• Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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    4 years ago

    Lithium is element #3 on the periodic table, and it is therefore super common in the universe.

    In places where there is higher naturally-occurring lithium levels in the water, there are lower rates of violent crime, murder, and suicide. Lithium is... good for your mind? But we don't know why/how. :)

    It's the frontline medication for bipolar, and is also useful for other mental illnesses like schizophrenia and some others 🤷‍♂️

    • unperson [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      #3 on the periodic table, and it is therefore super common in the universe

      Number three is actually a bad thing because atoms hate odd numbers and Lithium-7 not only has a lot of odd numbers but it's also in an weird spot which means that not only very few protons and neutrons arranged themselves into Lithium during the Big Bang (they are about a billion times less likely to than for Helium) but also that stars consume more of it than they produce.

      The end result is that it's about as abundant as the rare earths, but, what's more, being on the far left of the periodic table implies that Lithium is very reactive and forms salts very easily, so what little is on Earth is all dissolved in the ocean at tiny tiny concentrations unlike the rare earths and metals and so on that you can find in blobs buried somewhere.

      Source: physicist. Click here to subscribe to Lithium Facts.

      • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Ooouh! I just assumed that the earlier on the periodic table an element is, the more abundant it would be! Apparently not so simple!

        Number three is actually a bad thing... Lithium is very reactive and forms salts very easily

        being on the far left of the periodic table

        But! I am enough of a leftist to know that only one of these statements can be true! Aha!

        Also I will NOT click your subscription gotcha, and so I will never know if the concentration of lithium in the Ocean is high enough to have therapeutic value.

        Now, pardon me, I'm back off to the lithium salts mine to hand-powder me some more medicine thank you very much.

        (Thank you very much.)

        • unperson [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          But! I am enough of a leftist to know that only one of these statements can be true! Aha!

          Oh but Vladimir Ilyich wrote an entire book on those salty ultra-left reactionaries :P

      • anthm17 [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        That's why it's valuable enough for Elon Musk to benefit from a coup in Bolivia.

    • Parzivus [any]
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      4 years ago

      Medical chem is fucking wild. I remember doing an assignment on smog in the US for an intro Chemistry class, and part of it was to describe the reactions that make things like ozone harmful to breathe. Then you read up on it and it's basically "we don't know exactly what the reason is but it definitely fucks your lungs lol"

      • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Hahahaha, right?? Never have I seen the phrase "this does that but we don't know why" so many times in science as I have since being prescribed various medications.

        Which... is concerning? Cuz it's our bodies, right? But I guess, if it works it works! Hahaha

      • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Duuuuuude, you gotta just, like, recharge, maaaaaan!

        Also tho: hotsprings often are full of lithium, which soaks into you and you breathe it in; it's part of why hotsprings have always been considered healing/therapeutic places .

        That and they're nice and warm and pretty .

    • eiknat [comrade/them]
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      4 years ago

      so what you're telling me is I should go eat my batteries? that'll fix it? I HAVE A WHOLE NEW PACK BRB

      • Gorn [they/them,he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Wait! Ugh! No! It doesn't work like that!!!

        First you have to grind up the batteries, and put the powder into lil pink gel caps . :breadpill:

        You can only eat 3 or 4 of these gelcaps per day, otherwise you might dehydrate/have a seizure/die. Everything in moderation! Even eating batteries!