"

I have not yet seen Tim's paper, I assume that it demonstrates that lithium is not an *essential* nutrient by its absence. That doesn't kick it out of OMM. The claim seems that lithium and orotate ions are naturally occurring, utilizable substances in the diet and orthomolecular substances packaged in a salt, similar to common synthetic vitamins, e.g. thiamine nitrate, vs the natural cocarboxylase (pyrophosphate). OMM is not so synthetic friendly to the alien enantiomers in synthetic oil solubles.  However Lithium is most certainly a naturally occuring item in the water of many places; growing up in one place whose water source contained Li this was something of a joke about why people were so mellow. This will come up about others like strontium which are reputed to be good for the bones too, the natural versions considered OMM. Then there is strontium ranelate, a xenobiotic because of the artificial anion.  OMM's relation to pharmacological herbs seems ambivalent for several reasons.  One, probably, is that the largest body adopting the most (adapting from) OMM are probably the naturopaths, so if it is in the approved garden, why sweat it?  Honestly though, there is the question, how do we define xenobiotic and not xenobiotic in OMM? I don't have a fast answer myself between applying Pauling's definition and the definite feeling that some plant extracts are not OMM but xenobiotics.  One can probably develop a Socratic argument starting with hemlock... As for the St John's Wort, the plant contains things that are definitely nutrients. The extract is a homework assignment. This is one of the gray areas where *my impression* is that one may traverse from the orthomolecular field to the herbal part of naturopathy without necessarily encountering a clear boundary. (Sort of like the pressurized, critical path skirting, water heating experiment with no clear phase change between liquid and steam and back) One other comment is that it is ""okay"" if something is not OMM, OMM does not claim to be the ""be all, end all"" answer, or a jealous god, er, guild. OMM MDs do apply conventional drugs and surgery more sparingly, they probably just don't get as many ""free"" boat trips (but the Glacier cruise is nice).  "