LITHIUM IN THE DRINKING WATER AND ATHEROSCLEROTIC HEART DEATH: EPIDEMIOLOGIC ARGUMENT FOR PROTECTIVE EFFECT

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Abstract
Voors, A. W. (School of Public Health, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C. 27514). Lithium in the drinking water and atherosclerotic heart death: epidemiologic argument for protective effect. Amer. J. Epid., 1970, 92: 164–171.—Age-adjusted rates of mortality for atheroscleratic heart disease and from all causes combined were compared with the logarithmic transformations of hardness and lithium contents of the municipal water supplies for some 100 largest U.S.A. cities. This was done separately for each sex and race. It was found that the wellknown negative correlation between water hardness and atherosclerotic heart mortality can be explained almost entirely by the geologically determined, highly positive correlation between water hardness and lithium level. The thus seemingly more fundamental negative correlation between lithium level and atherosclerotic heart mortality may indicate the beneficial pharmacological influence of lithium on five risk factors predisposing to the disease, and its protection against the adrenergic stimulation which is likely to mediate the influence of Selyean stress on these risk factors. Research implications towards possible future health measures are suggested.

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