by Lawrence Wilson, MD
©
December 2009, The Center for Development
One
of the most important and overlooked minerals today is iodine. It is not read on the hair mineral
analysis, so we are apt to overlook it.
The reason it is not read by most laboratories is that it is hard to
read accurately. Therefore, most
labs prefer not to read it.
However, it is a very important one.
Iodine,
of course, is needed in the thyroid gland to produce T4 or triiodothyronine. However, iodine is also required for
every tissue of the body.
IODINE AND OVERALL
HEALTH
Every cell of the body utilizes
iodine in some form. There are two
major forms, iodide and iodine, required by various tissues, according to
researchers. They claim the body
cannot convert the forms one to another.
I am not sure about this, but that is the research.
For instance, primarily iodide
is needed by the skin and thyroid gland.
The breasts, however, require iodine. Without it they can become fibrocystic or develop
precancerous and cancerous lesions, it is believed.
Other body tissues, including
the kidneys, spleen, liver, blood, salivary glands and intestines, can use
either form, apparently.
Iodine is regulated in many ways
in the thyroid. However, the most
important pathway is the conversion of iodide into iodine through an oxidation
reaction.
This requires an enzyme called TPO or thyroperoxidase. It also requires hydrogen
peroxide. If too much hydrogen
peroxide is left in the thyroid, however, it leads to HashimotoŐs disease, a
common thyroid problem.
The mineral that helps control
hydrogen peroxide is selenium. It
is needed to make glutathione peroxidase, whose
function, among many others, is to detoxify hydrogen peroxide after it has done
its job in the thyroid gland.
Selenium is also required later
in the metabolism of the thyroid hormone in the conversion of of the relatively inactive T4 to the active thyroid hormone
T3. The enzyme primarily
responsible for this conversion is iodothyronine deiodinase. This enzyme also requires selenium to
function properly.
Any deficiency of selenium in
the body will impair T3 production and thus cause hypothyroidism symptoms, even
if the body is producing plenty of T4.
This is sometimes called a conversion problem, as opposed to an iodine
deficiency problem.
Thus selenium is critical for
two phases of thyroid hormone production.
It is thus considered a close relative to iodine in the correction of
thyroid difficulties. For more
information about selenium, see the article on this website entitled Selenium, A New Mineral For Health and Healing.
More and more research indicates
that the entire American population today is deficient in iodine. This may be somewhat of an exaggeration
because those who eat a lot of seafood get plenty of iodine. However, the rest of the population does
not.
In
addition, the entire population is exposed to iodine antagonists in an enormous
way. Let us discuss this important
aspect of iodine metabolism.
Iodine Antagonists. Iodine is a member of the halogen
family of elements. They include,
other than iodine, fluorine, bromine and chlorine among others. All of the these elements compete with
each other to some extent for absorption and even utilization in certain enzyme
binding sites. This phenomenon is
called the concept of preferred minerals. It is discussed in detail in several other article on this
website, including Toxic
Metals and The
Theory of Nutritional Balancing.
The main problem today in the
developed nations of the world, and particularly in America, is the large
exposure everyone has to bromine, fluorides and chlorine compounds that can and
often do compete with iodine for absorption into our bodies.
Here are the common sources of
these iodine antagonists:
Bromine and
bromides. These toxic chemicals are used in
baking, by law, of all the breads in America and many nations. Previously, iodine was used for
bread-making. This was changed for
fear that people were getting too much.
Little did they know that iodine
is an essential element that most people need more of, even though the form
used in break-making is not a very absorbable form. In contrast,
bromides are quite toxic in large amounts, far more toxic than iodine or
iodides.
The widespread use of bromides
in bread-making is causing most people to have heavy exposure to this somewhat
toxic element. It also can
interfere with iodine uptake and also iodine utilization.
Often, when iodine is
supplemented, people start eliminating large quantities of bromine from the
body. This can be measured in
urine and hair, at times. These
methods are not perfectly accurate, however, as this element may also be eliminated through other routes
such as the feces, skin and elsewhere.
Other problems with bromides is
that they replace iodine in foods.
In other words, the widespread use of brominated
compounds in bread-making and in other industries as well has caused them to
find their way into the water and food supplies of America and other developed
nations. It is thus hard to avoid
this element in your food. It is
one of the reasons I do not recommend eating any flour products or breads.
Chlorine and
chlorinated compounds such as chloramines. This is
another highly toxic element that interferes with iodine utilization in the
body in an important way.
Chlorine, of course, is added to most water supplies by law. It is also added to flour to whiten it,
even though it forms toxic compounds when baked.
Chlorine is also widely used in
industry as a bleaching agent, an anti-bacterial and anti-viral agent used to
sterilize or sanitize many, many products such as papers, rubber and plastics and
many, many more. For all these
reasons, chlorine is dominant in our world and its compounds find their way
into all water supplies today.
The advantage is that they help
kill germs in the water. The
disadvantage is they replace iodine by competing with iodine for uptake and
utilization to some degree.
Fluorides. The main source today is fluoridated water supplies. Not only is the water a problem in most
major metropolitan areas but the water is then used to make many food products,
from breads and other bakery goods to chips, dips, pickles, beverages and
thousands of others.
In addition, the fluorides from
the water have found their way into the water table and irrigations systems of
most of the United States. Thus,
the fluoride levels in all the crops grown in America are too high.
Foolish public health
authorities keep adding toxic fluoride compounds to the water supplies, even
though all the food products in the nation are now basically contaminated with
this extremely toxic element. For
more information about the abomination of water fluoridation, read Water
Fluoridation on this website.
Soy and iodine. Soy products not only contain copper, which can interfere
with iodine and thyroid activity.
They also contain enzyme inhibitors that affect the thyroid at
times. So soy is not generally
good for the thyroid gland and iodine metabolism.
Tap water and
iodine. This is also detrimental for thyroid
activity, thanks to its chlorine and possibly fluoride mixed with the
water. Spring or distilled water
are far better for the thyroid and iodine metabolism.
The result of all the competitors
with iodine is that most Americans are low in this vital mineral. It is one reason many forward-looking
doctors are recommending iodine supplements for all their patients. Let us discuss these in more
detail.
Iodoral
or LugolŐs solution. Some doctors like to give a pure iodine supplement such as Iodoral, potassium iodide, LugolŐs
solution or other. These are
excellent iodine supplements and very similar to one another. LugolŐs
solution is a liquid, however, so it is harder to administer than Iodoral, which is in tablet form. Both, however, are inexpensive and effective to replenish
iodine.
Many doctors recommend an iodine
loading test or other test to determine iodine need. The Ôpatch testŐ in which one paints some iodine on the skin
and observe how quickly it is absorbed is considered less accurate, but still
an overall measure.
In my experience, everyone needs
more iodine and it is quite a safe element. Therefore I do not feel the need to do testing on everyone.
Iodoral has certain properties that
make it a problem, however. It
contains only iodine, whereas kelp, for example, contains iodine and many other
excellent minerals such as selenium, chromium, germanium, rubidium and others
that are needed today by everyone.
This is the main reason I do not
like the use of Iodoral or LugolŐs
solution.
Kelp. I prefer to recommend kelp,
about three to six 500-600 mg capsules daily. It is an excellent source of iodine. Kelp has the following advantages over Iodoral:
á
It
contains many trace elements our bodies need. These include selenium, chromium, germanium and many others
that are hard to obtain today.
á
It
is also a natural food, so it is adequately absorbed and the body can regulate
how much it absorbs without any danger of toxicity. I have seen toxicity from Iodoral
in a few cases.
á
It
is also less expensive than Iodoral, I believe,
though this is not a major concern.
á
It
is also available without a prescription, which is convenient.
Kelp has the disadvantage of
containing some amounts of toxic metals.
However, this is offset to a large degree by its content of alginates
and other materials that help absorb toxic metals in the intestines and prevent
their uptake by the body.
The same is not true, by the
way, of the other sea vegetables or seafood such as fish or shellfish. This is why I prefer using kelp as a
source of iodine instead of more fish, seafood or other sea vegetables,
although some fish or sea vegetables are fine in the diet once or twice weekly.
Fish and Seafood. These are also excellent sources of iodine in most cases.
This has to do with iodineŐs affinity for salt water. However, all fish and more so shellfish are very high in
mercury. In fact, mercury replaces
iodine in the body. So fish should
be limited in the diet in the following ways:
1. Eat small fish
only. This means to avoid tunafish,
mahi mahi, ahi, shark of all kinds and other large predator fish such
as mackerel, halibut, swordfish and others.
2. Eat fish no
more than twice a week. This is only necessary if the fish
contain mercury. However, most
fish contain mercury, even wild caught salmon and others. So it is a good overall recommendation. In Japan and other seafood eating
nations, fish is eaten often, many times every day. These nations have higher levels of mercury in the
people. This is okay at times, but
leads to ADD and ADHD in the children and certain diseases in the adults as
well. In general, we donŐt
recommend it, but in these nations there is little else to eat in the way of
protein.
The Japanese people have lived
on seafood for generations and they handle it somewhat better than Americans as
well. However, even in these
nations such as Japan, the diets are changing as people realize that the
mercury content of the fish, seafood and sea vegetables in general are harming
them. The authorities are
beginning to warn the people to reduce fish intake, sadly.
Iodine supplementation has a
wonderful effect on toxic metals in the body. This is for several reasons:
1. Iodine opposes
or antagonizes the halogens. This has been discussed above. Taking iodine often leads to the
elimination from the body of bromines, chlorine, fluorides and other metals as
well.
2. Iodine is
needed for thyroid activity. As thyroid activity recovers, the body
is far more able to eliminate all the toxic metals. This is the main mechanism behind iodineŐs ability to reduce
the toxic metal burden in the body.
Iodine also helps remove all toxic
substances from the body for similar reasons. By enhancing thyroid activity, metabolism is stimulated or
enhanced in a very healthful way.
This dramatically improves the bodyŐs ability to remove toxic chemicals
and other subtle toxins from the tissues.
The only problem with iodine
supplementation is that it can cause overstimulation in a few cases. Just cut back the dosage if this
occurs.
References
1. Brownstein, D., Iodine, Why You Need It and Why
You CanŐt Live Without It, Medical Alternative Press, W. Bloomfield,
MI, 2008.
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