Many recent studies have come out lately showing just how important the mineral lithium is to our health.
And I’m all for whatever natural solutions we can find to preserve health… but not this one.
I’ll give you details below on studies that show that long term lithium use is associated with a reduced risk of dementia, and this is on top of previous studies that show that lithium may actually lower our over all lifetime risk of cancer.
But adding it to the water supply, instead of just recommending lithium supplementation?
Uh… no.
I’m not good with that.
But that is exactly what physicians are proposing after the release of these medical studies:
Lithium to reduce dementia risk (published online August 23 in JAMA Psychiatry):
Researchers looked at data on over 800,000 patients and found that there was a significant difference in the levels of lithium in the drinking water of folks that developed dementia.
Specifically, they found that lower levels of lithium in drinking water increased the incidence of developing dementia by about 20%.
And patients who had higher amounts of lithium in their drinking water had about 20% less chance of developing dementia.
But just because a substance can show a protective health benefit, should it be automatically added to our water supply?
Why are patients with a family history of dementia simply not told about this study and instructed to take prophylactic microdoses of lithium daily, which are readily available in supplement form?
That’s because no one is going to get rich off of folks taking an inexpensive supplement, and it is too cheap as a medication — drug companies are unlikely to sink money into clinical studies on lithium since it can not be patented and is inexpensive to manufacture… and more to the point, no one has ever made a large profit off of lithium, so it’s off the pharmaceutical companies radar.
2. Lithium to reduce cancer risk (published in the British Journal of Psychiatry July, 2016):
This study links lithium with a significant reduction in cancer risk.
Not only that, but the reduced risk of cancer was found to be dose dependent, meaning patients who took higher doses of lithium had even greater reduction in cancer rates than those who took lower doses.
Researchers followed over 4,700 patients who used lithium (along with matched the with control patients who did not use lithium) for over 7 years and compared cancer diagnosis rates in each group.
They found that patients who used lithium had a statistically significant reduction in over all cancer rates, and that patients on higher cumulative doses of lithium had even lower cancer rates than those on low dose lithium…
…going from a 24% reduction in cancer rates for lower doses up lithium up to a 45% reduction in cancer rates in patients using the highest lithium doses.
So the bottom line is that lithium slashed cancer risk almost in half!
For a good overview on why lithium is so essential to the health of our body, I highly recommend reading this two-part series written by Dr. Jonathan Wright, M.D., medical director of the Tahoma Clinic in Washington:
Lithium, The Misunderstood Mineral Part 1
Lithium, The Misunderstood Mineral Part 2
Our body needs a very small, trace amount of lithium daily in order to function optimally.
But should we add it to our drinking water?
Let’s review the problems we already are confronting with the miniscule amounts of fluoride added to the public water supply:
One problem, widely recognised (even by the National Institutes of Health) is that fluoride accumulates in bone.
It is estimated about 50% of the fluoride we consume is eliminated, and 50% is stored.
Miniscule amounts of fluoride adding to our bodies sip after sip after sip equals a not-so-minimal exposure.
Over a lifetime, these levels can reach high proportions… decreasing bone density and causing brittleness.
For a nation whose women have epidemic proportions of osteopenia and osteoporosis, it would be crazy to continue to use fluoride on a daily or twice daily basis… and then use even more Rx to combat the osteoporosis that develops later in life.
Studies have shown that the rate of hip fracture in elderly is directly increased in areas that fluoridate their water.
And the truth is, even if you feel that you *need* fluoride to help reduce the incidence of cavities… you are getting plenty of fluoride through your foods. You absolutely do NOT need the added fluoride in your drinking water!!!
Plants store fluoride found naturally in the earth AND from the water used to irrigate crops.
Yep, even organic crops have fluoride in them from the irrigation water.
Statements from reps of the National Institutes of Health recommend that people who drink large quantities of water should not drink tap water, but instead switch to bottled water.
We are just getting so much exposure to fluoride, to intentionally consume extra fluoride, whether through drinking water or toothpaste, is way too much.
Your skin absorbs fluoride as well, so even when you are showering or taking a bath, you are absorbing fluoride.
2. Another problem is that fluoride is accumulating in our cardiovascular system as well.
A study published in the journal Nuclear Medicine Communications definitively proved that fluoride is absorbed into your vascular system and that the fluoride uptake is higher in patients with cardiovascular events then it is in patients without cardiovascular event.
Researchers followed 61 patients after administering fluoride and found that 96% of them had fluoride uptake in their cardiovascular walls.
In a nation with heart disease steeply rising, this doesn’t sit well with me.
After hundreds of studies have shown fluoride affects everything from cognitive function in humans to diabetes, fertility and more in animals, I recommend avoiding fluoride in water and never use fluoridated toothpastes.
Fluoride is an enzyme inhibitor, point-blank.
That’s why fluoride is toxic in large quantities, absolutely no doubt about it.
You can check your fluoride toothpaste label… right on the tube will be a warning not to swallow fluoride toothpaste, and to call poison control if any more than a pea sized amount is ingested.
In fact, fluoride is not recommended in children under 2 years old because of the swallowing risk… and this is by folks (like the ADA) who are huge supporters of fluoride in general.
Today’s cited article shows direct absorption to of fluoride into our cardiovascular walls and a significant correlation between cardiovascular events and fluoride uptake, so it is all the more urgent for us to avoid fluoride all together.
Your skin absorbs fluoride as well, so even when you are showering or taking a bath, you are absorbing fluoride.
New studies show that about 40% of children today have discolored or pitted teeth from the extreme levels of fluoride we are now exposed to… both topically in toothpaste and internally through food and water.
This tooth deformation is called dental fluorosis, and is caused by abnormal enamel (and even completely absent enamel) formation.
If you have white spots, brown spots, or pitting in your teeth or your children’s teeth, look into eliminating fluoride exposure completely.
The problem with trying to eliminate fluoride exposure completely is you can’t… not really.
Removing fluoride from water is tough.
Filters like Brita don’t cut it.
Fluoride is unaffected by most filtration methods.
To actually be certain you reduce the fluoride in your water, you would need to install a reverse osmosis filter in your home…
…or use a Berkey water filter to filter out the water you drink… this is the water filter we personally use in our home.
The sad thing about this is that your skin is still absorbing fluoride from the water supply when you take a shower or bath, or use sink water to wash your face, brush your teeth, wash your hands and more.
There is never a day that goes by that I don’t wish fluoride was not added to our public water supply.
So for me, as a mother and as a physician, that’s a daily reminder to mess with adding crap to our water.
I feel strongly that we should have a choice on what we consume in our water.
Making additives ubiquitous in the water supply infringes on our right to choose, and certainly as a physician I feel it infringes on our long term health.
You can ALWAYS brush with fluoridated toothpaste if you want the fluoride exposure — just get it out of our drinking and bathing water PLEASE.
And you can always take a lithium supplement to support your health — no need to add it to the water supply!
If you are concerned about your mineral intake and want to get trace amounts of lithium in your body daily, I recommend Concentrace Mineral Drops to my patients to be sure they are getting all the rich minerals their body needs every single day to function it’s best!
You can use these too, no Rx required — found in my online dispensary right here…
To your vibrant health!
xoxoxo, Laura
PS — on top of mineral supplementation, there are tons of holistic things you can do to prevent dementia!!!
For a fantastic overview of what you can do today to dramatically lower your dementia risk tomorrow, read this blog post I wrote for you!