Lithium

[Zoeysfat]

Hi all,

Anyone know anything about taking Lithium if you are Celiac? I have done the search, but can not seem to find anything. I have been gluten free for a year + now with few "accidents", recently I was diagnosed with Bipolar II and the shrink put me on a low dose of Lithium. My guts have really been bothering me for the last few weeks and I am not sure if it is the Lithium or if I am doing something new that is wrong for my disease. If you know anything, please share what you can. If not Lithium, is there an alternative?

Zoey

[daffadilly]

I do not know anything about Lithium. Have you had a recent blood work up for all your vitamin & mineral levels? And be sure to get a print out of the test results yourself. Do you take a B12 everyday regardless of the levels of B12?

Are you eating a healthy diet? ie gone on a computer site where you can plug in the foods that you eat each day & get the results concerning vitamins, minerals, fat, protein etc.? This is a very worthwhile thing to do & we should all do it periodically, to check our diet.

Do you exercise every day?

If I were you I would also try going dairy free - it makes a huge difference, if you have a problem with it, you can also test thru Enterolab to see if you are dairy intolerant

Sorry, but maybe this will bump you to the top & someone that knows about Lithium will post.

[heli]

I am a nurse & celiac person. I don't know that there is anything specifically about lithium that prevents a celiac person from using the product. However, in the past when I was on multiple meds, I always made it a habit to call the pharmaceutical company and have someone discuss the flow agent for capsules and the binding agent for compressed tablets. Most pharmaceuticals have stopped using gluten as a binder but many use lactose and/or corn starch. I am violently reactive to corn starch. Virtually every refill needs to be checked because of substitutions, generics, and changing of formulation of inert ingredients.

[Shalia]

Lithium will give you HORRIBLE diahrrea. It's a very VERY common side effect.

A great webpage for any psych drug (especially us bipolars!) is Open Original Shared Link

The language on there is a bit harsh, but the guy knows his drugs (he's a bipolar/autistic/epileptic, he NEEDS to!), and he'll put it to you straight. You'll learn a lot. (There's an attached message board there, too, so you can ask any drug related question and people will know your answers. And he's got all the prescribing inserts for major drugs like Lamictal (which you'll probably get at some point as a beeper 2) so you can find out the inert ingredients in them. *grin*)

Good luck, and if you need anything, feel free to PM me. I may be new to this celiac thing, but I've got bipolar down. *sigh*

Also, I'm a moderator on Open Original Shared Link if you'd like to stop by. We're a friendly bunch of people, too, and we actually have a licensed pharmacologist on hand to answer medication questions.

Shalia

P.S. The Lithium PI sheet (prescribing insert) is at Open Original Shared Link From the PI sheet, the gastrointestinal side effects are: Gastrointestinal: anorexia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, gastritis, salivary gland swelling,

abdominal pain, excessive salivation, flatulence, indigestion; Yuck! If I wanted to go through that, I'd eat a pizza!