[PART I – MYSTERIES]
[PART II – CURRENT THEORIES OF OBESITY ARE INADEQUATE]
[PART III – ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINANTS]
[INTERLUDE A

A Chemical Hunger – Part VII: Lithium

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2021-08-03 08:30:03

[PART I – MYSTERIES] [PART II – CURRENT THEORIES OF OBESITY ARE INADEQUATE] [PART III – ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINANTS] [INTERLUDE A – CICO KILLER, QU’EST-CE QUE C’EST?] [PART IV – CRITERIA] [PART V – LIVESTOCK ANTIBIOTICS] [INTERLUDE B – THE NUTRIENT SLUDGE DIET] [PART VI – PFAS]

Lithium is the third element on the periodic table, the lightest metal, a hit Nirvana single, and a mood-stabilizing drug often used to treat bipolar disorder.

Lithium isn’t synthetic, of course, but it can still be an environmental contaminant. While it occurs naturally in small concentrations in groundwater, human activity might have led to serious increases over the past few decades.

Unlike the other contaminants we’ve reviewed, we don’t need to spend any time convincing you that lithium makes people gain weight: it does. Almost everyone who takes lithium at therapeutic levels gains some weight. About half of them report serious weight gain, on average 22 lbs (10kg), and about 20% of patients gain more than that. Weight gained is correlated (r = .44, p < .001) with dosage. Unsurprisingly, weight gain on lithium is related to an increase in leptin levels.

We’d love to tell you whether lithium concentrations in groundwater have increased over time. But while lithium is easy to detect, assessing lithium levels is not a part of the standard analysis of drinking water, so we don’t have reliable historical data to work with. There aren’t even EPA standards for lithium levels in drinking water.