive. I'm seeing it added more and more to "energy drinks" in the US, such as Red Bull.
I live in a college town, and I notice that it is consumed more and more by college kids.
Yerba Maté Chemical Features
From a chemical point of view, Ilex paraguariensis (Yerba Maté) can be evaluated under its food chemical aspect or as a raw material for several byproducts. Long before its chemical composition was known, Indians used Yerba Maté not only due to the beverage's taste but also and mainly because they knew its virtues, chiefly an increased resistance to fatigue and its thirst and hunger mitigation powers.
Studies show that the Yerba Maté has the following components: water, cellulose, gums, dextrin, mucilage, glucose, pentose, fat substances, aromatic resin, legumin, albumin, xanthine, theophylline, caffearin, folic acid, caffeic acid, viridic acid, chlorophyll, cholesterin and essence oil. Ashes contain great amounts of potassium, lithium, folic, sulfuric, carbon, chloric and citric acids, beside magnesium, manganese, iron, aluminum and arsenic traces.
Xanthine, theophylline and theobromine are three strongly related alkaloids found in Yerba Maté and are the most interesting compounds from a therapeutic standpoint.
The Yerba Maté's xanthine rate averages 1.60%, whereas it is 1.10% in infusions.
http://www.noborders.net/mate/ingredients.html
Thanks for clearing that up. Now, Led Zeppelin - is that heavy metal or hard rock?
Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
To a lot of the medical types, the term "heavy metal" refers to any metal that is toxic to the human body, regardless of where it is on the periodic table. Obviously, this doesn't make sense to chemists, but since there has never been a clear definition in chemistry as to what exactly a "heavy metal" is (and isn't) either, it's not suprising that the term has been misused as such.
Take from that what you will.
Yes, it's the Celine Dion of metals!
I don't know anyone with Bipolar that actually likes taking lithium. Most have side effects and all hate the process which includes blood monitoring. It's not a first choice medication.
;)
That said one of the issue we face is that food is grow on the same fields over and over, with in may cases only NPK added back to the soil, so it might indicate that low levels of lithium like many other trace elements are now depleted in basic foods.
Then again you could buy God water from Peter Popoff and do away with food entirely.
The fricken crap you Americans have generated is screwing with me when I fall asleep in front of the TV. If I don't get some youthful essence soon my Danos is going to go all Guthy Renken on Mr T.
Took everything out of context because that's basically what everyone is doing. They are relying on be awarded the contract for a 72-hour involuntary watch where they get the joy of psychiatry (if not psychology) to begin pushing all the experiments on you to see what kind of personality you grew over the time. Can you realy rely on a determining factor as this:
That is such a biased question. That's like a murderer asking a butch if he has the means of killing people if not to flay dead animals.
Depending on whom you talk to, Hydrogen may in fact, be a metal. Other however, state it as a non-metal.
It would be pretty bizarre to think of water as "liquid rust" eh?
Life is not for the lazy.