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Linda Heming (623-933-6153)
Buyer Beware - Not All Iodine is Lugol's
March 17, 2011
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that supplies of potassium iodide,
a preventive against radiation poisoning of the thyroid gland, are running
low at some manufacturers. And there are reports of price gouging - people
on Ebay and Amazon trying to make a quick buck.
Officials are saying the risk is thought to be low that radiation
released in Japan will reach the U.S. at dangerous levels. California and
Washington state, for instance, have been reassuring residents that monitoring
hasn't detected any harmful levels of radiation. "Japan has an evacuation area
of about 12 miles from the nuclear plants. Washington state is 5,000 to
6,000 miles away from Japan," said Tim Church, a spokesman for the Washington
State Department of Health. But as the news reports turn more grim, many
people want to take no chances.
You can buy potassium iodide without a prescription. Back in the cold war
era of the 1950s, people used to keep it in the medicine cabinet in case
of a nuclear attack. Potassium iodide is a salt that stops the body from
taking in radioactive iodine that can be emitted during a nuclear emergency.
It fills up the thyroid gland, preventing the gland from collecting
radioactive material and reducing the risk of cancer. A radioactive form of it is
used in hospitals to "kill" the thyroid gland in cases of hyperthyroidism.
As I said in Tuesday's newsletter, Lugol's Solution - part iodine and
part iodide - is also protective again radiation fallout and we have plenty of
it on hand here at the Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine. Potassium
iodide - SSKI or KI - is not a complete solution for the body's iodine needs.
All of my staff and I are drinking several drops of Lugol's daily.
Lugol's versus drugstore tinctures
If there is anything good that can come out of the events in Japan, it
may be that people will learn about thyroid hormones and the value of good,
old-fashioned, inexpensive iodine. It used to be that iodine was in every
medicine cabinet. If you are 40 or older, you probably remember your mother
putting orange-colored iodine on cuts and scrapes to keep them from being
infected. But here is something important to know: your mother's iodine, and
many of the bottles of iodine available today on drugstore shelves, is a
"tincture" which is not the same as Lugol's solution.
A tincture is typically 2-7% elemental iodine, along with potassium iodide
or sodium iodide, dissolved in a mixture of ethyl alcohol and water. This
is not something you want to take orally; bottles of the tincture have a
warning label on them that says, "Contains Poison."
Lugol's iodine has no alcohol, and has twice the amount of iodide as
elemental iodine.
Iodine - We must have it
Iodine is an essential and crucial trace mineral. Without it, we cannot
synthesize thyroid hormones, T3 and T4. When we don't make enough thyroid
hormones, the obvious symptom is goiter - the thyroid gland in the neck
enlarges in a vain attempt to produce enough thyroid hormone.
But there are many, many less obvious issues with low thyroid. Here is a
short list: Hair loss, brittle nails, weight gain, lethargy, fatigue,
headaches, chronic pain, intolerance to heat or cold, fibrocystic breasts,
endometriosis, decreased sex drive, susceptibility to infection, heart attacks,
autism, anxiety and depression. Thyroid hormone, simply put, is like gas in
the car. In medical language, this hormone regulates body metabolism. It
fuels the mitochondria, the energy production factories inside each of our
60 trillion or so cells. Imagine a car with clogged fuel lines that don't
deliver enough gas. The car sputters - that is what our body does when it is
low on thyroid hormone and that is why so many different things can go
awry.
Iodine shortage during pregnancy is huge concern. The World Health
Organization (WHO) recently increased their _recommended iodine intake_
(http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=flzvr5cab&et=1104862810433&s=799&e=001QFhHs-cGisz_gvvlc5
zqTP6-f7VrK9pzrVxyONJqKcpY6p6WPXfE3FeRgk5e9I2Vv-xiLzRpcmCfDaGJMxRcEaWegB9rWw
2T3Htczbap-0XeGVSLYDei7PCOC4aWNSwvt_kpCy6DQhOOEgbQKPMHEw==) during
pregnancy from 200 to 250 μg/d because too little iodine on board can cause
irreversible brain damage with mental retardation and neurologic abnormalities.
Let's pick just one low thyroid issue off the above list: susceptibility
to infection. What if the reason you struggle to get over the flu is
because you are low on thyroid hormones (also called hypothyroidism)? What if you
can't fight off _Lyme disease_
(http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=flzvr5cab&et=1104862810433&s=799&e=001QFhHs-cGisyvEU4udY5Po7p2n-VgPvDZRn4ajLXJguBTgD-t-Pa
_5C36TJ7xBlu7oFWWu4ks1hnDZ_UbirOdGFTSqh1QOg9Xv4vTXAwWXOq3KvFTpBBGtC-MGhDkYgK
DLUcv3QwZ544XepvTgZ7vfBp8rPyxquU3Dveg-jV1w4g=) or another _chronic
illness_ (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=flzvr
5cab&et=1104862810433&s=799&e=001QFhHs-cGiszEGhrXARXMh6qeaUjtAYiFDi8TFXVGaPVLbg2NPPnJ7q2NV-ZOxkuYBkQUKcsMVThTANHVV
rPpNduL9ZXk3dzE8coFeFJ56MmNtB0sZP5PavTDMfiXnPxgxaLwJEEjpEsjBR2tD0AY62bbYbC1b
S_robKbZSgwQV4=) because you are hypothyroid? What if your heart attack
was because you are hypothyroid? Dr. Broda Barnes published a classic work
in 1976 called, "Solved: the Riddle of Heart Attacks." Way ahead of its
time, he described the correlation between hypothyroidism and hardening of the
arteries and predicted the rate of heart attacks would not come down until
medical schools started to teach the connection.
Hypothyroidism is pervasive
Dr. Barnes, three generations of Hertoghe family endocrinologists, and my
colleague Dr. Mark Starr have extensively studied hypothyroidism and
conclude that it is running rampant.
Dr. Starr explains that not too many
people had hypothyroidism because those who did often died of infections
before they reached child bearing age:
"Scientists and doctors have dismissed the influence of genetics as the
cause for our explosion of chronic illnesses. They cannot fathom how our
genes and the inner workings of our cells could change so dramatically in such
a brief period of time. In fact, by preserving weakened immune systems,
which were previously flushed out of the gene pool through the millennia,
this is indeed the case."
He is referring to penicillin and other 20th century medical advancements
which had the effect of allowing those with weakened immune systems to
live to child bearing age. Today, estimates of the number of people who are
hypothyroid range as high as 80 percent.
Yet this condition is grossly undiagnosed because common blood tests
measure how much thyroid hormone is circulating in the blood - your T3 and T4
levels - or how much the pituitary is being required to stimulate production
of thyroid hormone - your TSH level - not how much is actually getting
into the cell.
Dr. Starr coined the term "hypothyroidism type 2" because he says it is
like type 2 diabetes where your body makes enough insulin, but it just
doesn't get into the cells. So you have to use more insulin. In like fashion, we
often need more thyroid hormone circulating in the blood so enough pushes
into the cells. The best way to measure if you are hypothyroid is to find
out if your metabolism can keep your body temperature warm enough. This is
called a measurement of "basal" temperature. First thing in the morning
before you get out of bed, stick a thermometer under your arm for ten minutes
(or in your mouth for three minutes). If the temp is 97.8°F or less, that
is thought to be highly indicative of hypothyroidism. By the way, digital
thermometers will not give you as good a reading as the basal temperature
thermometers sold to women trying to ascertain ovulation. These are glass
thermometers that contain a liquid alloy called Galinstan.
Iodine from food
Modern farming techniques do not add iodine to the soil. All crops grown
on soils that are iodine deficient will be iodine deficient. So iodine
deficiency can affect rich and poor countries alike. Thanks to the movement of
glaciers and floods, however, the ocean is a good reservoir of iodine.
Of all the sea vegetables, kelp has the highest amount of iodine. Some
5000 years ago, Chinese prescribed seaweed for goiter. Arame, hiziki, kombu,
and wakame also make the list. But in America, we don't eat many sea
vegetables. And not all fish have a significant iodine content.
Iodine deficiency can be prevented by ensuring that everyone, especially
women of child-bearing age and young children, consumes an adequate amount
of iodine. Iodized salt is now widely consumed in countries all over the
world, from the USA to China. However, the salt in processed food is not
iodized, and the iodine in iodized salt is in a form which is difficult to
absorb, so even with iodized salt, most of us are iodine deficient.
Lugol's solution is an excellent remedy for the lack of iodine in our
diets, and to protect us from radiation delivered in the form of I131.
The vast majority of people are fine taking iodine, in fact, they need it
on a daily basis. However, people with autoimmune thyroiditis should have
their numbers checked if they are taking iodine. Not that they can't take
it - but they may not be able to incorporate it into thyroid hormone.
Based on the many, many phone calls to my office after the prior email
about iodide and iodine, I want to tell you about the detoxification
abilities of iodine and how it pushes out bromine, fluoride, and chlorine - three
nasty toxins in our daily world. Stay tuned.
Martha M Grout, MD, MD(H)
Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine
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