Significant improvement with iodine!

[Sherpa]

My practitioner cautioned me about it, but our call was brief and he didn't fully explain. I trust the guy - he'll do follow up testing - I'm sure I'll be fine. Iodine is very obviously something my body needs.

 

[alex3619]

Thanks, just did a hair test and my Potassium is way high. Doc said it was because I was taking Ionic iron. So she wants that Potassium down. : (

Be very careful with this interpretation. About half of us have severe potassium deficiency, but normal blood potassium, based on whole body potassium scans in the 90s. I suspect we stabilize blood levels at the expense of some of our tissues. One possibility is that we are excreting too much potassium. So go very cautiously if you want to lower potassium.

 

[aquariusgirl]

@alex3619 .. this is interesting...so would it be a bad idea to boost sodium (by taking 1 tbspn of sea salt a day) as a way of addressing CDI or dehyrdation??

geez,it's all so frikking complicated...


sorry for dragging the thread off point...

I did the iodine patch test once or twice.. was waay too liberal with it and felt incredibly sick afterwards...

 

[whodathunkit]

My practitioner cautioned me about it, but our call was brief and he didn't fully explain. I trust the guy - he'll do follow up testing - I'm sure I'll be fine. Iodine is very obviously something my body needs.

That makes sense. Good prophylactic warnings never go amiss. I was just wondering if you got spooked by something you read or what.

 

[drob31]

I'm up to 4.5mg iodine and I feel so much better. I went out to a club on Saturday night and to a beach party on Sunday afternoon. It feels like I've been released from jail.

I possibly have an autoimmune thyroid disorder, but don't have antibodies that show up on test.

Any ideas on how to take Iodine without kicking in hashimotos - aside from taking adquate selenium? (I'm taking 300mcg / day)

“A survey of the literature suggests that Hashimoto’s is largely unaffected by iodine intake. However, the literature may be distorted by three circumstances under which iodine increases may harm, and iodine restriction help Hashimoto’s patients:
1. Selenium deficiency causes an intolerance of high iodine.
2. Iodine intake via seaweed is accompanied by thyrotoxic metals and halides.
3. Sudden increases in iodine can induce a reactive hypothyroidism.
All three of these negatives can be avoided by supplementing selenium along with iodine, using potassium iodide rather than seaweed as the source of iodine, and increasing iodine intake gradually.” endquote Renato Iwakura.

http://jeffreydachmd.com/hashimotos-selenium-and-iodine-part-two/

 

[alex3619]

@alex3619 .. this is interesting...so would it be a bad idea to boost sodium (by taking 1 tbspn of sea salt a day) as a way of addressing CDI or dehyrdation??

I think this is a question that has not been answered yet. Keeping sodium and potassium in balance is critical. Too far one way or the other can be dangerous.

I had the iodine challenge too. I excreted very little, but I forget the numbers. I took iodine for quite a while, but never noticed much improvement ... some maybe, but not much. I am sure to use iodized salt, though I would prefer decent sea salt. I wish I could eat more seaweed and fish.

 

[drob31]

I think this is a question that has not been answered yet. Keeping sodium and potassium in balance is critical. Too far one way or the other can be dangerous.

I had the iodine challenge too. I excreted very little, but I forget the numbers. I took iodine for quite a while, but never noticed much improvement ... some maybe, but not much. I am sure to use iodized salt, though I would prefer decent sea salt. I wish I could eat more seaweed and fish.

I crashed with iodine because I started too high. I think this was because my hpa-axis wasn't capable of handling the increased thyroid activity. In my opinion the hpa-axis has to be functioning properly before it can handle higher levels of iodine. I did have 5-6 days of feeling almost 100% normal first though.

 

[burgeo10]

@Sherpa @whodathunkit Very glad to read a success story. Am interested how you both managed to improve your adrenals. I recently tested very low on a spot urine iodine test (not sure the proven relevance), but I'm keen to improve my adrenals first. Am on adrenal glandular, 200mg pantothenic acid, and 2g of Vit C every day to support them. Can you suggest anything else? I'm fairly sure my biggest issue is copper toxicity as I have low ceruloplasmin, high hair test etc... but I think I need to improve adrenals to help in that area. Thanks

 

[Sherpa]

@burgeo10

I followed the treatment plan (roughly) outlined in Dr. Lam's book. I took up to 8g of Vitamin C in various forms, and up to 2400mg per day of pantethine (which is a little more potent than pantothenic acid) - and I worked up to these doses very slowly over many months. Every body needs a different amount. The doses you are taking are good starting doses and good for mild fatigue, but I had extremely severe fatigue that required more.

I also took adaptations like ashwaghanda and licorice... and hormones like pregnenolone...

I heard a lot of "trainwreck" stories back on Curezone - similar to @drob31 's story - about people overstimulating weak adrenals with thyroid.. so the general consensus is to get your adrenal system working (stable, strong, non-anxious for no reason) first

 

[burgeo10]

@burgeo10

I followed the treatment plan (roughly) outlined in Dr. Lam's book. I took up to 8g of Vitamin C in various forms, and up to 2400mg per day of pantethine (which is a little more potent than pantothenic acid) - and I worked up to these doses very slowly over many months. Every body needs a different amount. The doses you are taking are good starting doses and good for mild fatigue, but I had extremely severe fatigue that required more.

I also took adaptations like ashwaghanda and licorice... and hormones like pregnenolone...

I heard a lot of "trainwreck" stories back on Curezone - similar to @drob31 's story - about people overstimulating weak adrenals with thyroid.. so the general consensus is to get your adrenal system working (stable, strong, non-anxious for no reason) first

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I think I will increase the pantothenic acid soon as I get a little lift from it, although it makes my insomnia a little worse... I'm also on 50mg of DHEA, was put on it by a doc with 0 knowledge of CFS and never have gotten of, do you have any view vs pregnenolone? Also how did you diagnose your adrenal fatigue?

 

[drob31]

Pregnenolone turned the "lights back on for me." It worked well at first, then after a few months I had to get off of it, but so far the positive effects from it "jump starting me," are still in place.

 

[Sherpa]

@burgeo10 DHEA is stronger, more androgenic and stimulating ... To me...than pregnenolone. I took pregnenolone semi-regularly, with breaks to keep my system on its toes....and I took DHEA only on occassion, immediatly after crashes to soften the blow. They both give the adrenals a break by supplying some of the hormones they'd work to make. I think both can cause male pattern baldness in susceptible men, with extended use.

I diagnosed my adrenal fatigue by having most of the classic symptoms: muscle & collagen wasting, anxiety, insomnia, salt craving, incredibly poor stress tolerance, easily startled, low stamina.

It was so bad I was debilitated, looked shockingly thin and 'strung out' to people who hadnt seen me in years, i had to close my business, could barely go to the store and carry in a small bag of groceries, didn't get a good nights sleep for about a year etc.

 

[drob31]

Sherpa, I see you are tapering the iodine safely, but be careful not to increase to fast, which is what caused me to crash last time. I'm starting to slowly increase iodine, and it's helping. I'm at 1000 mcg/day. May not go much higher.

 

[Gondwanaland]

@drob

endquote Renato Iwakura.

His full texts are at Jaminet's site:
Iodine and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Part I
Iodine and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Part 2
ended by a Jaminet's comment

Paul Jaminet October 24, 2014 at 9:26 pm
We’ve had plenty of Hashimoto’s cures on PHD without high doses of iodine. I stopped the high doses of iodine when I developed a thyroid injury, concurrent with overdosing on selenium. Once I realized how easy it is to overdose on selenium I became convinced the risk exceeds the potential reward from high dose iodine. A few readers have developed problems on high dose iodine as well.

 

[drob31]

@drob

His full texts are at Jaminet's site:
Iodine and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Part I
Iodine and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Part 2
ended by a Jaminet's comment

His opinion has changed it seems. However, I wonder what he considers "large" doses. From what I understand, up to a 1 mg is safe, and 200 mcg of selenium is safe. His anecdotal experience also seems to conflict with the studies.

 

[Gondwanaland]

@drob31 I think he meant far above that...

 

[Sherpa]

Here is a great video from Dr. Brownstein about subclinical thyroid disorders:

https://w3.brownsteinhealth.com/Health/DRB/LP/Thyroid-Disorder-Video?PROMO_CODE=C9F7-1

It tries to sell a newsletter - but You don't have to buy anything! Just watch it

He explains why many cases of chronic fatigue can be a weird kind of low thyroid that doesn't show up on blood tests.

 

[whodathunkit]

So I just got my labs back from my latest round of blood work. I should say that while I love iodine and have been pretty steady with it for about five years now, I have tended to get lax with it sometimes. In the last few months I've been stricter with it, dosing it mostly topically via my scalp.

TSH is now 0.67, down from 0.85 in May. I've been stricter with iodine application for that long. I actually thought my TSH in May was lower than that, but turns out not, after re-checking that set of labs.

RT3 is 17.3 ng/dl (higher than I want) and FT3 is 2.8 pg/ml (lower than I want) but still in the "normal" range. Both of these less-than-optimal values could be due to iron problems I have, as well as recent boost in exercise and also weight loss/alternate day/intermittent fasting. So many pieces of the puzzle are coming together now...I never realized all these problems I have are so tightly connected. The discovery process with recovering health is like peeling an infinity onion. I wish my cognition would come back so I could really make sense of it all.

Anyway, I'm not going to sweat the less than optimal values until I get my weight down to where I want it, and normalize some other things like chronic hormone problems and ferritin/iron levels.

FT4 looks pretty good at 1.19 ng/dl.

I don't remember exactly what my values were before I started taking iodine but know they were much, much worse than this.

In case that's helpful or interesting to anyone else.

 

[pogoman]

I've been following this thread since it started, I had taken kelp/iodine supplements before because of low T4 and hypothyroidism symptoms but never felt benefits.
So doing some research they talk about doing the iodine skin test to see how fast it absorbs.
Sounds quacky but iodine tincture is cheap so a couple of weeks ago I bought some and tried it.
Iodine tint disappeared after a couple of hours so I am hmmmmm.

So I paint some on my chest every day and night for a week and I notice I am feeling more energy and less morning pain.
I bought some kelp/iodine supplement last weekend and switched to that.
I slowly start backsliding over the following days and feeling like crap by Wednesday, pain and not sleeping well.
So Thursday start back on the iodine painting and a big difference.
Slept great that night, next day (yesterday) I toiled in 100' F weather at work and had enough energy to work on one of my cars for a couple of hours when I got home.
Muscles started getting tight and stiff but not as much and not the disabling pain that usually accompanies it.
Slept pretty good last night too, less than 8 hrs but feel refreshed.

Cannot find much on iodine malabsorption except in regards to goiters which I do not have, iodine absorption thru the skin is roughly 12% so its not alot getting thru but yet has an effect. Hmmmmmmmm

 

[burgeo10]

@Sherpa I tried iodine last week. Taking one capsule of kelp daily which apparently supplies 400mcg (could be the wrong units). On the second day I got this really wired feeling and haven't been the same since. Energy is way down. I have a feeling that the iodine overstimulated my adrenals as well, or maybe I don't need it at all. my doctor put me on it because i tested low in a spot urine iodine sample, but I read that there's little evidence that this is accurate. Anyway since the kelp I have had heat flashes, and sometimes night sweats, and terrible energy, which could be down to adrenals but not sure? Im still supplementing twice daily with DSF formula, 200mg pantothenic acid, 2grams Vit C and a few others. Ive tested twice low for ceruloplasmin so looking into that as Im really quite lost atm