Iodine...AGAIN!

[foxglove]

Does anyone know how much iodine is in Wockhardt levothyroxine (25mcg)? - does not state in list of ingredients....iodine not mentioned!

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

foxglove It's not an added ingredient so it won't be listed as such

This thread may help healthunlocked.com/thyroidu... and Angel of the North's reply explains it.

[humanbean]

Water has the chemical formula H2O - there are two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen in each molecule of water. If you put water in a bottle and sold it, it wouldn't say on the label that it contains hydrogen and oxygen, it would tell you that it contains water.

If you could remove the hydrogen from the water you wouldn't have water any more, you would have oxygen.

This is similar to the situation with iodine in thyroid hormones. Thyroxine contains iodine. If you took the iodine out of the thyroxine you wouldn't have any thyroxine or any thyroid hormone left because the iodine isn't an optional extra. It is as important as the hydrogen in water. If you remove the hydrogen from water, or the iodine from thyroid hormones, you have changed the substance so radically that it isn't the same stuff that you started with.

I don't know if this helps or just makes things more complicated!

[foxglove in reply to humanbean]

Not sure! - maybe I'm just thick. Or does any one REALLY know if it matters. At least H2 O gives the proportions of water ingredients. Levo gives not even a hint of amount's

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to foxglove]

Levothyroxine has the following atoms in each molecule:

Carbon - 15

Hydrogen - 11

Iodine - 4

Nitrogen - 1

Oxygen - 4

Some product documentation does contain this information - often written as C15H11I4NO4.

[foxglove in reply to foxglove]

p. s. humanbean, have tried to find this out for myself in my limited way and from what I gather any excess of supplemented iodine is eliminated in urine. faeces and sweat, a bit like excess B12. reason for asking is I agree with another questioner re. is there a multivit. not containing iodine. of course maybe paying for waste products but again don't really know - and what about the iodine in food etc. Is that o. k. ?

[humanbean in reply to foxglove]

I'm not an expert on iodine (in fact I know very, very little about it), so I can't express an opinion.

A multi-vitamin without iodine and iron is easy to find :

amazon.co.uk/Multi-Nutrient...

I don't know anything about the quality of the above product, I just found it by googling and I haven't studied the ingredient list, so me linking to it is not a recommendation. Personally I think multi-vitamins are not a good idea. They have too much of things you don't need, and too little of the things you do. And they generally tend to have very poor quality ingredients.

[Hidden in reply to humanbean]

Not all multivitamins are made the same. Most are only regulated as FOOD GRADE as opposed to pharmaceutical grade. The latter must contain what it says on the bottle. There are some supplements not sold in stores that are FDA regulated. It makes the difference between them "working" or not. PM me for more info.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Hidden]

Are there any pharmaceutical grade multivitamins? (Whether in the USA or the UK or anywhere else!)

[Clutter in reply to foxglove]

Foxglove,

If you are taking 100mcg of Levothyroxine you are getting 65mcg iodine by weight. If you are taking 100mcg Liothyronine (T3) you are getting 57mcg iodine by weight. Sorry, no link to substantiate.

[foxglove in reply to Clutter]

Thanks Clutter. On 25 mcg levo. Equal to 16 mcg iodine? If you come across a link would be glad to know!

[Clutter in reply to foxglove]

Foxglove,

In addition, you will be getting iodine from your diet. I've already looked for the link amongst my bookmarks and can't find it.

[foxglove in reply to Clutter]

No worries, think I've caused more trouble than intended

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to foxglove]

You can work it out for yourself!

Using the information in my earlier response:

Carbon - 15

Hydrogen - 11

Iodine - 4

Nitrogen - 1

Oxygen - 4

And the atomic weights of the atoms:

H Hydrogen 1.008

C Carbon 12.011

N Nitrogen 14.007

O Oxygen 15.999

I Iodine 126.904

Yes - it does work out as Clutter posted.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to foxglove]

foxglove There's not much you can do about iodine in food as it's naturally occurring. If you're deficient you can eat more iodine rich food, if you have a high level you can reduce you intake of iodine rich food.

Non-organic cow's milk and yoghurt are both good sources of iodine and most people would get the normal RDA from those in their usual diet (unless they don't consume them for whatever reason)

bda.uk.com/foodfacts/Iodine...

[humanbean in reply to foxglove]

Well, biochemists do know the chemical formula of T3 (for example) :

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triio...

Look at the panel on the right hand side of the page.

But even if your bottle of thyroid hormone told you how much iodine was in it would you be any better off?

What exactly are you trying to find out? Whether or not to supplement iodine?

The practical solution to that (in my non-expert view) would be to stabilise your health on the dose of thyroid hormone you need, then after a few weeks get an iodine blood or 24-hour urine test, while continuing to eat and drink and take meds as normal. I've read that blood tests aren't very reliable, nor are patch tests, and urine tests are best.

There have been people on here who have reported having very high iodine when tested, and some who have reported being very deficient. Some people have supplemented iodine and felt dreadful, others think it helped. I don't know how many of them who supplemented had tested beforehand though.

[foxglove in reply to humanbean]

Reason for asking is "I just want to know" I'm quite happy on levo., but interesting that some supplementing feel better. However that agree that testing important. Or is it the usual trial and error and acting as to how you feel regardless of tests numbers etc.

[Hidden in reply to foxglove]

Iodine is required for more than just the thyroid, but as has been said before you need to be sensible about supplementing. You might find the following link interesting:-

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

[greygoose in reply to foxglove]

I think that those that felt better when supplementing iodine (or going for a holiday in Japan and eating lots of fish and seaweed, as happened to my cousin) are just feeling the stimulating effect of iodine. It stimulates the thyroid gland. But, that can't last forever, and you often end up worse off than you were before you started supplementing.

[Hidden]

Levo replaces the iodine we're low in which results in hypothyroid.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to Hidden]

I don't think it does. It replaces the thyroid hormone (T4) that we are not making enough of for whatever reason - iodine deficiency is quite rare these days since we don't eat locally-grown food. If it was true, there would be no need for thyroid hormone treatment - the GP would just give iodine. You could just as well say it also replaces the Tyrosine we are low in because we are deficient in some amino acids (but that's also not really true)

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Hidden]

anncr,

That makes no sense to me at all.

If you are going to make big claims you need to both explain exactly what you are claiming and put forward some evidence.