Banter and general comments, page-812

From this link
https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/hot-thought/201801/why-is-lithium-good-both-batteries-and-bipolar-disorder#:~:text=Since%20the%201970s%2C%20lithium%20has,electric%20cars%20such%20as%20Teslas.

Lithium is good for batteries for three main reasons. First, it is highly reactive because it readily loses its outermost electron, making it easy to get current flowing through a battery. Second, lithium is much lighter than other metals used in batteries, such as lead, which is important for small objects such as phones but also for cars that require many batteries. Third, lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable, because lithium ions and electrons move easily back into negative electrodes.

It is harder to specify the mechanisms that explain why lithium helps people with bipolar disorder. The calming effect of lithium was discovered by accident in the 1940s, but the understanding of how it works has been slow to develop. According to a recent review by Flavio Guzman, lithium assists the brain in three ways. First, it helps to protect a number of brain regions important for emotional functioning, maintaining gray matter in areas such as the ventral prefrontal cortex. Second, lithium affects the operations of neurotransmitters in desirable ways to discourage mania, by reducing dopamine and norepinephrine excitation and increasing **A inhibition. Third, lithium modulates cellular signaling systems by affecting important brain chemicals such as AC/cAMP and BDNF. Lithium inhibits the operation of AC/cAMP through competition with magnesium, but I have found no scientific consensus on how lithium affects neurotransmitters such as dopamine and **A, and how it has more widespread effects on whole brain regions.

My thoughts below:

Interesting that lithium can be used for two - in somewhat similar but opposite ways - allowing easy flow of an electric current and modulating the flow of neurotransmitters in the brain. I have an extended family member who has suffered from depression most of her adult life and been on lithium for approx 30 years, sadly in her mid 50s the effects of lithium for her are causing early onset dementia.