Iodine

[Nessy50]

Hi does anyone take iodine drops & do they help you?

[SlowDragon Administrator]

No recommended for anyone with Hashimoto’s

drknews.com/iodine-and-hash...

Levothyroxine contains iodine anyway

Previous post says you were trying Teva levothyroxine

How much levothyroxine are you currently taking

[Nessy50 in reply to SlowDragon]

I’m back on NDT now Levo doesn’t agree with me. I’ll read that thanks I thought it was worth a try to help thyroid & looking at the symptoms of deficiency I have a few but I have other auto immunes too so hard to know what’s what

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Nessy50]

What’s your diet like?

Vegetarian or vegan?

[Nessy50 in reply to SlowDragon]

No neither, good diet cook mostly from scratch I’m coeliac so gluten free & lactose free why I don’t absorb much although better now. I take pink salt but not loads so I expect iodine in it. You don’t think I should try the drops?

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Nessy50]

Lactose intolerance often improves on strictly gluten free diet

coeliac.org.uk/information-...

What vitamin supplements are you currently taking?

What were most recent results and ranges on vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

[Nessy50 in reply to SlowDragon]

Just had a quick read of that & he says it helps fibroids which I have too, hmmm hard to know what to do

[greygoose in reply to Nessy50]

Iodine will only help you if you need it. So, before supplementing, you should get tested. And, if you are deficient, you should only supplement under the supervision of an experienced practitioner. Iodine is not something to mess around and self-treat with. It will not 'help your thyroid' in any way. Iodine is just one of the ingredients of thyroid hormone. By itself, it's not going to do much. It does not have any magic qualities that make the thyroid work better.

It's very rare to be iodine deficient in the western world. And, if you are taking thyroid hormone replacement of any kind, you will be getting iodine from that which is recycled in your body. One grain of NDT contains approx. 29 mcg iodine. Plus what you get from your food. And, you need less iodine when your thyroid is not making thyroid hormone, not more.

Excess iodine can cause all sorts of problems - even thyroid cancer. It is also anti-thyroid in excess, and used to be used to treat Grave's before anti-thyroid drugs were invented. So, no, it will not help and it's doubtful if you need it.

Pink Himalayan salt doesn't contain much iodine, if any.

[Nessy50 in reply to greygoose]

Ok thanks a lot for your reply I didn’t realise that I’ve seen it mentioned for thyroid. I’m not going to take the iodine drops.

[greygoose in reply to Nessy50]

You're welcome.

[GerbilsinSpace_77]

I am NOT a doctor or med professional, but in my readings thru the years re: alternative health, I have heard only good things regarding iodine supplementation. You may want to google Dr. Brownstein as this is one of his specialties IIRC and he had some videos where he discussed it in depth.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to GerbilsinSpace_77]

There has been a lot of discussion about iodine here over the years.

Yes, quite a number of references to Brownstein. But many more to the problems that have been caused by iodine in various forms.

It is important to remember that those who have already been diagnosed with a thyroid issue are not the general population which might be rather more tolerant of iodine supplementation.

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

A snippet from a paper on the program of increasing iodine intake in Denmark.

There are many unclear issues. But to claim unalloyed claims of "good things" would be to misrepresent their experience.

Iodine intake and the incidence of overt hyper- and hypothyroidism

The DanThyr register of overt hypo- and hyperthyroidism revealed considerable differences in incidences of hyper- and hypothyroidism between the two study areas (39). Hyperthyroidism was more common in Aalborg and hypothyroidism in Copenhagen. Hyperthyroidism was in general more common than hypothyroidism. This pattern was observed in both men and women, and in different age groups (Fig. 8). The pattern in Aalborg is similar to previous findings in another part of Jutland (40), and the differences between Aalborg and Copenhagen are qualitatively similar to the previously observed differences between Jutland with a low iodine intake and Iceland with a much higher iodine intake (41).

Probably, the high incidence of hyperthyroidism is caused by a high incidence of multinodular toxic goiter (41), but subtype analyses of data have not yet been finalized. Recently, the data on incidences of subtypes of hypothyroidism before mandatory salt iodization were published (Table 2) (42). The difference in the incidence of hypothyroidism between areas is entirely caused by a difference in incidence of spontaneous hypothyroidism, which is presumably caused by autoimmune destruction of the thyroid gland. The findings suggest that an increase in iodine intake of a population may, over time, lead to fewer cases of hyperthyroidism, whereas there may be more cases of autoimmune hypothyroidism –even when iodine intake is changed from deficient to adequate.

The mechanism behind an iodine-induced increase in the incidence of hypothyroidism is unknown, but several mechanisms could be involved. Iodine has been associated with thyroid autoimmunity (43), and it has a number of autoregulatory inhibitory effects on thyroid hormone production and secretion (44). Moreover, excess iodine may lead to apoptosis of thyroid follicular cells as studied in in vitro systems (45).

eje.bioscientifica.com/view...

[GerbilsinSpace_77 in reply to helvella]

Thanks for the extra info and clarification, I appreciate it and so will others. Apologies for being to general and unclear, while it's true I remember mostly positive feedback about it I should have stated that it has been a few years since I've read into it and like anything, nothing is a magic bullet and there are no doubt cases where it wouldn't be helpful.

[Nessy50 in reply to GerbilsinSpace_77]

Thanks Frank I’ve decided not to try it.