Iodine

[David Jackson]

@Kierkegaard - how are you going with this Iodine thing? I'd be interested to hear what you've been taking and if you've seen any changes from it.

 

[Kierkegaard]

@Kierkegaard - how are you going with this Iodine thing? I'd be interested to hear what you've been taking and if you've seen any changes from it.

Hey David,

Good but complicated, and mostly complicated because I'm also taking diindolylmethane (DIM) to combat estrogen metabolism problems because I'm on testosterone replacement and my two homozygous COMT polymorphisms are probably screwing up my estrogen metabolism a bit.

Basically about 5-6 weeks ago I noticed a dramatic improvement in mood (loss of anhedonia which had been sticking with me at least since I started 1 mg of klonopin in May), big drop in brain fog, and slight improvement in energy from taking about 2.5 tabs of Iorodal (about 30 mg iodine). I was taking 75 mg of DIM at the time (actually DIM-Plus, which also has vitamin E and some soy-based phosphatidylcholine).

Iodine isn't just helpful for thyroid and breast tissue (Brownstein says all glandular tissue benefits from iodine), but also according to Dr Jonathan Wright results in reductions of estradiol (the most potent estrogen) while increasing estriol (much less potent), theoretically while reducing the 16a-hydroxyestrone pathway (a carcinogenic estrogen). DIM also reduces 16a-hydroxyestrone, but also 16a-hydroxyestradiol, 2-hydroxyestradiol, and 2-hydroxyestrone; these latter three estrogens are thought to be carcinogenic as well, but for whatever reason I felt better while taking DIM (years ago before I started iodine) presumably because at least one of these four pathways were altered.

Well, the tricky part is that iodine seems to overlap with DIM at least regarding 16a-hydroxyestrone, and maybe iodine has other effects on these estrogen metabolites. I'm trying to figure that out now.

I say all this because about a week or two after hitting this serendipitous moment of happiness, clarity, and slight increase in energy I seemed to push through a sweet spot, so I ended up reducing my iodine dose from about 30 mg per day to 25 mg (two Iodoral tabs) per day, and also reduced my DIM from 75 mg per day down to eventually zero. Predictably (and thankfully), I felt better as I went to around 25 mg DIM per day, and then worse when I hit zero (strangely noticing more symptoms I'm starting to attribute to possible histamine elevations, such as flushing and ear redness).

Since I felt worse, I went back to 25 mg of DIM per day while being on 25 mg of iodine, felt better but not like I was, so right now I've increased my iodine dose back to 30 mg and seem to be running into problems of (yet again) going too far in the other direction by letting my estrogen go too low, seeing how I feel worse approaching my injection of testosterone (every three days) and better as of today hours after injecting and until my peak.

So I'm trying to figure out how DIM and iodine work together, how they're different, and/or how they're interacting regarding estrogen metabolism. It might not even be a change in estrogen that made me feel better 5-6 weeks ago, but instead maybe iodine helped my thyroid. Interestingly, I found one study arguing how estrogen metabolism influences thyroid function (which is assumed to be a main reason for the dramatically higher levels of hypothyroidism in women than men, the former who have lots more estrogen), presumably through through estrogen increasing thyroid binding globulin (reducing free thyroid levels), and (surprise surprise) DIM is helpful in proliferative thyroid disease through its action on estrogen metabolism.

Oh wait, you wanted a normal answer. Sorry.

Here's the normal answer: iodine has unambiguously made me feel better, there's still room to go (e.g., I still haven't tried lithium orotate even though my levels are undetectable in serum and hair analysis), but I'm trying to figure out how to balance iodine with DIM.

 

[David Jackson]

Wow, sounds pretty complex. Thanks for the in depth reply. Glad you're feeling a bit better on the Iodine, and I hope you manage to figure it out with the Iodine and DIM stuff.

What about test results? In the beginning, I think you mentioned you were going to do some kind of Iodine test... was this before starting any Iodine protocol, and what were the results? And have you followed up and done it again since?

One reason I'm curious is that I just recently had some bloodwork done... first lot in ages, due to being housebound. Anyway, these were my thyroid results:

TSH:7.1 mIU/L ( 0.4-4 )
T3 (Free):3.7 pmol/L ( 2.5-6 )
Free T4:12.3 pmol/L ( 10-24 )

My doctor says we will just monitor this every six weeks, as much of the time this is just the body's natural rhythms. She said that if my TSH goes over 12, then some meds - Thyroxine, I think it was - may help.

Just a week before I had this blood test, I had started taking a few drops of Iodine again. A few people on the forum were suggesting that this is what could have messed up my TSH a bit, so I wish I had left the Iodine out of the picture until after the test.

 

[Kierkegaard]

Wow, sounds pretty complex. Thanks for the in depth reply. Glad you're feeling a bit better on the Iodine, and I hope you manage to figure it out with the Iodine and DIM stuff.

What about test results? In the beginning, I think you mentioned you were going to do some kind of Iodine test... was this before starting any Iodine protocol, and what were the results? And have you followed up and done it again since?

One reason I'm curious is that I just recently had some bloodwork done... first lot in ages, due to being housebound. Anyway, these were my thyroid results:

TSH:7.1 mIU/L ( 0.4-4 )
T3 (Free):3.7 pmol/L ( 2.5-6 )
Free T4:12.3 pmol/L ( 10-24 )

My doctor says we will just monitor this every six weeks, as much of the time this is just the body's natural rhythms. She said that if my TSH goes over 12, then some meds - Thyroxine, I think it was - may help.

Just a week before I had this blood test, I had started taking a few drops of Iodine again. A few people on the forum were suggesting that this is what could have messed up my TSH a bit, so I wish I had left the Iodine out of the picture until after the test.

I'm getting bloodwork done hopefully tomorrow to check thyroid and estrogen levels (among other things), and also have an iodine loading test hanging around that I was too wimpy to try as a pretest (seeing how it involved taking a 50 mg tab).

I wouldn't be concerned about TSH; what stands out to me is how lukewarm your free T3 and free T4 levels are. I've only run across data suggesting iodine increases TSH, with the pro-iodine folks saying it's harmless, and I haven't heard an explanation from others about how iodine could influence (free) T3/T4 levels. Either way, it's supposed to take three months, according to Brownstein, to see TSH go back to normal. You might be a good candidate for naturally dessicated thyroid. Thyroid lab ranges are especially prone to being too broad, seeing how some doctors think that hypothyroidism is more prevalent in society than we would think, causing the ranges to be too broad given that many of the people with hypothyroidism are included in the sample.

 

[David Jackson]

Thanks for the feedback there. Good luck with everything.