Water: Now with More Lithium!

Stephen King wrote a story in 1986 called “The End of the Whole Mess” which documented a scientist’s discovery of a chemical compound that, when added to drinking water, would calm a population and ultimately put an end to war and violence. Unfortunately the compound boasted many side effects. Though it did reduce world violence, many people suffered dementia, Alzheimer’s and eventually death.

Science fiction, meet reality. An Austrian study recently published in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that areas where lithium naturally occurred in drinking water had lower suicide rates than areas where water contained no lithium. Earlier this year, a Japanese study was published that showed low traces of lithium can promote life longeivity.

There have been numerous studies done, and one of the earliest is eerily similar to Mr. King’s cautionary tale. The crime statistics in27 Texan counties were studied over a ten-year period. The counties that had access to lithium-enriched water reported much lower crime rates than the counties that didn’t. “The End of the Whole Mess” centers around La Plata, Texas, a town with no violent crime.

Many believe it will be difficult to persuade countries to allow lithium to be added to their drinking water. Though experts say there are no negative side effects to consuming trace amounts of lithium daily, they said the same thing about fluoride. There is evidence that prolonged lithium use can affect renal function, kidney and liver function, and cause birth defects in a small number of babies.

Several European countries are toying with the idea, but their citizens mostly object to mandatory medication. Only 10 percent of England’s water is fluoridated, and less than one percent in Japan. Norway’s water hasn’t been fluoridated since they outlawed it in 1973, and Austria never implemented a water fluoridation system.

The authors of several studies even went as far to say that lithium would never be added to European drinking supplies due to public dissent, but the idea would be more accepted in the United States. You know, because we just lay down and submit to being drugged like lab rats.

Maybe I’m being paranoid, but at this point I only want to drink water that is completely devoid of all elemental and nutritional compounds. Who’s with me?