Only just occurred to me that the iodine in the Oatly that I really love may not be a good thing to consume.
I'm very hazy about iodine and thryoid plus Levothyroxine. So I thought I'd better consult with all the experts here.
Are there basic rules with easy numbers? Is there a 'good'/ 'bad' form of iodine to consume if you're hypoT?
Personally, I wouldn’t worry. In adding iodine to Oatly they’re just trying to replicate the amount of iodine in cow’s milk. No one ever suggests we should all stop drinking cow’s milk. 
Many thanks for your response - it sounds very sensible and one that I'll probably follow....that is, keep consuming it!
I choose ones without iodine added
Plenish use gluten free oats and iodine free…and delicious
plenishdrinks.com/shop/mult...
Oatly do one with no iodine ….
Oatly organic
oatly.com/en-gb/stuff-we-ma...
Many thanks for your info. I like Plenish very much but it's one of the most expensive. I usually buy what the supermarkets have on offer and Plenish is rarely on of those. Currently, I'm having the Oatly organic and the Oatly with vits/iodine by turn.
Is there a particular reason that you choose the non-iodine ones?
I am strictly gluten free …..and more recently dairy free
I choose Plenish as it’s the only one that states it uses certified gluten free oats
I previously always choose organic milk because it use to have lower iodine levels.
soilassociation.org/blogs/2...
Now organic milk may have higher iodine levels, similar to non organic milk
ign.org/uk-organic-dairy-ma...
Hashimoto’s patients may do better on low iodine diet
thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...
drruscio.com/hashimotos-thy...
Levothyroxine has all the iodine likely to need
Many thanks again, Slow Dragon. That's a very informative collection of links. I shall read avidly! I didn't know that levothyroxine includes iodine...
Have you found being gluten free has improved your health?
When I developed the auto-immune disease I found that cutting out gluten had a dramatic effect in reducing pain/inflammation. With or without oats doesn't have the same effect on me. Cutting dairy had a minimal effect but I just can't pay the huge prices they;re charging now for dairy free. I don't know whether I have hashimotos - likely I suppose. But the gps I have are so detached and disinterested and haven't told me anything!
Most of our need for iodine in our diets is so that our thyroids can form thyroid hormones.
My vade mecum has diagrams. And tables showing how much iodine is present in T4, T3 and T2.
helvella - Vade Mecum for Thyroid
The term vade mecum means:
1. A referential book such as a handbook or manual.
2. A useful object, constantly carried on one’s person.
Please don't get put off by the number of pages!
Nor by the fact it is targeted at people interested in thyroid issues. Much of its contents could be of use to many involved in health issues. Things like abbreviations, lists, general reference information, an Appendix of links to many useful websites.
And do keep up to date. I edit it frequently- sometimes trivially, sometimes extensively. If your copy is more than a few weeks old, please download it again. (You must download - not just view in a browser- for the Table of Contents to work.)
In particular, it is not intended that you sit and read the document. Just that you download it and know you can look things up.
If there is anything you'd like me to add, let me know.
From Dropbox:
dropbox.com/s/vp5ct1cwc03bl...
From Google Drive:
drive.google.com/file/d/1P9...
Fabulous exposition, a labour of love! Thank you very much. It'll keep me busy for quite some time. I really must remember this: "normality.... describes that it is relative and situational. "
When I developed the auto-immune disease I found that cutting out gluten had a dramatic effect in reducing pain/inflammation.
Having one autoimmune disease makes others more likely
Are you diagnosed with another autoimmune disease…..or do you mean have been diagnosed with autoimmune thyroid disease….aka Hashimoto’s
Technically autoimmune thyroid disease without goitre is Ord’s thyroiditis
Autoimmune thyroid disease with goitre is Hashimoto’s
U.K. medics tend to completely ignore autoimmune aspect of hypothyroid patients
Oats are gluten free, but ideally only get oats via “free from” section of supermarket
Certified gluten free Oats need to be grown on fields that have never grown gluten containing grain (wheat, barley or rye) …….And also need to be milled in a gluten free mill
You can read my profile…..gluten free was transformational. Now dairy free too
Great question! The plain truth is that all I know for sure is that I have to take Levo because my thyroid is under-performing.
For c. 3+ years the docs gave me prednisolone (and a heap of other stuff that I didn't take - i.e. why take calcium carbonate tabs when you can just get as much from a good, thoughtful diet...?)
There was never a proper name for the condition. Every consultant (endo, gyne, rheumi, gastric, ) I was sent to was vague, sometimes to the point of disinterest. The GPs ditto. Because it affects my joints, I contacted Versus Arthritis (great people, good at really listening) characterised it as one of a large number of auto-immune diseases, and that people experience years of such unnamed disorders before they get a label.
In a really terrible state of physical overwhelm with inflammation everywhere, constant foggy head, all sorts of other weird ailments popping up etc etc , I used to try to engage the GPs (you rarely see the same one twice in a row here) and they'd be vague, disinterested, 'keep taking the meds, I've got other patients waiting, bye.' The dismissiveness is off the scale at this surgery.
Now I've given up with them. They terrify me with their lack of care and lack of interest. Seems to me like you need to be actually quite well to engage with these people. You need either to be well enough to advocate for yourself or you need to have someone advocating for you. I don't have either.
So get FULL thyroid and vitamin testing done privately once a year
Medichecks or Blue horizon
Only do private testing early Monday or Tuesday morning and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test
If taking any supplements that contain biotin stop these a week before test
Come back with new post once you get results
Levojunkie,
Great question and having previously investigated, I’m with Jazz in that the amount is given to replicate that what would have been in cows milk.
Because of iodines capacity to up or down-regulate thyroid gland activity we tend to shy away from it but it is essential for life. TSH promotes the work of the sodium-iodide symporter to make thyroid hormone. Medicating thyroid hormone replacement meds reduces TSH often very low or suppressed but this is thought inconsequencial because our meds conveniently contain iodine.
Some iodine is recycled, (eg T4 to RT3 or T3 to T2 frees up an iodine atom within a cell that then enters the blood stream) but basically that replacement of iodine from our meds is just a replacement of what we have lost, especially with a total absence of a thyroid gland, and the remaining amount required for all thyroid enzymes and physiology stages including conversion of T4 - T3 should be extracted from diet. As whole areas of the UK are being deemed as iodine deficient or fast becoming so, a little added iodine might even be necessary.
I don’t have a thyroid gland either as totally atrophied. Without a thyroid we cannot up-regulate gland activity through excess iodine levels but studies show iodine to influence hundreds of genes relating to immune response, eg, certain cancers, oxidative stress, etc, (especially if selenium levels are low). As the iodine amounts we require are so small it becomes easy to exceed with either too much commercially added or if you were to consume multiple products with added, especially if the rest of your diet was to already contain sufficient.
An adults iodine daily requirement is around 140-150-mcg. Tanya Smith has pointed out several times that those on T3-only meds should be mindful of iodine deficiency as are only replacing with 3 iodine atoms per molecule, and she supplements 225mcg potassium iodide every 2-3 days. I medicate NDT and have drank milk alternatives with added iodine and previously taken sups with a tiny bit of added iodine.
This shows how iodine is taken into the gland to form hormone, but without a gland we don't get to utilise that part of the iodine cycle.
Thank you for this diagram - I do like the colours....I'm going to have to spend quite a bit of time studying it and learning about how this all works. If I may, I suspect I'll have some questions for you!?
Thank you for all that information. Some new words in there for me and lots of numbers so I'm going to have to take my time to read and study what you've written! NDT? is that Natural Dessicated Thyroid?
Hi Levojunkie,
I tried to do a search of previous posts in the early hours but the site's search facility didn't bring up what I was hoping.
Iodine fortified food has been posted about a few times fairly recently but I couldn't find the relevant posts.
Hope someone may have some links to share? helvella
possibly?
Thank you Hedgeree. I tried to search too but it returned loads of results about IVF!
Supplementing with iodine if on T3 ONLY and testing low for iodine
Thyroid-S two weeks on and iodine supplementationEffect of iodine restriction on thyroid function in subclinical hypothyroid patients in an iodine-replete area
Advice plse on too high Iodine and starting Armour at same time or not?
SIBO: akin to leaky gut; Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth. Difficult to treat, though found info on Lugol's Iodine? Can we do iodine?
