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I'm currently finishing Brownstein's book on iodine as well as Lynne Farrow's The Iodine Crisis. Both books recommend 12-50 milligrams of iodine, compared to the RDA which is 100 micrograms, for pretty much everyone. The oft-cited study about Japanese reveals that they consume around 13-14 mg of iodine per day. And yes, there is plenty of controversy regarding high iodine dosing.
After thinking about it a lot (including the arguments against high-dose iodine), I'm ordering an iodine loading test, which includes measuring bromide and fluoride. This is considered the best test by Brownstein and his colleagues. Blood testing seems unreliable, because the ranges don't take into account that we've reduced iodine by 50% in the last forty years, and all ranges reflect a 95% of a sample for any given population -- meaning blood testing should have too-low ranges for what's appropriate with iodine levels.
Furthermore, as Brownstein points out (and IMO is the most important section in his book), iodine is a halogen, and halogens compete fiercely with one another, the others being bromide, flouride, chloride, and astatine. Bromide in particular is considered problematic, because it has replaced what were previously sources of iodine in the American diet; in the 70s it replaced iodine in bread and baking goods, and iodized salt has low bioavailability, meaning it doesn't get into your cells as good as iodized bread, which is no longer available. Bromide is also all over the place, such as in flame retardants.
Back to blood testing: serum levels of iodine might tell you absolutely nothing, or even give you a false idea of security, because it doesn't take into account the effect of bromide and other halogens in knocking iodine off its receptors; anything knocked off its receptors goes where? Yeah, back to the serum, raising the level of iodine in the blood because it isn't being utilized by the cells. People with thyroid resistance have this problem, where seemingly normal or high free thyroid levels actually mask real thyroid symptoms because the thyroid hormones aren't getting into the cells.
So blood testing seems to be pretty useless. That's why spot urine testing or better yet iodine loading comes in. The latter involves taking 50 mg of iodine and then collecting urine for 24 hours; according to Abraham and Brownstein, you should have a 90% saturation rate of iodine, which would be reflected in excreting this much iodine in the urine. But according to Brownstein, of the over 1,000 patients he's tested, about 95% fail this criterion, many by a longshot, and all of his patients have bromide levels that are too high.
Finally, even though iodine is associated with the thyroid, it's actually a chemical that's utilized by every cell in the body, including especially prostrate cells for men, breast tissue for women, and thyroid for both.
The big question, though, is dosing. Japanese studies point out 13-14 mg is okay, and Brownstein and Abraham note huge successes with 12-50 mg because extra iodine is needed to kick off halogens that were previously occupying iodine receptors. That said, even though this is nonparametic data (been waiting all day to say that fancy phrase), the reviews of Iorodal's 12.5 mg pills are pretty incredible (and many of the low-rating reviews are because of price issues and ignorance about detox reactions). Combine this with the thousands of positive responses of even higher doses with Brownstein and his colleagues and it seems like high dose iodine can be very much needed for many people. But far from all, because again this is all relative to 1) basic requirements (e.g., Japanese consumption), 2) levels needed to displace other halogens, and 3) other health conditions, such as Hashimoto's. According to Brownstein, you have the best chance for success by taking 100 mg B2, 500 mg B3, 4-10 g of vitamin C, 100-200 mcg selenium, and consuming 1-2 teaspoons of unrefined sea salt (which limits bromide toxicity symptoms) while doing the iodine protocol.
My plan is to start low and go slow, using one drop of Lugol's 2% solution (equal to 2.5 mg of iodine) and going up from there. I've had hypothyroid symptoms for years, despite supplementing with selenium, iron, and up to 30 mg of hydrocortisone per day.
All that jibberjabber aside, has anyone had any responses to iodine supplementation (Iodoral, Lugol's, etc.)?
After thinking about it a lot (including the arguments against high-dose iodine), I'm ordering an iodine loading test, which includes measuring bromide and fluoride. This is considered the best test by Brownstein and his colleagues. Blood testing seems unreliable, because the ranges don't take into account that we've reduced iodine by 50% in the last forty years, and all ranges reflect a 95% of a sample for any given population -- meaning blood testing should have too-low ranges for what's appropriate with iodine levels.
Furthermore, as Brownstein points out (and IMO is the most important section in his book), iodine is a halogen, and halogens compete fiercely with one another, the others being bromide, flouride, chloride, and astatine. Bromide in particular is considered problematic, because it has replaced what were previously sources of iodine in the American diet; in the 70s it replaced iodine in bread and baking goods, and iodized salt has low bioavailability, meaning it doesn't get into your cells as good as iodized bread, which is no longer available. Bromide is also all over the place, such as in flame retardants.
Back to blood testing: serum levels of iodine might tell you absolutely nothing, or even give you a false idea of security, because it doesn't take into account the effect of bromide and other halogens in knocking iodine off its receptors; anything knocked off its receptors goes where? Yeah, back to the serum, raising the level of iodine in the blood because it isn't being utilized by the cells. People with thyroid resistance have this problem, where seemingly normal or high free thyroid levels actually mask real thyroid symptoms because the thyroid hormones aren't getting into the cells.
So blood testing seems to be pretty useless. That's why spot urine testing or better yet iodine loading comes in. The latter involves taking 50 mg of iodine and then collecting urine for 24 hours; according to Abraham and Brownstein, you should have a 90% saturation rate of iodine, which would be reflected in excreting this much iodine in the urine. But according to Brownstein, of the over 1,000 patients he's tested, about 95% fail this criterion, many by a longshot, and all of his patients have bromide levels that are too high.
Finally, even though iodine is associated with the thyroid, it's actually a chemical that's utilized by every cell in the body, including especially prostrate cells for men, breast tissue for women, and thyroid for both.
The big question, though, is dosing. Japanese studies point out 13-14 mg is okay, and Brownstein and Abraham note huge successes with 12-50 mg because extra iodine is needed to kick off halogens that were previously occupying iodine receptors. That said, even though this is nonparametic data (been waiting all day to say that fancy phrase), the reviews of Iorodal's 12.5 mg pills are pretty incredible (and many of the low-rating reviews are because of price issues and ignorance about detox reactions). Combine this with the thousands of positive responses of even higher doses with Brownstein and his colleagues and it seems like high dose iodine can be very much needed for many people. But far from all, because again this is all relative to 1) basic requirements (e.g., Japanese consumption), 2) levels needed to displace other halogens, and 3) other health conditions, such as Hashimoto's. According to Brownstein, you have the best chance for success by taking 100 mg B2, 500 mg B3, 4-10 g of vitamin C, 100-200 mcg selenium, and consuming 1-2 teaspoons of unrefined sea salt (which limits bromide toxicity symptoms) while doing the iodine protocol.
My plan is to start low and go slow, using one drop of Lugol's 2% solution (equal to 2.5 mg of iodine) and going up from there. I've had hypothyroid symptoms for years, despite supplementing with selenium, iron, and up to 30 mg of hydrocortisone per day.
All that jibberjabber aside, has anyone had any responses to iodine supplementation (Iodoral, Lugol's, etc.)?
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