What if you live near the coast? - Another Iodi... - Thyroid UK

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What if you live near the coast? - Another Iodine question

11 years ago•16 Replies

If you live near to the coast (As the crow flies I live fairly close to the North Sea) does more iodine get into your body through locally-grown food and sea-air?

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jaxnbreeze

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Iodine

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helvellaAdministrator11 years ago

This might not apply to you, but on the food intake side, I suspect that the way that most food in the UK is distributed by supermarkets means there is little difference from one place to another. And some of the food that appears to be promoted as being local actually comes from many, many miles away.

Also remember that seawater is actually quite low in iodine - because lots of the things that grow in the sea avidly taken in every atom of iodine they can. You can get a "cloud" of relatively high iodine levels over large amounts of seaweeds strewn across rocks or beaches.

I'd like to see a more complete and better researched answer than this!

jaxnbreeze11 years ago

Thanks Rod, I used to live in Derbyshire and can remember quite a few people suffering from 'Derbyshire Neck' in fact I know of someone now in the county who has a huge goitre but feels fine. My mother who is now 92 had a goitre when she was a child living in Nottinghamshire and had to have 'iodine' drinks every week for a few months but she has never developed hypo. I wish we knew the real truth about Iodine and how you can develop a goitre but your thyroid efficiency be unaffected. Is there something I am missing here? Regards, Jax

helvellaAdministrator• in reply tojaxnbreeze11 years ago

The interaction of iodine and the body in changing the size of the thyroid is odd. I do agree that there have been lots of people with goitres who appear pretty much healthy except for the physical impact of the enlarged thyroid.

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/...

It does appear that low iodine intake causes (some) goitres. But why, if we are now apparently towards the low end of the iodine intake here in the UK, do we not have an epidemic of goitres?

Really don't think you are missing anything that the entire body of endocrinologists and researchers are also missing. The full story is anything but clear.

Rod

Skyla38• in reply tojaxnbreeze6 years ago

It won't go unnoticed, but will go undetected, it can produce depression, mental illness, lethargy, brain fog, goitre. Depending on deficiency it can be catastrophic to health. White Bread, a common staple of food in most working class homes, is packed with "Bromide" that eats any little bit of Iodine in your body away, you've no hope if you live a long distance from the Sea.

StitchFairy• in reply toSkyla386 years ago

What country are you in that has bread 'packed with bromide'? I didn't think we had any bromide in bread here in the UK!

11 years ago

There are so many schools of thought about iodine, and much more research is needed as Rod says. There is a Swiss lady who used to live near my daughter in Italy who was told by her Swiss specialist that she should return to live in her native Switzerland because living closer to the sea in Italy was damaging her thyroid gland, so she moved. Being centrally located in Europe you'd think that Switzerland would exhibit the same phenomenon as Derbyshire in England, only more so since it's further from the sea. Maybe there is some Swiss research on the matter.....answers on a post card please. Jane x

• in reply to11 years ago

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goitre

Postcard - 'prevalent in alpine countries so introduced iodised salt in 1922'. My personal opinion is that the soil is depleted and iodine deficiency also causes sheep to miscarry or have stillborn. But we should be eating a better variety of food than sheep!

However seems most of Europe have iodised salt, perhaps problems come when you just have too much, like overdoing seafood or kelp tablets, or because it's autoimmune/Hashimotos - who knows! J x

helvellaAdministrator• in reply to11 years ago

This is, in my view, interesting:

uea.ac.uk/~e780/iodcycle.htm

Note that "continental interiors" are mentioned rather than a few dozen miles from the sea as most of us in the UK are!

Also, altitude is important. High up there may be less ability of the environment to retain any iodine that arrives. Whereas in some lower levels might accumulate to an appreciable level.

Rod

Skyla38• in reply to6 years ago

This lady may have been diagnosed with "hyperthyroidism" a rare thyroid disorder that only affects 2% of population, where the thyroid is over active, and produces too much thyroxine, and; as Iodine produces thyroxine, then living right beside the sea will make her condition worse.

helvellaAdministrator• in reply toSkyla386 years ago

When you see a user name of Hidden, it means that the person is no longer a member of this forum.

There is usually little point in wasting our time making replies.

Skyla38• in reply tohelvella6 years ago

We can still see her question though, and the answers?

RedAppleAdministrator• in reply toSkyla386 years ago

Yes indeed. But this thread was started 5 years ago and the people participating have probably learned a lot and moved on since then.

It would be much more useful if you participated in current conversations, or even started a whole new post of your own.

jaxnbreeze11 years ago

It's all very confusing - Taking your point about low-iodine intake in this country, although we don't have an epidemic of goitres are we experiecing an epidemic of thyroid problems? Jax

Skyla38• in reply tojaxnbreeze6 years ago

Yes, Levothyroxine is the most prescribed drug in the UK, USA, and Ireland!!! The RDA of 150 mcg per day is just enough to keep Goitre at bay, but it’s simply not enough for health. This is ridiculous. They used to add Iodine in the salt and bread but it was stopped?! And in the USA they still use Bromide (a poison) in the bread! It has been banned in EU, China, and many other countries because it was CONFIRMED it causes cancer. It eats any iodine store you have in your body, causing Cancer, so even though Americans have iodized salt, it does no good because the bromide depletes it. And the same with Fluoride for us in our water, it eats any iodine we have, therefore starving our thyroid from Iodine, causing “ hypothyroidism” under active thyroid. Your Thyroid needs Iodine!!!!!