I also take Lithium Orotate (Advanced Research/about 2.5 mg./day). I find it a mood brightener. I have logged the effects for four months now.
I've read that it is useful for helping MethylB12 get into cells. If there is a test for monitoring this effect I have not heard of it, but would be interested in it.
Yasko has a webcast on Lithium and various SNPs. I think lithium supplementation is helpful for those with COMT mutatations, and she affirms in her patients that "those with SHMT and/or MTR/MTRR mutations tend to excrete a lot of lithium in urine tests. That's why she recommends it to these patients. And anyone with a great need for B12 according to their SNPs should be on a low-dose lithium because it helps B12 to be transported to the blood cells." (I didn't record my source for this quote---it might be from her webcast on Lithium???)
I like some of Ray Peats thoughts about lithium:
"Chronic consumption of lithium blocks the release of adrenalin from the adrenal glands, and it also has extensive antiserotonin effects, inhibiting its release from some sites, and blocking its actions at others.
Lithium forms a complex with the ammonia molecule, and since the ammonia molecule mimics the effects of serotonin, especially in fatigue, this could be involved in lithium’s antiserotonergic effects. Ammonia, like serotonin, impairs mitochondrial energy production (at a minimum, it uses energy in being converted to urea), so anti-ammonia, anti-serotonin agents make more energy available for adaptation. Lithium has been demonstrated to restore the energy metabolism of mitochondria (Gulidova, 1977).
Therapies that have been successful in treating “schizophrenia” include penicillin, sleep therapy, hyperbaric oxygen, carbon dioxide therapy, thyroid, acetazolamide, lithium and vitamins. These all make fundamental contributions to the restoration of biological energy. Antibiotics, for example, lower endotoxin formation in the intestine, protect against the induction by endotoxin of serotonin, histamine, estrogen, and cortisol. Acetazolamide causes the tissues to retain carbon dioxide, and increased carbon dioxide acidifies cells, preventing serotonin secretion." (Peat, "Thyroid, insomnia, and the insanities: Commonalities in disease: Some factors in stress, insomnia, and the brain syndrome")
I've also noticed that taking Lithium Orotate regularly has quashed the "adrenaline surges" that I have had for the last decade.
Cheers,
Silverseas2014
-