Excellent Dr. Wentz article on iodine

[Sharoosz]

My apologies if this has been posted before but since there were some questions recently on the topic on iodine - this answers a lot of questions and is well worth a read: thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

[greygoose]

Very good. Thanks for posting.

[helvella Administrator]

Thanks for posting. Definitely interesting.

A number of points:

She does not clearly point out that there might well be a difference between those who have always had a relatively high iodine intake, and those who might have had times of at least marginally inadequate iodine. Some of the discussion about Japan could be rethought in the light of that.

Selenium does get mentioned but not adequately discussed.

It is all very well saying “Your facial moisturizer may contain as much as 54,000 mcg of iodine… 2,430 mcg (4.5 percent) of which may be absorbed into your system!” – but how about a bit more information. Which products? I have absolutely no idea.

The nutritional information might vary significantly from one country to another. Even from one batch to another of some foodstuffs.

She mentions medicines but seems to miss the colouring agent erythrosine which is present in a very large number of medicines available in the UK. (Not sure about the USA.) Also, we likely do not know the iodine content eryrthrosine-containing medicines. Might be insignificant.

In a reply to a comment, she states: “I have an entire chapter on the iodine controversy that references numerous studies as well as the work of Abraham and Brownstein.” Trouble is, that would appear to be a prime part of the discussion but we have to go elsewhere (her book, for one example) to find out more.

One comment: “What about the ingredient povidone in levothyroxine? I see my l-thyroxine contains it. Can this have a negative impact on your body?” But she does not seem to appreciate that the person likely thought povidone itself contains iodine. (A common mis-perception because of the widespread use of povidone-iodine products. But not all povidone has iodine!)

She doesn’t appear to address the fact that levothyroxine and liothyronine (and, of course, desiccated thyroid) all inherently contain iodine. (Levothyroxine approximately 64%; Liothyronine approximately 57%.) There is a difference between someone on a diet which supplies, say, 150 micrograms of iodine. And another person taking 150 micrograms of levothyroxine (thus around 100 micrograms of iodine by that route) as well as 150 micrograms from their diet.

It concerns me that this “hidden iodine” is becoming, or even has already become, the latest fad.

At the same time, I think it good to see an article which asks these questions. Always important to do so.

[diogenes Remembering in reply to helvella]

Any discussion that includes Brownstein as a support should be taken with a large dose of salt (sodium chloride not sodium iodide). His site is woefully misleading. Iodine by itself or as sodium iodide is a very contentious area. Any such supplement is only useful if someone is naturally iodine-deficient because of the lack of food supply of it. There are areas of iodine insufficiency in the UK, but they are largely corrected because the food eaten is from everywhere on the planet ( iodine suficient or not)..

[helvella Administrator in reply to diogenes]

Have never found it possible to accept that gigantic doses of iodine could be not just tolerable but desirable.

There is widespread belief that the Japanese do, or did, have pretty significant iodine intake. Yet Brownstein pushes doses many times even the highest estimates of the consumption in Japan.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Which has not been presented.

[diogenes Remembering in reply to helvella]

Especially when quoting the past treatment of hypothyroidism with Lugols. This is the worst thing that can be done if otherwise the patient is iodine-sufficient. In hypothyroidism, the remaining thyroid is working hard at producing enough T3 directly to compensate for the body's inability to get enough T4 to convert to T3. Lugols interferes with the thyroid's production of T3, so it makes the problem worse, because the body simply cannot compensate.