Confused On Iodine?

Gametime

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What is the take on iodine? I know the peat diet can have some iodine with the milk and cheeses and some other sources but Do we avoid extra sources of iodine maybe from like a low fat fish like cod/white fish for example which contains a fair amount of iodine maybe now and again for the trace minerals? Or things like potatoes skins contain iodine, would you peel and avoid?

What is rays take on Iodine or the general iodine of iodine.. avoid the extra sources when possible or not a problem? I know dairy can contain a lot if your drinking/eating a lot etc?

Thanks!
 

InChristAlone

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I think it is so variable how much iodine is in food as it is directly related to what is supplied. Now if you eat seafood regularly then you can probably guarantee you are getting enough.
 

Ella

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I ate plenty of seafood and thought I was getting adequate iodine. However, I eliminated bread and other sources of potassium iodide like salt for many years now. I only use seasalt. My results with urinary iodine tests looked good, so I felt smug that my levels were OK. However, as I have been searching for a way to test intracellular minerals and heavy metals, the iodine results shocked me. Intracellularly, my iodine level were really low. I have tested this 2 years in a row. I get access to the equipment and can do the tests for free to evaluate the results. First year it happened I was not convinced the results were valid as the promoters of the equipment would not reveal how the equipment is calibrated. This is a no no in my world because how do you know the results are valid. However, this time around I was more convinced as I tweaked my meals to include more iodine. Other minerals were easier to manipulate and faster to respond but iodine was the slowest to bring about a change. That was an eye opener for me.

My daughter on the other hand who follows a similar eating pattern to me was completely, iodine replete. I think the fact that I lost a lot of weight may have been responsible for the low iodine. Iodine reacts with unsaturated fatty acids and it makes sense that iodine is consumed at a faster rate when the system is flooded with free unsaturated fatty acids. However, in the process the reaction produces deleterious molecules. Peat says that the safest way to supplement iodine is via thyroid hormone replacement and the more healthier one is the less iodine is required.
 

Steve123

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I ate plenty of seafood and thought I was getting adequate iodine. However, I eliminated bread and other sources of potassium iodide like salt for many years now. I only use seasalt. My results with urinary iodine tests looked good, so I felt smug that my levels were OK. However, as I have been searching for a way to test intracellular minerals and heavy metals, the iodine results shocked me. Intracellularly, my iodine level were really low. I have tested this 2 years in a row. I get access to the equipment and can do the tests for free to evaluate the results. First year it happened I was not convinced the results were valid as the promoters of the equipment would not reveal how the equipment is calibrated. This is a no no in my world because how do you know the results are valid. However, this time around I was more convinced as I tweaked my meals to include more iodine. Other minerals were easier to manipulate and faster to respond but iodine was the slowest to bring about a change. That was an eye opener for me.

My daughter on the other hand who follows a similar eating pattern to me was completely, iodine replete. I think the fact that I lost a lot of weight may have been responsible for the low iodine. Iodine reacts with unsaturated fatty acids and it makes sense that iodine is consumed at a faster rate when the system is flooded with free unsaturated fatty acids. However, in the process the reaction produces deleterious molecules. Peat says that the safest way to supplement iodine is via thyroid hormone replacement and the more healthier one is the less iodine is required.
So peats idea is to get as much iodine from diet as we can meaning doing things like eating the seafood (cod etc) and leaving the peel on potatoes (peel contains iodine) aswell the milk and cheese that have iodine etc? Thanks ! :)
 

Elie

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From Peat i understand that up to 500mcg per day is safe. Milk and cod are good foid sources. Sea weed is the richest source.
Iodine not only needed to make t4 it also plays a role in the structural integrity of reproductive organs.
 

Frankdee20

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I love seaweed salad at those sushi joints.
 

Steve123

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Just thinking though, The Upper Limit set for iodine is around 1000mcg.. this amount can easily be surpassed if the apparent content of iodine in dairy is true.. Also if the diet includes sea foods, potatoes etc then surely 1000mcg is easy to pass.. Would it be an issue? is the Upper Limit something to take into consideration with iodine or no issue unless a kidney problem is present etc? Or should i just chill out for good about the tolerable upper limits set for certain vitamins/minerals??
 

Frankdee20

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I don't stress over total intake from food sources, as these typically have other nutrients that work in tandem, or antagonism. Like Mercury in fish can be somewhat attenuated by Selenium in those same fish. Just don't supplement iodine, or if you easily believe you're obtaining 1,000 mag from food, drop the iodized salt for regular.
 

AJA

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Too much Iodine from diet and Fish Oil was leading to extreme thirst and seemed to rev up the thyroid. After stopping the Fish Oil it stopped. Also, I cut back on selenium supplements and just go for a Brazil Nut every other day or so. Back in balance as a result of doing that for a month now.
 

Frankdee20

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Too much Iodine from diet and Fish Oil was leading to extreme thirst and seemed to rev up the thyroid. After stopping the Fish Oil it stopped. Also, I cut back on selenium supplements and just go for a Brazil Nut every other day or so. Back in balance as a result of doing that for a month now.

I’m not convinced Iodine should be worrisome. When balanced with Zinc, Selenium, there’s no way you’re overdosing from food. The government iodized the salt because it’s not that easy to OD. You must eat lots of fish then
 

AJA

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I do eat fish and turkey, etc. I think some can handle the Iodine better than others. Also, Fish Oil supplements can differ. I live in a high selenium area. Selenium can depend on where you live in terms of what is in the soil.
 
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From Peat i understand that up to 500mcg per day is safe. Milk and cod are good foid sources. Sea weed is the richest source.
Iodine not only needed to make t4 it also plays a role in the structural integrity of reproductive organs.

Peat has said over 150mcg per day can lead to thyroid problems.

Dr. Peat: “A dosage of 150 mcg (micrograms, not milligrams, e.g. ug not mg) is a safe amount of iodine. My current newsletter has some references describing the effect of even moderate iodine excess (even below a milligram per day) on the thyroid. An iodine deficiency can cause hypothyroidism (rare now), but so can an excess. Most goiters now are from estrogen-like effects, but they used to be from iodine deficiency. Chronic excess iodine tends to cause thyroiditis, regardless of the gland's size.
The amounts used by Abraham and Flechas are much larger than this – very toxic doses, enough to cause severe thyroid problems. “

Ray Peat On Iodine
 

Mr_Jeff

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Hi Ella, you need other minerals too, such as selenium.
Example, this is my reply to another member ABC123.

Quote: Hashimoto's Thyroiditis is a mineral deficiency - mainly Selenium and Iodine.
Selenium is essential for converting T4 to T3.
Now, Boron, Silica (Horsetail), Magnesium and a full spectrum Vitamin E will boost the Thyroid's recovery.

Abstaining from all forms of Fluoride, Chlorine and Bromides is a MUST. These are Halogens above Iodine in the Periodical Table of Elements. They remove all traces of Iodine from the cells. Iodine is seriously lacking in the modern diet owing to processed food and/or poor soils.

END of quote.

What little Iodine you may have Ella, is removed by Fluoride, Chlorine and Bromides. The upper Halides (column 17) in the Periodic Table of Elements take preference to the lower elements when it comes to cell receptors. The smaller number element pushes out the larger number. Get a copy of the table and see the connections and logic, it will come to you like the penny dropped.

Sources of Iodine depletion:
Fluorides - In Tap water and foods cooked with tap water. Toothpaste, medications - eg Antidepressants.
Chlorine - Tap water and some swimming pools. Plastics eg. PVC.
Bromides - Baked goods such as breads, biscuits and cakes - usually commercial store-bought items.

Various seaweeds and Himalayan salt can help regarding iodine.
Also look up Walter Last who said "The main causes of suppressed thyroid functions are Candida, mercury and fluoride."
Note: Some studies indicate that high sugar consumption feeds Candida infections. It's a follow-on chain of events.

Hope this helps,
Cheers, Mr_Jeff.
 

Glassy

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Daily supplementation with Lugols seems to increase TSH levels temporarily (up to 6 months apparently) but iodine advocates seem to think this is the body’s way of increasing the transport of iodine into cells (since you now have an abundance of it). They say it’s not indicative of hypothyroidism unless your T3 & T4 Level’s are also low. Magnesium, B2, B3, vitamin C and selenium are also recommended if you don’t benefit for the iodine supplementation. For these guys, they say to maintain iodine requirements you need around 13mg per day and i’ve seen recommendations of up to 50-75mg per day as an initial load dose (seems a bit excessive to me).

The reason for the increased need for iodine is put on the use of other halides in chemicals (particularly the use of fluoride, chlorine and bromide), but I suspect that they haven’t considered the impact of PUFAs. Im surprised Peat is so fearful of iodine because like aspirin it has a long history of safe use (possibly longer than asprin) and is so closely related to thyroid function. I had forgotten that T4 has 4 iodine atoms and T3 has 3. I’m thinking it’s time for me to buy some more lugols.
 

burtlancast

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Peat has said over 150mcg per day can lead to thyroid problems.

Dr. Peat: “A dosage of 150 mcg (micrograms, not milligrams, e.g. ug not mg) is a safe amount of iodine. My current newsletter has some references describing the effect of even moderate iodine excess (even below a milligram per day) on the thyroid. An iodine deficiency can cause hypothyroidism (rare now), but so can an excess. Most goiters now are from estrogen-like effects, but they used to be from iodine deficiency. Chronic excess iodine tends to cause thyroiditis, regardless of the gland's size.
The amounts used by Abraham and Flechas are much larger than this – very toxic doses, enough to cause severe thyroid problems. “

Ray Peat On Iodine

Here's two recent epidemiological studies on the incidence of thyroid cancers and auto-immune thyroiditis in Japanese, compared to other countries.

Japanese are the least susceptible to these diseases, even though they consume daily 50-100 times the recommended iodine intake.

Peat's opinion is contrary to facts.

Iodine is a huge threat to the medical complex since it can control cancers of the thyroid, breast, uterus, ovaries, prostate, and their precursor stages (BPH in men and cysts in females).

Iodine can as well counter the poisoning effects of the goitrogens fluoride, bromide, chloride, and thus will restore good thyroid function and prevent the plethora of pathologies associates with hypothyroidism.

Iodine helps the brain and sleep, and thus counters sales of anti depressants and sleeping pills.

Iodine supercharges the immune system and helps the body fight a plethora of infections, threatening the sales of antibiotics, antifungals, etc...

It can help the body excrete heavy metals like lead, mercury and arsenic.

Ray Peat has an unscientific opinion about iodine which is very dommageable to his public and needs to be exposed, something i will post on these forums in the near future.
 

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Here's two recent epidemiological studies on the incidence of thyroid cancers and auto-immune thyroiditis in Japanese, compared to other countries.

Japanese are the least susceptible to these diseases, even though they consume daily 50-100 times the recommended iodine intake.

Peat's opinion is contrary to facts.

Iodine is a huge threat to the medical complex since it can control cancers of the thyroid, breast, uterus, ovaries, prostate, and their precursor stages (BPH in men and cysts in females).

Iodine can as well counter the poisoning effects of the goitrogens fluoride, bromide, chloride, and thus will restore good thyroid function and prevent the plethora of pathologies associates with hypothyroidism.

Iodine helps the brain and sleep, and thus counters sales of anti depressants and sleeping pills.

Iodine supercharges the immune system and helps the body fight a plethora of infections, threatening the sales of antibiotics, antifungals, etc...

It can help the body excrete heavy metals like lead, mercury and arsenic.

Ray Peat has an unscientific opinion about iodine which is very dommageable to his public and needs to be exposed, something i will post on these forums in the near future.

There is a lot of science backing up Peat. I don’t believe that the Japanese really consume this much iodine. But maybe they do.

Association between dietary iodine intake and prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism in the coastal regions of Japan. - PubMed - NCBI
The prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in relation to iodine intake was studied in adults (n = 1061) in five coastal areas of Japan that produce iodine-rich seaweed (kelp). The prevalence of hyperthyroidism (TSH < 0.15 mU/L) was similar in these areas, whereas that of hypothyroidism (TSH > 5.0 mU/L) varied from 0-9.7%. The relative frequency of above normal iodide concentration in the morning urine (> or = 75 mumol/L) [high urinary iodide (UI)] varied from 3.7%-30.3%. Together with previously reported results of a noncoastal city, the frequency of high UI correlated significantly with that of hypothyroidism with negative thyroid autoantibody (r = 0.829, n = 6, P < 0.05) but not with positive thyroid autoantibody (r = 0.278, NS) or with that of hyperthyroidism (r = 0.038, NS). Hypothyroidism was more prevalent in thyroid autoantibody-negative subjects with high UI (group II, 12.1%) than with normal UI (group I, 2.3%) (P < 0.001). The TSH [21.9(6.5-73.7)mU/L] (mean +/- SD) and thyroglobulin [288 (182-456) micrograms/L] levels in group II were significantly higher than the respective levels in group I [9.6(3.7-25.3)mU/L and 123 (38-399) micrograms/L] (P < 0.05). Free T4 of group II (9.9 +/- 3.9 pmol/L) was significantly lower than in group I (14.2 +/- 3.9 pmol/L) (P < 0.05). These results indicate that 1) the prevalence of hypothyroidism in iodine sufficient areas may be associated with the amount of iodine ingested; 2) hypothyroidism is more prevalent and marked in subjects consuming further excessive amounts of iodine; and 3) excessive intake of iodine should be considered an etiology of hypothyroidism in addition to chronic thyroiditis in these areas.

NEJM - Error

Iodine is an essential component of thyroid hormones; either low or high intake may lead to thyroid disease. We observed an increase in the prevalence of overt hypothyroidism, subclinical hypothyroidism, and autoimmune thyroiditis with increasing iodine intake in China in cohorts from three regions with different levels of iodine intake: mildly deficient (median urinary iodine excretion, 84 μg per liter), more than adequate (median, 243 μg per liter), and excessive (median, 651 μg per liter). Participants enrolled in a baseline study in 1999, and during the five-year follow-up through 2004, we examined the effect of regional differences in iodine intake on the incidence of thyroid disease.

METHODS
Of the 3761 unselected subjects who were enrolled at baseline, 3018 (80.2 percent) participated in this follow-up study. Levels of thyroid hormones and thyroid autoantibodies in serum, and iodine in urine, were measured and B-mode ultrasonography of the thyroid was performed at baseline and follow-up.

RESULTS
Among subjects with mildly deficient iodine intake, those with more than adequate intake, and those with excessive intake, the cumulative incidence of overt hypothyroidism was 0.2 percent, 0.5 percent, and 0.3 percent, respectively; that of subclinical hypothyroidism, 0.2 percent, 2.6 percent, and 2.9 percent, respectively; and that of autoimmune thyroiditis, 0.2 percent, 1.0 percent, and 1.3 percent, respectively. Among subjects with euthyroidism and antithyroid antibodies at baseline, the five-year incidence of elevated serum thyrotropin levels was greater among those with more than adequate or excessive iodine intake than among those with mildly deficient iodine intake. A baseline serum thyrotropin level of 1.0 to 1.9 mIU per liter was associated with the lowest subsequent incidence of abnormal thyroid function.

CONCLUSIONS
More than adequate or excessive iodine intake may lead to hypothyroidism and autoimmune thyroiditis.

https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/83/3/765/2865144
Thyroid abnormalities are common in all populations, but it is difficult to compare results of epidemiological studies, because different methods have been used for evaluation. We studied the importance of the population iodine intake level for the prevalence rate of various thyroid abnormalities in elderly subjects.

Random samples of elderly subjects (68 yr) were selected from the central person registers in Jutland, Denmark, with low (n = 423) and, in Iceland, with longstanding relatively high (n = 100) iodine intake.

Females from Jutland had a high prevalence of goiter or previous goiter surgery (12.2%), compared with males from Jutland (3.2%) and females (1.9%) and males (2.2%) from Iceland. Abnormal thyroid function was very common in both areas, with serum TSH outside the reference range in 13.5% of subjects from Jutland and 19% of those from Iceland. In Jutland, it was mainly thyroid hyperfunction (9.7% had low, 3.8% had high serum TSH), whereas in Iceland, it was impaired thyroid function (1% had low, 18% had high serum TSH). All subjects with serum TSH more than 10 mU/L had autoantibodies in serum, but antibodies were, in general, more common in Jutland than in Iceland.

Thus, thyroid abnormalities in populations with low iodine intake and those with high iodine intake develop in opposite directions: goiter and thyroid hyperfunction when iodine intake is relatively low, and impaired thyroid function when iodine intake is relatively high. Probably, mild iodine deficiency partly protects against autoimmune thyroid disease. Thyroid autoantibodies may be markers of an autoimmune process in the thyroid or secondary to the development of goiter.
 

Glassy

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I guess the devil is in the dose. I’m starting to wonder if doses greater than 1mg is wise and if saturating your body with iodine is any better than being deficient in it.
 

Glassy

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Magnesium and sodium chloride carry any harmful effects of chlorine?

The ionic form of chlorine as found in your electrolytes and your stomach acid are needed (ie not harmful except in excess). Chlorine in its elemental form is a toxic gas which is why it’s used to disinfect water. Hypochlorite (eg bleach) is also used as a disinfectant and breaks down into elemental chlorine.

Eat salt, don’t drink bleach.
 

Cirion

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