Iodine

A healthy thyroid gland requires iodine which should come from food.

As far as I know, and am not medically qualified, is that thyroid hormones (levo, NDT etc) contain iodine, so you shouldn't add iodine.

Others will also respond to your question.

I have been looking at iodine and reading a book by Lynne Farrow. I was all for supplementing but decided to test my level first rather than risk getting too much iodine.

You can get a urine iodine test through Genova (Thyroid UK website has details for testing). There is also an iodine loading test available from a few places but it looks like that has to be sent to the US. I did some research and there was evidence that the iodine loading test can be misleading as almost all show a deficiency. I decided to go for the Genova 24 hour urine test just to get a base level. It came back in the middle of the range and my private specialist says that is fine. However, I am going to start taking a multi (specialist advised) and that does contains 70mcg iodine which I think is OK.

My research tells me adults should get 150mcg iodine a day and if you don't get enough from food then supplementing 50mcg a day should be sufficient. I don't particularly eat an iodine rich diet yet my level is still middle of the range so I will try the multi and see how things go.

Perhaps do an iodine test to see where your level is.

The National Institutes of Health in the USA publish a series of documents on subjects such as supplements.

For iodine, they suggest a Tolerable Upper Limit of 1100 micrograms per day for those of us over 19 years of age. We also see regular references to the high intake in Japan - though that seems sometimes to have been exaggerated - often 3 milligrams is mentioned.

For someone to recommend up to 25 times this already very intake is, in my view, irresponsible and possibly dangerous.

Yes - iodine tests are available.

ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/I...

Do you have antibodies ... ie, hashis? If u don't there is a limited risk in taking iodine supps. But if u have hashis it can make it worse, so u need to read the research and the theories by people like wentz and make a decision. It is a risk with hasjis. testing existing levels would help u understand and calculate your own risk.

It's important to get the Selenium and Iodine ratio correct. Hashimoto's need to get the antibodies very very low before introducing Iodine. Sea kelp may have mercury. Iodine is important for other parts of your body.

stopthethyroidmadness.com/s... see section: What does selenium do for the thyroid? How is it connected to iodine?

jeffreydachmd.com/hashimoto...

Best of luck