Lithium Orotate (Natural Supplement) for Fluctuating Tinnitus, Mood Swings, Depression, and Anxiety?

I hope I have found something here. I have looked for a long time to be able to take something to calm me down after taking Lamictal and that wouldn't increase my tinnitus. So far so good. I have no idea why I only took it for a short period of time years ago. It's possible I was taking several kinds of meds and supplements and didn't know what was doing what. It's great that you said you took half a pill and felt good. I may try that this week. Do you still take it?

 

You are right...this stuff is very potent to me and you. I didn't realize that when I started taking it. At first I was taking one a day then sometimes would take two a day. When I went up to 4 I immediately starting having bad side effects. I got extreme gas in my stomach very shortly after taking it and it caused pain in my chest. I took some Gas-X and tried to belch out as much as I could and after some time it died down. However, I was nauseated a lot the next day. The night before last I took only 1 tablet the whole day at night. Same thing happened though the nausea wasn't as bad the next day. Yesterday I only took 1/4 tablet the whole day and that was at night. Same thing happened with the gas and after that died down, I took about .3mg of melatonin (way less than the 3mg tablet) and I got gas from that. That has NEVER happened before although it was the first time I took melatonin after being on lithium orotate. I hope it's a matter of it clearing my system some and then I could take a small amount each day because it really can help calm me down and has been lessening the intensity of my tinnitus.

Other side effects I have noticed after I hit the 4 tablets of lithium orotate that day is that I sometimes have had drainage down the back of my throat (which can cause nausea), occasional partially stopped up nose which goes away, and drier eyes. When I was only taking 1 tablet a day I only noticed a brief dry eye. There may be others but I don't know about them or can't think of any others right now.

The pros are that I have felt more calmer, my anxiety is less and when the thoughts come, they can leave much quicker, less intense tinnitus, a little bit of mood boost, and I am able to reason with myself more, and feel more control over my emotions.

I hope things can be reversed some so I'm not so oversensitive to lithium anymore. I guess I can skip a day and see what happens. I would like to warn people to not overdose on this supplement.

 

After reading a number of the Negative customer reviews ( one and two stars) of the various brands of L.O. on Amazon, I think people should be very careful when taking it. However, unlike you I can't speak from actual personal experience.

Additionally, there is a warning on webmd.com specifically regarding Lithium Orotate. After going to the link, click on the "side effects" tab. If you're on any kind of med, check to see if it's listed under "Interactions."

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1065/lithium

 

Once again, it really depends on how much take - that's the same with most OTC substances. Here are some VERY positive comments from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/product-revi...dpproductdetail_text?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

 

New update: Lowered my dose down to 2.5mg at night and 2.5mg in the morning. I have had really good mood stability. Keep in mind I was diagnosed with a mild bipolar and I also seemed to being going through benzo withdrawal stuff for a while but now it seems like I have been so much better. There is no way it is all "in my mind" as one of the "side effects" I have now is a lot less hair loss and there is no way I could fake that. Also, a cool thing now at night is I haven't had dreadful intrusive thoughts while I am trying to fall asleep. I guess I will continue trying it some more to see if I can continue to be stable.

Btw @Cal18, are you still taking lithium orotate? If so, how is it going?

 

Did you all ever try this stuff? I'm starting to wonder what if would feel like if I wasn't taking Lamictal. I find that if I take it before I go to sleep or take a nap it enhances my emotions when I wake up. I usually feel more energized too. Side effects include dry eye. Sometimes gas....I haven't quite figured that out yet though and wonder if it has something to do with the Lamictal.

I had been taking some pain meds, sleeping a lot, dropped my Lamictal, and started to feel "off". I hadn't taken much Lithium Orotate lately (long story why, but now that I think about it, it could have been because I switched to taking Lamictal at night and that threw me off and I didn't take lithium as much - it was definitely helping me for the most part.) Anyways, I took some lithium orotate, laid down and took a quick nap, woke up and felt energized and more "normal" again. This is interesting: sometimes if I take it during the day it can be calming, but other times if I take it before sleep or a nap, I can wake up feeling better and more "energized" than without it.

 

Further update: Lithium Orotate was definitely helping me with my tinnitus and habituating to it. The only bad side effect I have with it is gas. It is really unfortunate. I have tried taking various things for it, so far no good. I don't think it would give the majority people of gas though. The reason I say this is because with certain medications, my body has always been sensitive to gas and nausea. If anyone knows of something I can take to prevent nausea and gas, please let me know. If it wasn't for those side effects, this supplement would be awesome for me.

 

I want to give an update here on this supplement. This is my conclusion: Lithium Orotate is legit. It is definitely not a placebo effect. When I took it every day for a few weeks, it seemed to put the tinnitus often in the back of my mind. I could watch TV and the ringing would be tuned out. When I noticed the ringing, it didn't bother me, then it seemed like I would quickly tune it out again. I could listen to music in the car without noticing the ringing. It seemed to take a loud tonal sound and convert it into a frequency that blended in more with background sounds.

The only problem is that it allowed me to get gas and nausea more than usual. This is unfortunate as this is one of the things that can make me feel mentally worse if I get into a depression. I don't think it would happen with the majority of the people though because I had this stupid problem with some other medications. I really want to take it some more so I am in the process of trying to figure out what I can do to prevent that nausea on a regular basis.

Anyways, if it's been a long time and you haven't habituated to tinnitus, Lithium Orotate may be worth looking into. If you decide to try it, I recommend a tablet form so you can cut it in half if the full tablet is too much. Also, if you try it, please post your experience for others.

 

Anyone else tried this? I'm desperate for help after becoming more active from work and noise exposure has changed my tinnitus and/or hyperacusis to become more reactive or winding up to noises, making the tinnitus increase with noise stimulus. Devastating.

 

Hey, did you ever try it? I was just curious.

Perhaps if I can figure out what is causing my extreme gas issues (that happen without the lithium orotate) I could try it again longer term. I still have some to try in case my tinnitus becomes very loud. By the way, if anyone knows what would cause a lot of gas on the stomach and very deep belching every day, upon waking and after eating and drinking water, or many hours after eating and drinking, please let me know. It's not carbonated soda.

 

Hey Cal18, I hope you are doing wonderful. I think I found out part of the cause of some of my problems with lithium orotate. I believe I have POTS. Remember when I found out my pulse was around 100 standing and I was freaking out? I think that is due to POTS and it seems to have gotten worse the past couple of years for me. My pulse rate is normal laying down but upon standing it can go up to 100 or more. If you're interested, you can read more about it here: http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/page.php?ID=30. A large percentage of people with POTS have elevetated norephenerine, which I assume is to cause the heart to beat faster. (That could explain why I can feel on the edge about things sometimes) I got 20-30mmHg compression socks and sometimes I had my pulse under 80 standing. It seems eating certain foods (possibly carbs) can make my pulse go up too. Anyways, I think lithium orotate was making me feel mentally better at times but when it affected my POTS negatively, it could be bad.

Also, something cool I have been doing lately is using blue light blocking glasses at night and I really like them. They seem to help me get to sleep without taking supplements or drugs. I also think they are helping me out with my mood the next day.

Anyways, are you still taking the lithium orotate?

 

@JasonP Hi Jason! That's an interesting connection. Unless I read incorrectly, the orotate should decrease the sensitivity of the norephenerine receptors which would have the opposite effect on POTS. I'm sure you've researched it more than I have though .

I've been experiencing something similar in the evening. I've been taking 10MG of Nortriptyline and my heart rate seems to be close to 100 after dosing (also sometimes get a short head rush when standing).

I take the Lithium Orotate occasionally. Even just 1/2 of a 4MG tablet seems to be a big mood lifter around 30-40 min after taking it. I take a bunch of other supplements so I don't take it daily.

 

Going to try it starting at 5mg hoping it helps. I am taking 5htp should I stop it?

 

I don't know. I can't say for sure but I would be a little scared to take it with lithium orotate. Other people might know better though.

 

Well, one of the things that lithium orotate was doing was it was acting like a diuretic. (I remember after taking it a while my face thinned out.) I also sometimes have orthostatic hypotension so I believe it could drop my blood pressure further. I am actually experiencing low blood pressure this afternoon after some days where it seemed okay. (I have not been taking lithium orotate). I don't think all my problems I complained about were due to lithium orotate.

For some reason my blood pressure is usually lowest in the afternoon and when I looked it up on the Mayo Clinic website, it says that blood pressure is normally the highest in the afternoon. That is when it is usually the worst for me.

 

Thanks Jason will stop 5-HTP and give Lithium try and you said it took about 2 weeks to feel the effects? Are you taking any other supplements? Thank you

 

Well, right now I am not taking any supplements. I have, however, been using blue blocking glasses which seem to really help me get to sleep. When I was taking lithium orotate, I think I had some decent results when I took half a tablet twice a day. You may, however, want to read reviews on Amazon to see how others take it because I am not an expert with it. In fact, it seems like different people take different amounts and doses. It also seemed to affect me differently depending on the time of day I took it but that could just be me. Cal18 might be a good person to ask though as I don't believe she had some of the side effects that I did.

As far as habituation was concerned, I think somewhere around two weeks of taking lithium orotate, I found it was easier to stop thinking about the ringing.

 

Thanks Jason I appreciate it

 

You are very welcome! I hope it helps you! Oh and one more thing... even though I said it took me around two weeks of taking it to be able to push the tinnitus out of my mind easier, it usually had some kind of effects on me even in the beginning of taking it, just like Cal18 said. I usually noticed a difference within 45 minutes of taking it. If I remember right, the chewable tablets may have worked faster for me but regular tablets were fine too. I would however, suggest not trying the capsule form because, even though it works, it's hard to split the dosage in half if you decide to take less.

 

Could I ask why you stopped taking it?

 

Well, I've got some problems going on now with me other than tinnitus and I when I took the lithium orotate, sometimes I didn't know how it would affect my body. For example, sometimes, It could calm me down but other times I would get really nauseated. I don't think these kinds of effects would happen to most people though because I can have nausea sometimes after eating. Doctors have so far been pretty much useless. I think I have orthostatic hypotension and/or POTS and maybe something else.

 

Thanks Jason once again-I hope you’re able to resolve your nausea issue and get back on it-as it seemed to help you. I decided to take 10mg-based on height, weight, age-will keep you guys posted and update you guys in 2 weeks. If it can help me habituate as I had in the past I would call it a win. Thanks once again for taking your time-I appreciate it.

 

The first two days and it seem to help, however this could just be just a placebo effect after that it started to lose its efficacy. I tried to play around with the dosages and increase up to 15 mg, however it does nothing to really quell my anxiety, which really impacts my tinnitus. Maybe this works well with people with some mania, and/or maybe my anxiety and/or depression is too much that I may needed a larger dosage. However, I don’t feel comfortable going beyond 15mg.

 

Hey Cal18, I just wanted to give you an update. Somehow I made an appointment with a doctor who finally knows what he is talking about. He is an electrophysiologist and cardiologist. I finally got to talk to him through telemedicine (they cancelled my in person visit due to the coronavirus). It's ironic because my condition doesn't have anything to do with my heart but with the nervous system. He said I have dysautonomia. (POTS is actually a type of dysautonomia so I was close). When I looked up dysautonomia, I'm like wow that's me. It turns out a lot of people get diagnosed with some psychiatric problem that have dysautonomia instead of what's really wrong. It's so sad that I have waited so long for a proper diagnosis.

I have been getting bull crap diagnoses since the early 90's and only now in 2020 do I have a correct diagnosis. I have been using 30-40mmHg compression socks, avoiding certain foods lately, taking saltstick Vitassium and water and it has definitely helped even though it seems to be worse in the afternoon. Anyways, one of the reasons I wanted to tell you this was you are indirectly responsible for helping me finally get the dysautonomia diagnosis because the first time I knew something was off was when we were on the phone talking and I was playing with the oximeter and noticed my high pulse rate and thought it might be benzo withdrawal. Well, benzo withdrawal may have made it a little worse but it's not the cause.

Anyways, do you think if I got the dysautonomia under control, would it be okay to take lithium orotate again? Do you happen to notice if there is any withdrawal from lithium orotate if you don't take it? By the way, I did take something called Li-Zyme which worked great if I took it right before bed. It was basically 50mcg of lithium (a very small amount) so I don't know if that something you might want to look into. It's highly rated on Amazon last time I checked.

 

In my case it took about 2 to 3 weeks before I started habituating to the tinnitus with it. It was really cool... the thought about tinnitus would come into my mind and there was no real negative reaction to it, and I just pushed it out of mind extremely easy. It was like the the thought might last for like 5 to 10 seconds. Unfortunately, it affected my dysautonomia so I had to stop taking it. My dosage was 2.5mg in the morning and 2.5mg at night I believe.

 

Just saw this video on Lithium Orotate, by Peter Smith. It looks almost too good to be true, although he does not talk about tinnitus specifically.

 

I've been taking it and have not noticed any distinct benefit to my tinnitus - your mileage may vary.

 

While in low doses it seems to help long term, being neuro protective, it is also serotonergic and serotonin may worsen tinnitus. Also, in large doses it causes tinnitus as a side effect. Orotate supplements have very low doses of lithium, compared to Carbonate, but one has to be careful.

 

Still thinking about Lithium Orotate. From what I read it has a ton of benefits, being neuroprotective and to some extent even neuro-regenerative, fights glutamate exitotoxicity, stabilizes dopamine, increases serotonin (which is good in general but might be bad for tinnitus) and has many other benefits. I took it occasionally but it does not seem to impact my tinnitus, although I took just 2.5mg per day. There is little research on the orotate formulation, but it seems to help some people depression and bipolar disorder anecdotally. Also, it might help prevent Alzheimer's disease, that is how my grandmother and my mother died. I look like my mother a lot, so I am concerned and Lithium might help. There would seem to be quite a few reasons to try and go on stable supplementation for me, except one: the serotonin increase. I'm not sure how prevalent that effect is but it could be a problem for tinnitus people. I will try to speak with a functional doctor to see what he says and how strong the serotonergic effect is.

P.S. @FGG, @Greg Sacramento, any opinion? I realize it's a difficult question. Greg, I am aware you had sent a few emails investigating this in the past but the company you had contacted did not comment on Lithium. Also, the good review article you linked in the other thread does not mention Lithium.

 

I found this series of schematics:

Lithium's Mechanism of Action: An Illustrated Review

Lithium also might help hydrops:

Effects of Lithium on Endolymph Homeostasis and Experimentally Induced Endolymphatic Hydrops

Which does make it seem like it might be helpful but I'm not sure if a) they understand all the effects of lithium yet and if b) the neurotransmitters in the cochlea itself are affected to any great degree (I can't find any information anywhere on that).

I would absolutely ask your neurologist specifically about this, though.