Lithium is from the Greek Word"Lithos" Meaning "Stone."
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN
While Swedish student Johan Arvedson has been credited for the discovery of lithium in 1817, the role of lithium has been suspected for ages, possibly in Southern Egypt before the Birth of Christ.
Lithium Carbonate was first discovered as treatment for Mania in 1948 by Australian Psychiatrist John F. Cade. After Mr. Cade's initial report , Lithium treatment was principally developed in Denmark by Mogens Schou, beginning in 1954.
After a decade of trials by these and other groups in the United States and abroad, the Psychiatric Association and the Lithium Task Force recommended Lithium to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for therapy of Mania in 1969, twenty years after its discovery by Cade. In 1970, upon the recommendation, the FDA approved the prescription drug. A breakthrough had finally been achieved in the treatment and prevention of one of the world's major mental health problems in the form of manic depression, and the genetically related forms of recurrent depression.
Now having said all of the above, pioneering doctors in Lithia Springs were eighty years ahead of Cade, Schou, and the FDA. In 1890, Doctors Robert B. Cloud, Christopher Columbus Garrett, and W. H. Whitehead established the first hospital in America, the Lithia Springs Sanitarium, using natural lithium water in treating alcoholism, opium addiction, and compulsive behavior. Manic depression had not been identified as a form of mental illness at that time. In 1887, the first analysis of Lithia Springs Mineral Water proved the water to be rich, not only in lithium, but also contained potassium, calcium, magnesium, fluoride and other essential trace minerals.
In 1999, scientists and the medical profession celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the miracle drug lithium, a true revolution in the treatment of mental health.
If the Springs' ancient granite walls could talk, they would tell a tale of the healing water's benefits to prehistoric mankind.
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WATER - LIQUID CRYSTALS
LITHIA WATER IN THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE
By W. H. WHITEHEAD, M. D., circa 1890
Resident Physician at the Lithia Springs Sanitarium, Lithia Springs, Georgia
Although a knowledge of the chemical composition of a mineral water may furnish some slight clue to its medical qualities, yet no just or satisfactory conclusion can be arrived at as to what classes of diseases it is particularly adapted, until a fair trial in every species of malady is secured. A brief examination of the analysis of Lithia Water is sufficient to satisfy the inquirer that it is highly anti-acid and diuretic, and explains at once its wide curative range. What we consider the long list of maladies that have their source or origin in Uric Acid Diathesis, it is readily seen how wide the field and how great is the remedial power of this Water, the more particularly in such forms Arthritis, Rheumatic Gout, Bright's Disease, Granula Kidney, Albuminuria, Cystitis, Uric Acid Calculi or Deposits, Inflammation of the Prostate Gland,Exczema, Inflammation of the Bladder, and Acid or Atonic Dyspepsia. The diuretic property of the Water is equal to its anti-acid quality so far as its power is related to these respective phases of disease, and it therefore becomes of almost inestimable value in Cardiac (or Heart) Dropsy Edema of the Wrists, Ankles or Face. Such phases of the malady are not infrequently caused by calculi or uric or lithic acid origin, and it is in such cases that the use of the Water is so urgently indicated. The solvent power of this Water is owning to its anti-acid and diuretic properties, and its value is clearly demonstrated no less by these powers, than by the WELL-KNOWN FACT TO CHEMISTS AND PHYSICIANS THAT URIC ACID IS SOLUBLE ONLY IN LITHIA, FOR WHICH IT POSSESSES SO GREAT AN AFFINITY THAT URIC ACID IS ELIMINATED BY THE KIDNEYS IN THE FORM OF UREA, WHICH IS HARMLESS TO THE URINARY TRACT. The bicarb of potassium in this water added to the bicarbonate of Lithia, forms a compound designated as carbo-lithiated potash, which possesses a subtlety and efficacy never equaled by any other ingredient known to science. These wonderful alkalies combined are the invariable solvents of the acids in this class of diseases. In certain conditions of the system uric acid crystallizes in the kidneys and bladder in hard, needle-shaped prisms. These sharp prisms destroy that delicate lining or membrane of these organs, causing inflammation. An irritated condition of this membranous lining renders it peculiarly susceptible to the attack of uric acid, the effect of which is to cause the gradual disintegration of the tissue of the kidneys, resulting in interstitial nephritis, or acute Bright's Disease. Particles of this uric acid become lodged in the almost microscopical tubes (capillary in their nature) of this organ, and the blood passing through them becomes further contaminated and freely distributes the poisons throughout the system, giving rise to many complications. Again, further particles remain in the kidneys and bladder, other particles cling to them, they become, as it were, encysted, until too large to pass through the natural channels of escape, and remain for longer or shorter periods, forming calculi or stone in the kidneys or bladder, and can be removed only by use of the knife, or the free use of Natural Lithia Water, the former an operation fraught with danger, the latter a painless, sure remedy. Surely no one can fail to recognize the inestimable value of Lithia in light of these facts. The alternative properties of Lithia Water makes it a most valuable adjuvant in the treatment of eczema, acne, facial and syphilitic eruptions, in either acute or chronic forms, and its record in this regard is truly a most remarkable one. Aside from the known connection of protracted remittent and intermittent fevers with digestive organs, chronic skin diseases are doubtless, many of them dependent upon or greatly influenced by the urinary secretions. The depurating powers of this Water, rendering the blood and other fluids of the body less acrid and saline, through the agency of renal organs, would particularly indicate the Water as being specially efficacious in all the wide range of these most annoying symptoms of constitutional disturbances-a diseased cuticle of skin. The Water is also eminently tonic in its effects, and its use is particularly indicated in the cachexia or sequela of Scarlet and other fevers, such as Typhoid and intermittent, which may prove to have their origin in the use of impure drinking water or unfavorable sanitary conditions. It exercises a cooling effect upon all febrile symptoms, allays nausea and tends to lower the temperature of the fevered body. In chronic cystitis, where there shooting and burning pains in the region of the bulbous urethra during and after urinating, the Water acts as a sedative, calming the nerves and preventing convulsions of the organs, and acts as a GENERAL APHRODISIAC. In forms of disease of the prostate gland it is well nigh invaluable, preventing the constant desire to micturate and diminishing the irritation throughout the genito-urinary tract. Lithia Water should be drank about an hour before meals, as the stomach is then in an alkaline condition, and the Water, being itself alkaline, is readily assimilated. It will be neutralized by the acid reaction of the gastric juice if taken soon after meals. While drinking the Water all acids should be avoided, necessarily, and for many reasons. It is proper at this point, that particular stress be laid upon the imperative necessity of a regular, systematic diet, prepared especially for the protean forms of Uric Acid Diathesis, and sufferer who can not or will not submit to regimen of diet calculated to assist the Water in its remedial work, ought not, expect any relief or consideration. I have found this Water to prove a very valuable dilutor for wines and liquors, more particularly Burgundy and Bordeaux, and other light wines whiskey-either rye or bourbon. These, however, should be denied to patients suffering from forms of actual disease in which the use of the Water is indicated. ___________________________________________________________________