Lithium Sanctum & Heart Disease

Lithium Sanctum is the trade name for a nutritional supplement containing lithium aspartate or lithium orotate. Dietary supplementation is recommended by some proponents of nutritional medicine based upon the observation that regions with a low lithium concentration in tap water tend to have higher rates of various behavioral problems. Some lithium manufacturers have implied on their websites that lithium supplementation may also be beneficial for heart disease.

High Doses

• Lithium has long been used as a highly effective treatment for patients with bipolar disorder, in doses of 1,000 to 3,000 mg daily. Most of the published evidence about the effect of lithium on the heart comes from studies of such patients. Far from benefiting heart health, lithium at the high end of this dosage range can actually be toxic to cardiac muscle cells. In addition, high levels of lithium have been known to cause disturbances in heart rhythm.

Low Doses

• Lithium is found in trace amounts in grains, vegetables and tap water. Experimental diets have been used to create lithium deficiency syndromes in rats and goats, with a number of detrimental effects on reproduction and behavior, but lithium deficiency of this severity has never been observed in humans. Even the severe level of lithium deficiency seen in the experimental rats and goats was not associated with heart problems or with an increase in markers for heart disease. This evidence suggests that dietary lithium deficiency is unlikely to be associated with increased heart disease in humans.

Supplementation

• Several studies have demonstrated an association between low lithium levels in a region's tap water and mental hospital admissions for a variety of disorders, homicide, suicide, forcible rape, burglary and theft. In addition, one study found significantly lower levels of lithium in the scalp hair of prisoners incarcerated for violent offenses. Also, a small study of former drug users receiving four mg of lithium daily found significant improvement in mood compared to controls receiving a placebo. These findings have led to speculation that low dietary lithium intake may in some people cause behavioral disturbances even in the absence of a clear deficiency syndrome.

Less Substantiated Claims

• Based upon this evidence that dietary lithium supplementation may offer positive behavioral benefits; supplement manufacturers have come out with low-dose (usually 5 to 15 mg daily) lithium products. As part of their marketing of these products, some of the manufacturer's websites make claims for additional benefits from lithium supplementation, including improvements in glaucoma, fibromyalgia and infertility. They do not cite any published scientific accounts showing lithium supplementation to be effective for these conditions, however.

Heart Disease Claims

• Among the less substantiated claims for lithium is the suggestion that it may be better for use in heart disease then well-established treatments such as diuretics. This suggestion is made based upon supposed biochemical properties of the heart, although no published evidence supporting this property is cited. Once again no published scientific accounts showing lithium supplementation to be better than diuretics for heart disease, or even of any benefit at all, are cited.