How our drinking water could help prevent suicide

Future Perfect

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, Society & Culture, Philosophy, Tech News, News

4.5 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2018

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lithium is a potent drug used to treat bipolar disorder, but it’s also the third element in the periodic table, and you can find tiny amounts in most drinking water. Scientists have discovered something remarkable: In areas where the tap water has more lithium, fewer people seem to die by suicide. That raises a big question: Should we put small amounts of lithium in the drinking water? Can we afford not to? ––– Further reading: Anna Fels’s op-ed “Should We All Take a Bit of Lithium?” in the New York Times Nassir Ghaemi and colleagues review the evidence on trace lithium and suicide, homicide, crime, and dementia A recent study casting doubt on the trace lithium/suicide prevention link Jesse Hicks explains the fluoride controversy for the Science History Institute Jesse Hicks explains trace lithium, for Vice More of Vox’s effective altruism coverage ––– Discover more podcasts from Vox here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I had the absolute pleasure of speaking to Pamela Anderson.
0:04.2	All thanks to the Dove Self-Eesteem Project.
0:07.1	We speak about the impact Y2K has had on women's body confidence and how Pamela has regained control.
0:12.9	The Dove Self-Esteen project is an amazing initiative supported by science-backed methodology
0:17.8	to help us improve our relationship with our bodies.
0:20.8	To find more
0:21.4	body confidence-building exercises, go to dove.com forward slash Y2K. That's Y2K spelled W-H-Y2K.
0:31.8	A few years ago, Dr. Nasir Gami had a patient who was having suicidal thoughts.
0:38.3	He gave the patient a small dose of lithium.
0:43.3	A few weeks later, the patient came back for a follow-up.
0:48.3	Gami asked him if he'd noticed any change.
0:51.3	And he said, yes, well, before you gave me the lithium, I would drive over this bridge
0:56.7	and I would always say to myself, huh, I could just drive off this bridge.
1:01.4	And now that I was on the lithium, I would drive over the bridge and I said to myself,
1:05.5	hmm, I used to think I could drive off this bridge.
1:08.5	And it was this kind of subtle effect that was almost immediate.
1:11.8	That was an example of the kind of benefit people can get with lithium for suicide ideas.
1:16.8	It seems to prevent suicide directly.
1:19.0	It's not so much because patients get less depressed.
1:21.9	They just get less suicidal.
1:23.7	And there's even research about it doing so with very low doses like what you see in the water supply.
1:31.5	From the Vox Media Podcast Network, this is Future Perfect, a podcast that looks at big problems
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