A Mood Check At The Times

Lest you wonder how our friends on the left are holding up with the collapsing coherence of Team Obama and the return to war or something like it, (Ooops - we're back at war) the Times runs this guest piece in their Sunday review:

Should We All Take a Bit of Lithium?

...

Lithium is a naturally occurring element, not a molecule like most medications, and it is present in the United States, depending on the geographic area, at concentrations that can range widely, from undetectable to around .170 milligrams per liter. This amount is less than a thousandth of the minimum daily dose given for bipolar disorders and for depression that doesn’t respond to antidepressants. Although it seems strange that the microscopic amounts of lithium found in groundwater could have any substantial medical impact, the more scientists look for such effects, the more they seem to discover. Evidence is slowly accumulating that relatively tiny doses of lithium can have beneficial effects. They appear to decrease suicide rates significantly and may even promote brain health and improve mood.

Suicide rates? C'mon, this will be over in another two years. Unless ISIS (or Iran) blows us up first, and that's ruled a homicide (for non-Obama voters, I guess).

A little science:

Researchers began to ask whether low levels of lithium might correlate with poor behavioral outcomes in humans. In 1990, a study was published looking at 27 Texas counties with a variety of lithium levels in their water. The authors discovered that people whose water had the least amount of lithium had significantly greater levels of suicide, homicide and rape than the people whose water had the higher levels of lithium. The group whose water had the highest lithium level had nearly 40 percent fewer suicides than that with the lowest lithium level.

Almost 20 years later, a Japanese study that looked at 18 municipalities with more than a million inhabitants over a five-year period confirmed the earlier study’s finding: Suicide rates were inversely correlated with the lithium content in the local water supply.

More recently, there have been corroborating studies in Greece and Austria.

More on that here. [And do see PUSHBACK below; lithium from food sources may swamp tapwater lithium by 9-1.]

And some history:

LITHIUM has been known for its curative powers for centuries, if not millenniums. Lithia Springs, Ga., for example, with its natural lithium-enriched water, appears to have been an ancient Native American sacred site. By the late 19th century Lithia Springs was a famous health destination visited by Mark Twain and Presidents Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft, William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

Lithium drinks were in huge demand for their reputed health-giving properties, so much so that the element was added to commercial drinks. 7-Up was originally called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda and contained lithium citrate right up until 1950. In fact, it’s been suggested that the 7 in 7-Up refers to the atomic mass of the lithium. (Maybe the “Up” referred to mood?) Even beer made with lithia water was available.

By the 1940s, physicians began to give patients with heart disease lithium chloride as a substitute for regular salt, sodium chloride. The high, unregulated doses in this vulnerable population had toxic and even lethal effects. Soon lithium was removed from beverages and other products, and its reputation never recovered.

If you want to go out and try some today, I would say you might have impulse control issues and ought to consider professional help. That said, for unsupervised, walking around low-dose daily consumption, the consensus sensible amount seems to be about 1 mg/day for adults. By way of contrast, the therapeutic dosage would be 200-400 mg/day.

The Lithia Springs mentioned in the article has an impenetrable website from which direct ordering appears possible but (for me at least) is not. Their product contains 0.45 mg/liter, so a bottle a day would provide half the daily recommended allowance.

However! San Pellegrino mineral water (natural carbonation added) is widely available and also quite high in lithium - I have seen reports of 0.2 mg/l and 0.45 mg/l. Down in cheerful, non-suicidal Texas one might consider Crazy Water (#4, the Craziest, has 0.17 mg/l), but the shipping charges could be brutal. Gerolsteiner, a widely available German mineral water, has 0.13 mg/l of lithium.

Other mineral waters are easily compared at this very cool New Zealand website, but I doubt ordering from there makes sense.

Plant and dietary sources are summarized at Jillian Michaels,  the Diet Health Club and at LiveStrong, with references to this study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. From the DHC:

Foods or food sources rich in lithium include all kinds of dairy products, sugarcane, seaweed, potatoes, lemons and eggs. Natural mineral water is also said to have a good source of lithium and the unusually recommended to calm nerves, uplift the spirit and help in soothing digestion.

Yeah, yeah - I laugh today but I will be re-reading this article in another year as part of my personal Getting Ready For Hillarity.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

Recommending 1 mg/day for an adult, but do see the pushback later:

Lithium: occurrence, dietary intakes, nutritional essentiality.

Schrauzer GN.

Author information

Abstract

Lithium is found in variable amounts in foods; primary food sources are grains and vegetables; in some areas, the drinking water also provides significant amounts of the element. Human dietary lithium intakes depend on location and the type of foods consumed and vary over a wide range. Traces of lithium were detected in human organs and fetal tissues already in the late 19th century, leading to early suggestions as to possible specific functions in the organism. However, it took another century until evidence for the essentiality of lithium became available. In studies conducted from the 1970s to the 1990s, rats and goats maintained on low-lithium rations were shown to exhibit higher mortalities as well as reproductive and behavioral abnormalities. In humans defined lithium deficiency diseases have not been characterized, but low lithium intakes from water supplies were associated with increased rates of suicides, homicides and the arrest rates for drug use and other crimes. Lithium appears to play an especially important role during the early fetal development as evidenced by the high lithium contents of the embryo during the early gestational period. The biochemical mechanisms of action of lithium appear to be multifactorial and are intercorrelated with the functions of several enzymes, hormones and vitamins, as well as with growth and transforming factors. The available experimental evidence now appears to be sufficient to accept lithium as essential; a provisional RDA for a 70 kg adult of 1,000 microg/day is suggested.

The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation:

In 1985, the US Environmental Protection Agency estimated that dietary intake of lithium in the United State varied from 0.6 to 3.1 milligrams per day [3].  People who live in the Andes of northern Argentine have been estimated to consume between 2 to 30 milligrams per day, with 2 to 3 milligrams specifically from drinking water [4].

One scientist from the University of California, San Diego has suggested that, due to some potential health benefits, a recommended daily allowance may be appropriate of 1 milligram a day for a 70kg adult [3].  However, lithium deficiency has not been proven to cause any human disease and no recommended daily allowance for lithium has been established.

Emily Deans, Boston blogger and psychiatrist:

Lithium and Longevity 

Lithium and Inflammation

More microdosing (0.3 mg/day):

Microdose lithium treatment stabilized cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

PUSHBACK:

Lithium in Animal and Human Diets

Until recently there was little data available on lithium in water and foodstuffs, consequently opinions expressed have been a mixture of guesses and approximations (e.g. the EPA recommendations and estimates below).

Typical human dietary intakes estimated by the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) were 0.65 – 3.1 mg/day (17)***, but that estimate is outdated and very different from the more recent and comprehensive estimate of 0.05 mg/day derived from the Second French Total Diet Study (TDS 2) (19, 20), see below.

*** NB the 2002 Schrauzer paper has a lot of non-peer-reviewed and secondary references of uncertain provenance and accuracy: it may be misleading in some important respects. Schrauzer was one of the first authors to publish about lithium in drinking water and crime, suicide and arrests (21) so may be a little partisan.

More recently dietary intake has been estimated to be around 0.2 mg/day (22), which is more in line with the TDS2 figure of 0.05 mg (see below)b

 And on the tap-water studies:

The most recent best estimate of dietary intake is, as above, around 0.05 mg per day (51), intake from tap-water represents about one tenth of total daily intake. Lithium in food probably contributes ten times as much as tap-water. Not only that, but many of the foods (especially sea-food) and vegetables in peoples’ diet have come from different districts and different countries: which indicates that where you live has little to do with lithium intake.

...

Lastly, no attempt was made to measure serum levels of lithium in people exposed to different levels of lithium in their tap-water (or bottled water) and correlate the two: that is the essential and simple requirement needed to establish a relationship between those two variables (see Bochud). That is the key to the whole thing, without which the rest is meaningless and pointless, because correlation is not causation. Not to take that measure is just plain stupid.

Hmm. Well, that said a pediatric vitamin/mineral study cited the Schrauzer paper and included 0.5 mg/day in their supplement. No harm was noticed, although they did note this:

Overall, the supplement tended to increase the levels of many essential minerals, including calcium, iodine, lithium, manganese, molybdenum, and selenium. The increase in lithium levels was large (this form of lithium was very well absorbed), so less lithium may be needed in future studies. 

 

 

Comments

[Jeff Dobbs]

Face it JOMers, you're slow.

[Jeff Dobbs]

7-Up was originally called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda

"Make Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda Yours" is not nearly as effective a marketing slogan as "Make 7-Up Yours"

[Jim Eagle]

Hail to the Redskins
Hail Victory
Braves on the Warpath
Fight for Old DC.

They are slattering the Jags without RGIII or Desean Jackson.

[lyle]

I'll admit it. In fairness we just got back from a hike in Sun Valley. Absolutely, astoundingly gorgeous weather.

[James D.]

These Jacksonville guys aren't very good. Since halftime of last week, they've been outscored 55-0 in three and a half quarters.

[Miss Marple]

I am in need of SOMETHING after the embarrassing Obama quote about how the terrorists should have sent the hostages home with notes pinned to them.

I am adopting Tony Abbott as my leader until further notice.

[Captain Hate]

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element which in small quantities is not harmful, which is almost completely lost on the EPA.

[Stephanie riding a streetcar named Desire]

But they didn't need Tebow did they James.

Or the butts in the seats a Florida grad would mean.

[James D.]

I was just thinking about that meeting between Zero and various stenographers/cheerleaders before his useless speech last week.

Being trapped in a room with Zero, Susan Rice, Brooks, Friedman, Tomasky et al pretty much is what I imagine Hell might be like.

[Ignatz]

--LITHIUM has been known for its curative powers for centuries, if not millenniums. Lithia Springs, Ga., for example, with its natural lithium-enriched water, appears to have been an ancient Native American sacred site. By the late 19th century Lithia Springs was a famous health destination visited by Mark Twain and Presidents Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft, William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.--

So the plural of millennium is millenniums but the plural of lithium is lithia?

[narciso]

Washington crushing the Jaguars, I'm reminded of the Hulk swinging Loki like a rag doll, this is certainly a slathering, why did Shadi not sign Tebow again,

[Extraneus]

Typing on a phone, but I think the message he suggested for the chest notes is telling.

"You'da had an easier time setting up the caliphate if you hadn't dragged me into it, fools."

[Danube on iPad]

I believe we'll be seeing Kirk Cousins for the rest of the season.

[Jim Eagle]

Steph,

You think Bortels will pu bums in the seats?

In Re: Lithium is very soft and very light. I remember we used to cut with siccors in Organic Chemistry classes. Its an alkali and Big Pharma makes Lithium Carbonate pills that help control mood swings.

For you investors out there keep and eye on Bolivia (yeah that rump Commie stronghold) because it has the largest resource of Lithium. God forbid electric cars take off using Lithium-ion batteries Bolivia will be like the ME is to oil.`

[Stephanie riding a streetcar named Desire]

Lithia Springs is about 40 miles from here. About 15 from downtown Atlanta.

Appears Georgia was a big recouperative spot for lots of presidents between Lithia Springs and Warm Springs being destinations. Which coincidentally, they are almost due north/south of each other.

I wonder if the springs are connected.

[Jim Eagle]

...Sissors...

I still can't type with my index finger:(

[lyle]

And am now enjoying a Bloody Mary on the deck. Cheers.

[Jeff Dobbs]

JiB:
...Sissors...

I still can't type with my index finger:(

Exhibit A in why JOM strongly discourages trying to fix your typos.

[Carol Herman]

I worked at Kings County Psychiatric Hospital back in the 1970's. Thorazine, injected, was the medication of choice on all adult inpatients.

Drugs were given at discharge. And, while people take all sorts of medicines; the discharged patients invariably left their medications (which were placed in brown paper bags), up on windowsills. Before they left campus.

Why?

Because the psychotropics tend to "flatten" mood.

Before Thorizine was invented doctors used formaldehyde.

There is no "talking cure" for psychosis. As ugly as this looked to outsiders, the 30-day involuntary hospitalization did work in enough cases, that patients could go back to the streets. Those that couldn't got transferred to State Care. Back in the 1970's those were long term commitments.

Now? Prisons are used, instead, very often. Drugs? Only with limited efficacy. Because it's pretty standard for patients to discard their pills. (Even when given free of charge.)

[Jeff Dobbs]

My lord, it's barely past noon over there lyle, and you're enjoying a bloody mary?

Why so late?

[Danube on iPad]

An account of Obama's pre-speech consultations (a chronicle of self-absorption):

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/world/middleeast/paths-to-war-then-and-now-haunt-obama.html?_r=0

[Jeff Dobbs]

Things I know now that I always suspected: Carol was in a psych hospital.

/joshing

[Captain Hate]

Jane Harman, a former Democratic congresswoman from California who now heads the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said she thought Mr. Obama had evolved. “He was all in,” she said. “I don’t know what the definition of reluctant is, but I certainly think he’s totally focused, this man at this time.”

Anybody trust this witch any more?

[matt]

Ask Kurt Cobain about Lithium.

So the Jihadis decapitate another Western liberal and the Times wants us all to try lithium. Here, take another pill, America.

I was at a medical conference last week where some military doctors think they may have a cure for some of the symptoms of PTSD. It's called a Stellate Ganglion Block and it has been used in pain management for a long time.

It is an injection of a low dose of Novocaine near the C7 in the spinal cord. It blocks many of of the impulses that result in anxiety, anger, stress, sexual dysfunction, etc.

The work on it has been limited but it made the news in 2012/2013. There is a study coming out of 250 special operators out of SOCOM, and the success rate is in the high 90th percentile.

I am slowly coming to the belief that Big Pharma really does want to keep the medication machine going as fast as it can. The VA is really good at dispensing Zoloft, Ambien, Trazodone, Effexor, and a bunch of other meds. Friends have sent me photos of the big bags of pills they were prescribed. It's sick. There is no wonder that the side effects are serious.

Having some experience with the efficacy of mental health stabilization, brain chemistry constantly changes and evolves. This month's combination may not be the right one in 90 days or the side effects may take some time to show. Mental health can be a delicate balancing act.

And yet these doctors can't get the funding. This new study may shake things up. Let's hope they're on to something. Cheap, simple, safe, and effective. We need more of this kind of work.

[jimmyk]

Has anyone seen the movie "Last Days in Vietnam"? It sounds pretty good, but considering that a Kennedy directed it, I would be very surprised if it wasn't somehow disgraceful.

[narciso]

I imagine a fair number of the attendees stocked up on lithium

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/09/12/Why-Ted-Cruz-Was-Right-to-Walk-Out-on-In-Defense-of-Christians-Conference

although frankly if this is controversial, then everything is,

[Jeff Dobbs]

Well, I got knocked out "early" last night in the pool tournament. Early was somewhere around 10th place . . . but it was still after 1 AM. Yike. I imagine it took til nearly 4 AM to finish.

Johnny Archer will be at our bar in a week from Tuesday to take on all-comers. $20 to play a match against him. I'll probably save the money for beer or future tournament entry fees.

Last time he came - Archer won all his matches except one. The guy who beat him that time . . . won the tournament last night.

[henry]

Lithium makes water happy juice? My water has iron (rust anyway), must be DOOM juice. Thankfully yeast turns water into beer, my favorite happy juice.

[Stephanie riding a streetcar named Desire]

Whatever happened to the brouhaha over radon gas? Everyone was told it's deadly and causes cancer and get a detector immediately zomg before you get polluted in your own house eleventy!

I always thought it was rubbish as granite gives it off naturally and Stone Mountain should have made north Georgia a hot spot for the world's largest cancer cluster.

Now you hear bupkis.

[Ignatz]

Our well has so much iron I have to huff Rust-Oleum just to stay happy, henry.

[rse]

matt--thanks for your 2:35. Hubby is friends with people who have PTSD after years of continuous combat deployments.

Is part of the problem though financial? Recovery minimizes future disability financial payments?

On birthdays and starting school, the privates are notorious for essentially red shirting the slower kids or just average kids starting with March birthdays, especially siblings of current students.

I never considered holding back to bookaholic Red, but I certainly did not count on early May making her the youngest in the class. Something she came to hate.

[Ignatz]

Radon was pushed out of the news by all the Alar deaths.

[Jim Eagle]

Forgot to add that Lithium makes a great soap-lubricant (grease). You may have a can of it in your garage or tool shed.

[Jeff Dobbs]

henry:
Thankfully yeast turns water into beer, my favorite happy juice.

[Stephanie riding a streetcar named Desire]

And WTH is this weather? 3:00 in the afternoon in early September and it's 67 degrees. Brrrr

[lyle]

It was the mountain hike, hit. Of all JOMers, you should understand outdoor Idaho. Well, besides the local JOMers. It's so damn beautiful right now. Leaves just starting to turn, not a cloud in the sky and still as an empty cathedral. 75 degrees. Bliss.

[henry]

Hit, yes. But first today's episode of the grass won't cut itself, part 3.

[Jeff Dobbs]

I don't hate you, lyle just because you're in Idaho in the fall. I don't. I repeat that to myself as often as necessary to make myself believe it.

[Beasts of England]

We're back into the lower eighties here. Still delightful, though!

[Jeff Dobbs]

Steph:
And WTH is this weather? 3:00 in the afternoon in early September and it's 67 degrees. Brrrr

I broke out a sweatshirt for deck blogging today.

I don't care if Daddy or Marlene jokes about sweatshirts at 65 degrees. It's like fall deck blogging spring training here. I'm the aging veteran reporting to camp a few pounds overweight. I have to work my way back into top form.

[AliceH]

But first today's episode of the grass won't cut itself, part 3.

I only just finished part 1. I'm hoping part 2 has a twist ending, whereby the grass actually DOES cut itself.

[glasater]

As of this writing the previous TM blog has '404' comments on it :-)

[Stephanie riding a streetcar named Desire]

Great. It's warmer in the mountains of Idaho than here. Hmmmph.

[Ignatz]

It's currently 103 in Furnace Creek, CA; heading to 113.
Feel even cooler now?

[Jim Eagle]

87F with water temp of the ocean 80F.

During today's beach walk and swim we ran into a huge school of Atlantic Croaker bait fish. Very close to shore. That usually means sharks are around out deeper. We were very vigilant and stayed close in.

[narciso]

they are going to need something stronger than lithium

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/14/jay-carney-its-not-going-be-good-year-democrats/

rhetorical question, but why wasn't the takeover in '06, bad for Democrats in the next cycle,

[DrJ]

Iggy,

Even here is is about 90 at the moment, and it should go up another 5-8 degrees as the day progresses.

But it's a DRY heat...

[narciso]

how does one squirrel in arabic:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/09/obama-draws-new-red-line-assad-shooting-at-us-planes-would-lead-to-his-overthrow/

[Ignatz]

Correction, heading to 115 in Furnace Creek.

Supposed to drop to the 80s later this week, doc.
Been a pretty cool summer. Usually means fall rain and a winter drought. Let's hope not.

[Stephanie accidentally OnT?]

I've got the windows open and am in shorts and a t shirt, and I'm chilly!

The Falcons are laying a rotten egg, so I guess it's time to climb back on the ladder and finish the painting from yesterday. That should warm me up some. How do you manage to get paint on your tummy when you are painting the upper 1/4 of the walls? IDK but I did it yesterday.

Later gators.

[Ignatz]

Barry must think everyone is as dumb as he is.
Seems unlikely Assad would shoot at out planes killing his enemies.

[Dave (in MA)]

Another mysterious injury at the Greg Norman residence.

[lyle]

DrJ beat me to the "dry heat" line but I'd guess the humidity right now is ~15%. Only game on is the NE fightin' Belichicks slattering the Vikes with the conspicuous absence of the child abuser.

[daddy]

Speaking of Mood Checks...

Via Drudge, I see that a California city has received a Million Dollars from some Mayor Bloomberg foundation for an important "WellBeing" project:

SANTA MONICA USING $1M TO EVALUATE ITS HAPPINESS.

"Really, it seems just about perfect," said one gal. But there's also loads of traffic and a high cost of living, two things that recently prompted the real estate blog Movoto to rate Santa Monica No. 2 on its Top 10 list of America's Most Stressed-Out Suburbs.

So obviously it ain't perfectly perfect.

To do something about that, the city of 92,000 applied last year for a Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge grant, proposing that it create a "Wellbeing Project" to determine just how much people in this picture-postcard town really like living here.

I'm excited about this idea, and that's why I think we need to get TM to apply for a Million Bucks from Bloomberg for our own "WellBeing" project to Evaluate Happiness At JOM!"

Don't think we have a problem? See for yourself.

"This Blog is perfect" said Captain Hate and MarkO, "except for the G@#D@#$ed sports nuts and ACC fans."

"Surely this is the best of all possible blogs" said Narciso, "except for all the Sarah Palin fans---E'nuff already."

"This Blog is beautiful", said TK and DoT, except for the posters who continually argue about freakin' Birthers!

"This place would be marvelous!" said TC, Jane, etc, except for the Lawyers!

"If ONLY we could CUT OUT all the music chat and the typing in CAPs", said GUS, "this place would be PERFECT."

"It's the typos that git me," said Calrice, "besides that it's wondrful."

Santa Monica came up with The Wellbeing Project...after the launch of its...effort, to learn how students felt about themselves..."What we found out was only a third of kindergarteners were really ready socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, for kindergarten."

"That rings a bell said", RSE, who said "the Blog is very happy except for all the people who graduated High School at only 17."

"I can't imagine a happier Blog to be hanging out at", said Iggy and Beasts, "as long as we're not having to scroll on by all those gratuitous pix of T&A:("

...the traffic jams, the homelessness and the cost of living are problems that make Santa Monica not quite as pleasant as outsiders think.

"We're choking on gridlock from overdevelopment," says 30-year resident Tricia Crane...Soon, says street musician Charles Baker Jr., paradise could become the province of just the rich. "The way it's going, nobody is going to be able to afford to live here anymore," he said as he sat in the park with his keyboard.

"My gosh, let's don't let that happen here," posted commenter daddy, "so get with the program TM and get us our Million bucks to find out if we're happier than those dog walking morons over at Althouse!"

[FTL]

I cannot find a reference to it, but an epidemiologist I worked with in the early 1990s said that it was not possible to isolate radon's impact (actually the impact from downstream decay products from radon) on lung cancer risk statistically because smoking was the elephant in that room.

[Jim Eagle]

Hail to the Redskins
Hail Victory
Braves on the Warpath
Fight for old DC.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Fight for old DC.

No, blow it to smithereens.

Hail Salina Redskins.

[Stephanie riding a streetcar named Desire]

Horschel auditioning for ATO president? Yikes. I've got some Loudmouth golf skirts that aren't that obnoxious.

Crowds appear to be way down from prior years at Eastlake.

Really out now.

[narciso]

the editorial board needed a machiatto after this:

Groups identified by Western intelligence agencies as the moderate opposition — those that might support democracy and respect human rights — have been weak, divided and without coherent plans or sustained command structures capable of toppling the Assad regime. Today, those so-called moderates are even weaker and more divided; in some cases, their best fighters are hard-line Islamists.

[henry]

Alice, I did your plan B since July. Perhaps I lack faith (or drank too little beer?), but my grass not only didn't cut itself -- it grew almost as fast as ISIS!

[Rick B]

Narciso,

Perhaps they're demonstrating some patience as they wait for the Islamic State to come to grips with reality? As Mosul grapples with their power situation (Turkey isn't providing any and the Kurds hold the dam) while the fuel necessary to run Achmed's pickup gets harder to find every day, the moderates display of patience seems pretty rational.

[Jane]

And yet these doctors can't get the funding.

Maybe if they didn't say it was for the Vets.

The current regime hates our soldiers.

[clarice]

daddy, don't push your luk. (XOXOXO)

[narciso]

I got it from here:

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/president-obamas-misplaced-trust-in-the-moderate-syrian-rebels/

mind the moonbats,

[narciso]

I didn't know this:

[Beasts of England]

lol, daddy!

[Beasts of England]

And Horschel should win today based on his trousers alone! Absolutely badass!

[daddy]

Well I don't know if "Lithium" is the answer for the emotional problems of American society in general, but it ought to really build the confidence of one of our low self esteem groups, since "Lithium" is a word America's Lispers can pronounce correctly.

[Stephanie riding a streetcar named Desire]

Hey, I did say ATO president (I was a little sis at GT).

[MarkO]

Go to Hell Carolina.

If, however, you cannot be happy in Santa Monica, you need more than lithium.

The good news is, whatever you need is available by the Ferris wheel.

[Ignatz]

Great link, Rick.

[cathyf]

I cannot find a reference to it, but an epidemiologist I worked with in the early 1990s said that it was not possible to isolate radon's impact (actually the impact from downstream decay products from radon) on lung cancer risk statistically because smoking was the elephant in that room.

It didn't stop the EPA from setting the limits for municipal water systems to 5 pico-curies per liter. Even though places with 200 pico-curies per liter show no measurable effects at all. Even though 20 pico-curies per liter would have put virtually all US towns safely under the limits.

My town's wells average 5-7 pico-curies per liter. We spent $6 million (that we don't remotely have) on a filtering plant and re-engineering the wells and water towers so that all of the water goes through it. We have had thousands of water main breaks since (the record was 13 simultaneous breaks) -- pretty impressive for a town that's only about 4 sq miles.

[clarice]

I don't know about you guys, but I'm ordering 2 years worth of San Pellegrino.

[Rick B]

Ignatz,

I can't vouch for the accuracy of the cause of the fire. IS would have to be even stupider than I believe them to be to torch the refinery servicing Sunni Iraq. OTOH - burning one tank of oil to justify shutting down the refinery and deny IS access to refined product is going to work well for whomever is tasked with slaughtering headchoppers. I don't believe there are enough Rent-A-Camel outlets in Sunni Iraq to handle demand once storage runs dry.

[Danube on iPad]

I can't decide which guy I like to see lose more, Jim Harbaugh or Jay Cutler. Tonight I'll settle for Cutler, and stop watching the hideous game.

Why is 60 Minutes still showing re-runs after Labor Day?

[ZZMike]

Something else to consider is that lithium, like sodium, is compounded with other elements - usually salts (like sodium chloride).

The most commonly prescribed compounds are lithium carbonate and lithium citrate. There are also lithium bromide and lithium chloride, but those are toxic. The fluoride and iodide are probably toxic - they're not used.

So it would be nice to know just which form of lithium is in the water supply or the bottled Lithia.