Iodine: A Misunderstood Element

Our population has been put under the impression that iodine is dangerous when taken in an amount that exceeds 2 mg’s.  Unfortunately this belief is leading to some of us becoming iodine deficient.  It is true that there are forms of iodine that are not good to take such as non-organically bound iodine.  When taken in the form of potassium iodide, it is safe for consumption upwards of 50 mg’s which is 33,333 times more than the RDA of 15o mcg’s. 

The reason we need iodine is not just for the thyroid, as many of us know. It is also important for skin, immune function, uterine fibroids and even has some anti-cancerous properties.

We used to have more iodine in our food supply.  Baked goods such as bread used to contain it, but have now been replaced with bromine.  The most common food source nowadays is iodized table salt, however more and more people are avoiding that.  Essentially, we are not getting enough iodine.  To compound the problem there are other elements commonly found in our food supply that hinder the absorption of iodine.  Those are fluoride, bromine and chlorine.  Fluoride is found in our water supply and even tea.  Bromine is used in baked goods, new carpet and mattresses. Chlorine is also in our water that we drink and most often used in pools.  There’s no wonder that we are seeing so many iodine deficient related problems in our country. Interestingly, women that work off the coast of Japan regularly consume sea vegetation that is rich in iodine (approx 15 mg’s) and have almost no incidence of thyroid or fibroid diseases.

I recommend an inexpensive test to evaluate ourselves for proper levels of iodine.  It’s called an iodine saturation test that involves urine collection over the course of 24 hrs.  Basically, you collect your first void upon waking, then take 50 mg’s of iodine and collect every other void for the remainder of day and next morning.  We then send it off to a lab that compares the two different samples pre and post iodine ingestion.  What should happen is to excrete 90% of the iodine and anything less means your body is holding on to what it needs.  It’s really a simple and inexpensive test that could result in a discovery of a deficiency that could aide in getting much healthier.

In addition, one of the leading researchers on the topic is Dr David Brownstein, he is a published authors whose books are a great read and very informative on this subject. Please take a moment to visit his website.  https://www.drbrownstein.com/bookstore_Iodine.php . 

Yours in Health,

Dr. Brett Wood