Too much iodine

[Katurajo1]

I see a functional doc here in the US. I have blood drawn monthly and usually things are mostly fine. A little over two months ago my bloodwork showed my iodine level to be low, he told me to supplement so I did. I was feeling fine, had my bloodwork last month which showed my iodine had gone back to normal. I use one of those monthly pill containers so it didn’t even cross my mind to stop the iodine and he didn’t mention it. Well, for the past few weeks I’ve been having horrible palpitations, sweating randomly, almost feel like a panic attack is coming on but thankfully doesn’t. I am feeling like hyperthyroid swing and it’s awful. I really just want to say one thing and ask a question. 1. Be careful with iodine! It may be obvious to most of us but I was actually following my docs orders and now I’m feeling horrible. And then 2. My question is how do I get the excess iodine out? Would charcoal help? I cannot stand feeling like this.

[Katurajo1]

I was using tablets. They’re called Life Extension Sea-Iodine 1000 mcg and I was taking one each morning. I do think it was too much, or at least too much after my levels were brought back to normal. I really just want to get this feeling gone, the jitters and rapid heart rate is making it hard to get things done.

[Serendipitious in reply to Katurajo1]

If you haven’t already I would stop taking the iodine tablets. Have you told your functional doctor about your symptoms? Have you had another thyroid blood test? I’m not aware of something that can remove the iodine from your body. Perhaps somebody else can advise.

[Katurajo1 in reply to Serendipitious]

Yes, I emailed him because it is in between my appointments and he basically said to stop taking them but I already had.

[Assiya in reply to Katurajo1]

Hai Katurajo how are you doing now?

[Katurajo1 in reply to Assiya]

I am doing fine now, it took a while for the levels to normal out but after a while I felt fine.

[Aurora88 in reply to Katurajo1]

hello wondering if you can help me - i took iodine for a month and felt hyper. and had a lot of hair loss. stopped iodine in december and still having hair loss and terrible panic. do you think its still iodine? wondering how long it took for you to feel better?

[Katurajo1 in reply to Aurora88]

Hi, so sorry for the delay, I just saw your message. It definitely took a while for the iodine to get out of my system. I’d say it was probably about a month. You can always have your iodine level tested to see if it’s still too high. If yours is not too high then it could be that whatever issue the iodine brought about, hasn’t resolved yet. If the iodine made you a bit hyper and you’re still taking the same medication, you might still be hyper if that makes sense.

[MaisieGray]

The concern expressed here about iodine supplementation isn't to do with Hashimoto's but about the fact that iodine has an anti-thyroid effect when taken in the absence of tested iodine deficiency - it was, after all, given in solution as the treatment for HYPERthyroidism before specific drugs were developed. Hence presumably, why the OP's symptoms have arisen since continuing to supplement after her levels had returned to normal.