7UP - Sweet, Refreshing and Psychoactive

Please put me out my misery! Whats the association?

If you were thinking, "myopic antiquated economic policy in the context of an unrestrained, under-regulated system of capitalism, driven by monopolistic, government-subsidised industries leading to wasteful overproduction of goods and produce at the cost of environmental degradation and human health you would be, on some level, spot on.

However, in this particular example, the answer I was looking for was - Lithium. Lithium or Li in the periodic table is the lightest solid metal. It is soft, silvery-white, has a low melting point and is rather reactive indeed.

Seven Up - Liquid Placation

Now, when I mention the soft drink 7UP, whats springs to mind?

Perhaps, "Image is nothing - thirst is everything - obey your thirst". Well, you'd be mistaken, because that was the slogan of Sprite.

How about, "My Choice, My Taste" - no such luck, as that is from an Indian drink called 'Flingo'.

What about "My room, My fart"? - Wrong again chump, because this particular phrase was the sanguine proclamation of a flatulent 11 year old sister. For privacy's sake let's simply refer to her as Ms B. Wait no, maybe thats too obvious ... lets go with Becca B. Thats cryptic enough. Perfect.

"You Like It, It Likes You" ... Creepy

7UP being an inanimate object, I found this slogan a bit odd. Don't get me wrong, we all like to indulge a bit of anthropomorphising but lets leave this up to the master himself, Sir David Attenborough. That being said, it was the 60s and the marketing team was most probably off their bonce on a heady mix of Alexander Shulgin's most beloved psychedelics. So, in actual fact, who am I to question the emotion, the authenticity of that classic slogan. I Like you too 7UP <3

The point is, 7UP started life not as a soft drink but rather a tonic, a medicine sold in pharmacies leveraging the mood stabilising qualities of, you guessed it Lithium. The atomic mass of Lithium is 7, it also has 7 ingredients and it was the official beverage of the 7 dwarf collective (citation needed). And 'UP' was either referring to "Bottoms Up" or the subsequent UP-ness of ones mood.

This was truly a rogue time where Coca-Cola briefly contained actual cocaine; Vicks nasal inhalers contained Benzedrine (amphetamine) coated strips and who could forget Bayer's infamous heroin, chloroform, cannabis and alcohol cough syrup - the OG Lean.

Lithium

Moving on from the fun stuff, all of which have continued clinical applications as well as extensive illicit use, the use of Lithium remains poorly understood.

This interests me especially because, not only is its mechanism of action mysterious but its safety profile, that is, its therapeutic window providing efficacy and few health risks, is markedly narrow. It remains in use because we measure clinical outcomes and it simply works.

It is primarily prescribed to attenuate mood fluctuations in patients diagnosed with bi-polar disorder - characterised by manic episodes (agitation, insomnia, loquaciousness & even euphoria), as well as depressive episodes (social withdrawal, malaise & even suicidal ideation).

Although poorly understood, it does work and is often coupled with other medications such as SSRIs, SNRIs, Antipsychotics and TCAs.

Wildly Oversimplified Theories

Lithium as well as other metal ions are implicated in cellular signalling. You might remember in GCSE biology the concept of action potentials. That is the polarisation of cell membranes at regular intervals so that electric signals trigger a chain reaction moving down the nerve, resulting in the release of neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft. Well-known neurotransmitters involved with emotion and learning include serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine (catecholamines). The point is, lithium plays a crucial role in restricting excessive fluctuations in the release of some of these chemicals.

Particularly important is the limbic system - an area in the brain associated with emotional processing. Long-term use of lithium has been linked with the concurrent increase in volume in grey matter in this region. Size isn't important right??? Well, actually it is within reason. Not only is there an association between reduction in grey matter and bi-polar disorder but the reduction in the prevalence of glial cells normally found there in abundance could create downstream problems reaching far beyond mood disorders. You see, recently, glial cells have been discovered to act as the brains lymphatic system. Helping to drain out toxins, bacteria and viruses - the recently coined "glymbic system".

Brain-derived-neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is also produced in large amounts in the cells found in grey matter. BDNF, often referred to (somewhat inaccurately) as miracle-grow for your brain, stimulates the creation of new synaptic connections. It gets released after exercise, after stress and through consuming psychedelics and its absence, can lead to deficiencies in the limbic system (hippocampus & amygdala). Limited expansion here is actually a preeminent theory of depression, providing an alternative explanation for the efficacy observed in conventional antidepressants.

Summary

7UP is a popular, citrus flavoured soft-drink invented in 1929, which originally contained Lithium and was initially marketed as a mood stabiliser.

Lithium is still an effective medicine prescribed for mood disorders such as bi-polar and pharmacologically is poorly understood. Nevertheless, it remains an effective, well-tolerated and low-cost intervention.

It works by indirectly regulating fluctuations in extracellular concentrations of catecholamines, particularly in the limbic system. Long-term use is associated with growth in grey matter which means more effective, crucial "spring-cleaning" of that area and potential improvements in the functionality of the machinery needed to produce BDNF. Subsequent promotion of growth within the hippocampus is associated with attenuation of symptoms of depression.

A slightly related point and basis for a later article is the role played by glial cells in keeping the brain free from infection. The beta-amyloid plaques implicated in the aetiology of Alzheimer's may well be produced by the 'glimbic system' as a protective measure, for the greater good. Aggregations of these defensive proteins cos ultimately cause more harm then good. This is exactly why, in my next post I will go into the linked between Alzheimer's disease and a lifetime of ... picking your nose or wait for it - clamydia and oral sex


Last Bit I Promise

I'll leave you with my personal fave 7UP (Sugar Free) slogan from the 1990's. Love this one.


"Put some Un in your life." (1991)

Roughly translated this is also the official motto of North Korea.

The Great Leader himself uses it as his go-to chat-up line and It has an astonishing 380% success-rate (according to official statistics).