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Sat May 11, 2013 8:13 am  |
bethany, I take between 12.5 and 50 mg. per day. Conventional wisdom says this is not good but all I can say is that conventional wisdom is wrong about iodine! 
However, there is some (misinterpreted) basis for the prejudice against iodine, as it can have some bad side effects until you clean your body out. It did not agree with me when I first started taking it and I had to perservere for a while before I was able to tolerate it. But once I was, I was glad I put myself to the trouble. I'm not the expert (others have explained it better than me), but I'll try to explain. If you already know some of this, apologies. Not talking down, just trying anticipate questions.
Iodine is an element in the halide group, along with chlorine, fluorine (fluoride like in our water) and bromine (bromide additives in baked goods). The tissues, glands, and organs in our bodies have special receptors for this group of elemental minerals, but our bodies don't need all of them. We mostly just need sodium chloride and iodine to maintain health. The thyroid in particular has an affinity and a need for iodine. Lack of iodine can cause goiter and all kinds of problems.
However, in modern human diets, iodine is often in short supply. This is why salt is iodized...it contains just enough iodine to keep people from developing goiter (but not enough to promote optimal health).
But fluoride and and bromide (which is put into commercial baked goods because it improves the texture of the finished product) are NOT in short supply in the modern human food supply. Because these elements are all in the same family, they can fit into same tissue receptors that are supposed to be filled by iodine. When there is bromide and fluoride in the body and little or no iodine, bromide and fluoride will take over to fill the receptors. After that happens, whatever iodine *does* come into the body has trouble getting into the thyroid receptors to do it's job.
When someone begins to supplement iodine, there is suddenly more iodine available than fluoride and bromide. Iodine begins to take back over (because the receptors prefer iodine if it's available) and the bromide and fluoride are squeezed out. They're not needed by the body, so when they flood the bloodstream they can cause a detox reaction. This detox can range from mild to severe.
Compounding this is that iodine is also a chelator of mercury. Somehow (don't remember the complete explanation and don't have time to research) iodine can stir up mercury from the tissues. If there's too much mercury along with the bromide and fluoride, this is when the detox can be severe. Some people have reported psychosis from it. Mercury toxicity can cause "madness" a la The Mad Hatter.
This is the long, windy way of saying iodine supplementation is good, but you have to be careful with it, especially if you have any mercury fillings.
Some people will say don't supplement iodine or chelate unless you get your fillings removed, but I think this is an individual thing and it depends on how healthy you are to begin with, how good your diet is, and how far you're willing to educate yourself about the process.
For me, I had to do a couple of rounds of chelation before I could tolerate iodine. It made me jittery, gave me insomnia,and just generally made me feel like crap. But once I chelated I tried it again, and was amazed at the results. Worth noting is that I dont' have any mercury fillings.
I also "salt load" and make sure I keep well mineralized with iodine's co-factors, magnesium and selenium. Often salt loading (drinking salted water) and loading the co-factors is enough to prevent or alleviate any side effects from iodine supplementation. Vitamin C loading can also help, but the minerals (sodium chloride, magnesium, selenium) are the key.
I eat an insane amount of salt with my food and my blood pressure is fine. I freaked out at first when I was told to salt load, but quickly found that it helped me a good deal. Salt is typically not a problem for anyone unless their kidneys are compromised. It can even benefit your fluid balance if you're not getting enough salt. Interestingly, I quit peeing as much when I started salt-loading. I figured it would make me pee more, but it had the opposite effect.
Salt loading is also recommended if your adrenals are compromised. I have been diagnosed with hypoadrenism, and so between that and the iodine have experienced nothing but good by loading salt. Plus it's yummy. Guilt-free salting of food is a wonderful thing.  I expect the salt probhibition we've been living under for the last 30 years will be reversed in the near future. It's not good for anyone's health except a few small groups. From what I understand the studies that spawned the no-salt craze were deeply flawed, although I readily admit I'm not expert.
As long as you're in good health (if there are doubts get a physical first), my recommendation for iodine is to get a bottle of Lugol's 5% and start taking a couple drops per day while upping your salt intake, magnesium, and selenium. Do that for a week or two then add another drop. See what happens. Etc. If it doesn't agree with you you can always keep the Lugol's around for topical antiseptic. It hurts but it's still the best thing if you really want to zap the germs in a wound.
Long and windy. Apologies for that. It's a subject I'm rather passionate about.  Hope it helped. |
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