Over the year Lithium has become the product of choice and has played a major role in the treatment of depression. However the high concentrations of lithium acetate, carbonate and citrate that were necessary to prescribe also produced toxic side effects. A better rate of success with equally less toxicity was achieved with lithium succinate and asparaginate. Lithium orotate proves to be the most successful and with no toxicity.

According to the research of Robert Buist -- "one major clinical study cites 64 patiesnts treated with lithium orotate and observed from time periods ranging from four months to 21/2 years. The results showed lithium orotate to be particularly effective in the treatment of migraine, constant headaches, depression. epilepsy and alcoholism. This effect was also achieved at very low dose levels with no toxic side effects. Lithium carbonate and lithium citrate were shown to be less effective in the above disorders.

"It is interesting to note that when liver biopsies have been performed on patients who had been treated with calcium and lithium orotates together, a dramatic reversal was noted on practically all chronic inflammatory processes of liver mesenchyme. When calcium orotate was taken alone there was some beneficial effect but it was not nearly so marked as when in combination with lithium. This healing effect can be explained by the high affinity of orotates for mesenchymal tissue. Both chronic aggressive hepatitis and cirrhoses are primarily diseases of liver mesenchyme. Calcium orotate supplies calcium ions at the level of the mitochondrial membrane which may protect against aggression by specific antibodies, such as those present after viral hepatitis. These and other similar antibodies are thought to be the prime pathogenic principle in chronic inflammatory liver diseases by many researchers.

"Lithium orotate is thought to act in a similar way but at the level of the lysosomal membrane. Lysosomes are dehydrated by the lithium ion displacing the sodium ion. This displacement stabilizes the lysosomal membrane preventing the destruction of cells by the lysosymes which spill out as the lysosome granules disrupt. It has been suggested that chronic hepatitis is in fact sustained by a pathological secreting of these lysosomal enzymes.

"Lithium orotate has also been used to reduce the size of tumors. It is believed that tumor cells are dehydrated by a displacement of sodium by lithium ions. The tumor is reduced in size due to the cells' inability to retain water. This therapy is particularly useful for intracerebral malignant processes where intracranial pressure is relieved."