Like, the very same? Does it at least goes through different processings? How the fuck can a metal be a medicine?
In: 54
Lithium is lithium. Metal can be a medicine if your body is experiencing deficiencies. Vitamin C deficiency is/was a major issue among certain populations; vitamin C is a literal acid (ascorbic acid).
Iron the metal also is iron the supplement. Element is element. Can ask the same thing about oxygen – how can something that rusts metal also let us live? Well, it does because the chemical process in which it’s involved is different.
Lithium is the same element in both cases, but it is involved in different chemical compounds.
In a lithium battery the lithium is part of lithium cobalt oxide, one lithium atom, one cobalt, and two oxygen. In the medication it is lithium carbonate, which is two lithium atoms, one carbon, and three oxygen. Atoms behave very differently when in different chemical compounds so while the atom is the same they are very different things.
As for why precisely lithium works to treat some kinds of mental disorders… we don’t really know why it works, but it does seem to be effective.
I think lithium, the medicine, is usually lithium carbonate. However, when dissolved in water (which is what happens when it goes into your body), it separates out into lithium ions and carbonate ions, of which the lithium ions are the active ingredient, which is why it’s just known as lithium. You would not want to put pure lithium in your body as it reacts violently with water.
A lithium-ion battery contains multiple lithium compounds, which undergo various chemical reactions as the battery charges and discharges. Lithium ions play the starring role, though, so they do have something in common. Obviously you should not eat lithium-ion batteries – this could easily kill you and will not help treat any medical conditions.
It’s… Complicated. What defines when an atom is Lithium? It depends on the number of protons in the nucleus. If the number of electrons change, it is still Lithium, but it is a different ion. If the number of neutrons changes, it is still Lithium, but a different isotope. If the number of protons changes, it is no longer Lithium. All 3 changes can and do change the various properties and interactions of the element. Besides that, metallic Lithium is highly reactive and unstable in nature. It is much much much more likely to be found in a compound, bound to other elements. The other elements as well as the actual, physical structure of the compound can also have drastic changes on the way it interacts with other compounds, especially in living organisms where enzymes and proteins are heavily dependent on fitting together like puzzle pieces.
So short answer, the lithium in medicines with Lithium in them have 3 protons. The lithium in batteries have 3 protons. They are both Lithium.
Long answer, Lithium oxide has about as much in common with Lithium carbonate as Water has with rust. The reason a metal can be part of a medicine is because the average person’s definition of a metal is vastly different from chemistry. A chemist would say that a metal is an atom which readily makes cations. That just means they like to lose electrons to get a positive charge. Sodium is a metal, it likes to lose electrons. We commonly see the result when the sodium atom gives its electron to a chlorine atom. The result is table salt.
Unbound, deionized sodium metal is so reactive it will explode if it touches water. Unbound, deionized chlorine is insanely toxic and can turn the liquid in your lungs to acid. But put them together and table salt is vitally important for life as we know it. Lithium, being in the same column as sodium on the periodic table, also likes to lose electrons to get a positive charge, also is highly reactive, and is a metal. However, once you react it with other molecules, the properties may vastly change.
Calcium is also a metal. It’s only one column to the right of sodium and lithium. It will also react readily just by dropping it in water, though it won’t explode immediately like the other two. But when someone tells you to drink milk to get your calcium, you don’t ask how a metal can be good for your health. Look at a bottle of Powerade and you will see ion-4 which is their slogan for the 4 different metals they use in their drink, and under that will list sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium
Lithium is an atom, so it can form many compounds that do not have the same properties at all.
In a battery, lithium is in ionic form Li^(+), not linked to other atoms, but with an additional electron.
In medicine, from what I found on the Internet, lithium can be linked to various other atoms. But the active ingredient also seem to be Li^(+), (which means these compounds react in your body to form Li^(+) and other unnecessary stuff). So yes, it’s basically the same.
It’s absolutely normal to have metals in your body. Red cells in your blood contain iron compounds, thus an iron deficiency is a serious health issue. Other metals are also absolutely necessary to your health, like copper, zinc, chrome… But these are mainly in the form of compounds, that is, linked to other atoms, which means they have different properties than the metal itself. So that is absolutely not a reason to eat copper metal (don’t do that).
The oxygen in oxygen is the same oxygen in carbon dioxide and the same oxygen in water. The hydrogen in water is the same hydrogen that blew up the Hindenburg. Different molecules are very different, even when they’ve got some of the same kinds of atoms inside them.
Water is made of Hydrogen and Oxygen. They both burn on its own but they put out fire. It is not the individual elements that matter, it is how they combine internally that determine its properties.
So no, they are not quite the same.
And don’t try to eat bare lithium. It would burn your tongue. Literally.
Chemistry in general is very interesting, slight variations of the same fundamental element make a massive difference to form and function.
There is a good answer already, but I want to add that you may not be thinking of lithium as a metal in the same way that the answer requires.
Outside of science, we think of metals as shiny, hard and malleable material. These are often alloys.
Surprisingly, science doesn’t agree on what is and isn’t a metal. In physics, every element in the universe that’s not hydrogen or helium is considered to be metal. But that’s just one definition. There is another involving energy at absolute zero. In chemistry, there are even more definitions. Some define carbon to be a metal, others do not.
Regardless of the definition used, in physics and chemistry, sodium, magnesium, calcium, iron and potassium are always defined as metals. You’ve also likely heard of these metals referred to as vitamins (vital minerals) required for the body to function.
Lithium isn’t understood to be essential like the other metals I listed but it occurs naturally everywhere and is in the food chain. It would take extreme and intentional effort to avoid consuming lithium. It has positive effects at low levels and is toxic in high levels.
Don’t get caught up on lithium being a “metal.” It’s just one of many examples of inorganic stuff that is in the food chain and has some effect on your body.
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