I will be trying lithium as you suggest, a mineral test (urine) of mine suggested it is low. I am a little worried about the rat study showing kidney accumulation with lithium orotate, though. But maybe it's safe for humans. Orotic acid has also been linked to cancer in some animal studies.
Yes you are right but if I could find it (my electronic papers are a mess sometimes) I have laying around a safety analysis done by the European equivalent of the FDA and they they set a safe limit based on the rat studies of 50 mg per kg body weight (? or something close to that). So for me that would be around 3 g or so. So I figure < 1 gram is well within limits. I would always be cautious though if you have any kidney abnormalities. I think one pill of lithium orotate is like 120 mg containing about 5 mg (?) elemental lithium. It is very BBB penetrable. I have not tried it yet as I am awaiting some test results but I am thinking about it for myself too.Regarding magnesium threonate, you really can't compare the low dose to other forms, because absorption is much greater. Take a look at these links:
The Mg threonate seems useful. I will have to interpret when I get some time its activity at the NMDA receptor sites.
But the issue of Mg absorption is fairly complicated.
Short answer = virtually all Mg amino acid chelates are highly soluble and thus are pretty well absorbed assuming the manufacturer is not defrauding you somehow, meaning ~60-70% or more over the course of the entire digestive track for quality sources.
Thus my statement above ... since 144 mg of Mg from Mg threonate even if it was 100% (which it is not) would be similar to a 200mg of one of the other chelates, though for some (like citrate) diarrhea limits will vary. So even if we figure you take roughly equivalent to 400 mg per day and 900 mg of calcium and get at ~ 200-200 mg Mg in diet and I assume more in Ca (which is normal) then yeah I think your ratio may still be off. But I can't say for sure. Simple way to assess this is a Mg RBC test. You want that nice and strong.
Now if you want the long answer ...
In the interest of lessening the damage to my shoulders and rib cage, let's just say it involves solubility, ionizability, fractional absorption rates per hour, and intake levels. My intake levels are high so maybe a typical citrate gets me 1-2% per hour which will be like say 10-12x total that over the entire stomach. Low intakes will get 5-6% per hour or better. Also these things depend where it is absorbed in the GI tract (di-glycinate is mostly in the small intestines which is why it produces the least diarrhea). And the complexity goes on and on.
To be honest I am experimenting with lowering my input of Albion Mg - glycinate since a recent 24 hour urine test shows I am excreting magnesium anyways above the top of the range. While not particularly harmful, I am testing to see clinically how the reduced glycinate affects my system. So far it seems my back pain goes up with less Mg glycinate but my body is less stimulated. Fun trade-offs, eh?
Thanks for your reply. Take a look at Figure 1 in this article, for the link between ACh and glutamate excitotoxicity.
Thanks for the paper. I see the connection. Still not clear how this works at lower, normal levels of ACh and perturbations thereof. I will dig deeper if I get a chance.Btw the amount of pantethine you take gives me really bad insomnia. I guess results differ person to person.