Lugol Iodine / High Dose Iodine Testing

[Hip]

If you want a scientific account on how different forms of iodine distribute to different organs, this paper is interesting: it found that in iodine-deficient rats, administration of elemental iodine (I2) seemed to have effects in different tissue compartments compared to administration of potassium iodide (KI).

Potassium iodide seemed more effective at targeting the thyroid gland; whereas elemental iodine was more effective at targeting the mammary glands.

The authors provided a possible explanation for this:

Peroxidase is required to convert I- to elemental I2 for organification in the iodine pathway of the thyroid gland. Mammary glands have modest amounts of peroxidase, whereas the thyroid has abundant quantities.

So in other words, because the thyroid gland has lots of peroxidase, this gland can more easily convert iodide back to iodine, and thus make full use of the iodide in the blood.

 

[prioris]

It tells me that perhaps a lot of people don't know much about chemistry, and are persuaded by marketing scams. There is no scientific evidence that nascent iodine contains single atoms of iodine, as it is claimed it does. Single atoms of iodine are very reactive, so they are unstable and quickly form compounds.

we are dealing with physics. mainstream fundamental physics is a flat out filled with grand lies. the real physics is unknown publicly. The powers that be would know but they keep that hidden. Mainstream physics will eventually have to go to the grave yard at some point, They have even dissed homeopathy for years based on supposed known physics.

with many remedies, you have to take a practical approach. ... scientific studies, empirical, anecdotal, history, speculation, intuition, what your body says etc and come to your own conclusion. i wouldn't get into any debate on it.

i read many of those different things on iodine conversion but at the end of the day it comes down to ... is such and such remedy working in some people ... it is more valuable for somebody iodine deficient and experimented to give their feedback

 

[Wishful]

i read many of those different things on iodine conversion but at the end of the day it comes down to ... is such and such remedy working in some people

The problem with that is that there's a big difference between someone believing that a remedy is working, and whether the remedy is actually making a physical/chemical difference. It's easy to convince some people that they feel better after a treatment that they truly believe will work. It doesn't mean that it would hold up under proper scientific testing.

I do support the idea that individuals should test treatments to see whether they work for them. I just suggest that they be done in a scientific manner: double-blind, repeated for statistical meaning, etc.

 

[Wishful]

Has anyone ever tried taking high dose iodine for chronic fatigue/brain fog.

A few years into my ME, I discovered that something in a multivitamin/mineral tablet greatly reduced my symptoms and made me feel energetic again. After trying the vitamins separately (no benefits), then the minerals, I found that iodine was the active element. A drop of tincture of iodine was enough to trigger temporary remission. Unfortunately, continual supplementation didn't continue working. T4 and T3 supplementation didn't have the effect that iodine did. I then found that T2 had the same effect (temporary remission the first time or two). I assume that iodine works for me by the boost in T2 production in my thyroid gland.

For me, I need a single dose of T2 or iodine every 21 days. If I forget, my ME symptoms will start increasing in severity and stay that way until I do remember to take my T2 or iodine. The abrupt increase in T2 seems to reset something, possibly via RNA transcription in mitochondria.

 

[prioris]

The problem with that is that there's a big difference between someone believing that a remedy is working, and whether the remedy is actually making a physical/chemical difference. It's easy to convince some people that they feel better after a treatment that they truly believe will work. It doesn't mean that it would hold up under proper scientific testing.

I do support the idea that individuals should test treatments to see whether they work for them. I just suggest that they be done in a scientific manner: double-blind, repeated for statistical meaning, etc.

we may be long dead by the time it is done in a scientific manner enough times
use your intuition in evaluating reviews ...
a persons intuition will likely be able to tap into information of the universe if they let it

 

[Sophiedw]

Are you taking b2? In me my muscle fatigue was caused mainly by very low b2. Iodine also seemed to deplete b12 and b2. If you take supplemental b12 that also depletes b2 though so its a balancing act.

 

[Frunobulax]

Attaching to this old thread... No experiences with high dose iodine here?

I recently started high-dose iodine, currently at 25mg a day (4 drops of 5% Lugols, I started with 1 drop a day and increased by one drop after 4 days), and I'll increase this further to 50. Naturally I'm very interested to hear if people here have used iodine long term, or had averse reactions.

For now I'm very encouraged after 2 weeks: A bit more energy (clearly noticable, even though my CFS isn'far from being gone), slightly higher body temperature (usually I'm between 35.0 and 35.5 celsius and I'm freezing even in high temperature rooms, with the iodine I'm up to 35.8 already and feel much warmer), less constipation. Seems also I'm detoxing, with skin irritations. For the first few days I was very sleepy, then my usual sleep disorders returned. I'm now started taking the iodine in the morning and not last thing in the evening. So my body is clearly reacting to the iodine, and mostly in a positive way. We'll see if it lasts, though.

I started iodine because Sarah Myhill recommends a daily dose for all ME/CFS patients. I have all symptoms of hypothyroidism, low temperature, inability to lose weight (despite keto diet), hoarse voice, high cholesterol along with the usual brain fog and fatigue. All my thyroid bloodwork looks OK (no Hashimoto antibodies, free T3/T4 well in normal range, TSH fairly low), but something is amiss here. So I started taking iodine in the hope of jumpstarting my thyroid.

Interesting fact: I've read that iodine can impair histamine production (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/recl.19670860406) and one animal study has confirmed lower histamine levels after iodine supplementation (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11517853/). Many of us have histamine issues... Maybe that's a beneficial effect from iodine that is somewhat independent from thyroid hormones?

Here is why I gave it a try.
(1) Iodine seems fairly safe to me: Iodine was used for hundreds of years, and got kinda forgotten in the middle of the last century (along with other treatments like hydrogen peroxide) when we discovered antibiotics and thought we could develop a wonder drug for all diseases... As some doctors from those days said, they have no clue why it works but it seemed to do wonders for many patients. But the point is, they used it in very high doses and saw hardly any negative side effects.

Obviously there are a case reports where iodine caused problems, but it seems all these patients had Hashimoto or other autoimmune diseases. I know there is some debate on whether Hashimoto patients should take iodine -- but I'd think it's safe for me as I don't have Hashimoto. (There are side effects, as with any drug that does something in our body. But most of them seem to come from detoxing and I would expect them to be temporary.)

(2) It's plausible to me that most of us are iodine deficient. Our hunter-and-gatherer ancestors consumed much more iodine than we do (on account of eating lots of fish). Also we are surrounded by other halogens that weren't around for our ancestors, like bromide, fluoride and chloride, all of which can compete with iodine and essentially displace it. So we consume less and have more competing chemicals. The miniscule amounts of iodine in salt may be able to avoid goiter, but it's not clear what optimal iodine levels are.

(3) I've also read that iodine is a chelator and helps detoxing. Many of us have issues with heavy metals, which could also be both a reason for a deficiency (used up for chelating) as well as another independent mechanism of action (chelation).

 

[Wishful]

No experiences with high dose iodine here?

Not high dosage, but I did get significant benefits from iodine or T2 (3-5 diiodothyronine). If you search for '3-5 diiodothyronine' here you'll find my older postings about it.

If iodine works for you, you might consider trying T2. I think the supplemental iodine boosted my own production of T2 which in turn provided the benefits. There was a T2 product on Amazon last time I checked.

My experience with both iodine and T2 was that daily doses made it stop working for me. What ended up working for me was one dose (100 mcg T2 or a small droplet of tincture of iodine) every 21 days. More often than that didn't help, and the benefits lasted a very consistent 21 days. So, if daily dosing stops working for you, go off it for a month or so and see if one dose helps again.

FWIW, I have consistently mildly elevated TSH, my other common thyroid tests fluctuate in a relatively normal range, and I didn't notice any benefits from supplemental T4 or T3.

 

[Kadar]

@Frunobulax If you have positive experience with high dose iodine seems you don't have huge heavy metal/halogen burden. It's good. I only can say vitamin C is beneficial on iodine protocol, in my experience it seems to recycle iodine and also remove halogens and heavy metals. Without it I needed molybdenum(for mercury/toxic copper detox) and boron (for bromide detox) on iodine protocol (not even high doses). I also noticed iodine depletes copper levels with time. That's all I found by symptoms of deficiency

 

[Frunobulax]

@Frunobulax If you have positive experience with high dose iodine seems you don't have huge heavy metal/halogen burden. It's good. I only can say vitamin C is beneficial on iodine protocol, in my experience it seems to recycle iodine and also remove halogens and heavy metals.

I'm not sure what is in my body. I did chelations with DMPS and DMSA, and only some lead and nickel showed up. Both are now barely above normal range (after 3 years of chelating with DMSA). Others tested but in normal range were mercury, aluminium, lead, palladium, nickel and cadmium.
But I grew up in East Germany in the middle of an industrial complex including many chemical plants, and it was never disclosed which toxins were sent unfiltered in the air. All I know that we children were sick all the time, all of us.

I seem to have some halogens, as I'm using the salt loading protocol to bind bromium and hot baths to sweat out some toxins. This stopped most of the skin itching and irritations.

Vitamin C is a bit controversial, as it breaks down to oxalates in the body. And low oxalate diet did help me a bit, so it seems I have some oxalate issues. I did experiment with vitC: I went on Sarah Myhills vitamin C loading protocol (at least 5 grams a day, to bowel tolerance) for a couple of months but didn't see an improvement, so I cut out the vitamin C recently.