If You're On a Low-Iodine Diet, Check Your Supplements
Sunday January 18, 2009
U.S. News and World Report has an article, talking about the effect that supplements and their ingredients can have on your medical treatment. In this case, a thyroid cancer patient, on the low-iodine diet, kept having elevated iodine levels. It turned out that a selenium supplement he was taking also had kelp -- which is rich in iodine -- as an ingredient. It's definitely a worthwhile caution -- but take the rest of the pronouncements from endocrinologist Lewis Braverman, MD with a "grain of salt." Dr. Braverman, like many traditional endocrinologists, is not especially knowledgeable about or friendly towards supplements, at one point even derisively referring to iodine supplementation as "voodoo medicine." There's no question that someone on the low-iodine diet should absolutely avoid supplements that contain iodine, or ingredients like kelp or bladderwrack that are high in iodine. But beyond suggesting that patients check the ingredients in their supplements, in my opinion, Dr. Braverman should stick to his own area and leave advice about nutritional medicine to the experts...
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Comments
I have always had a problem understanding if I should take thyroid supplements that have iodine or iodine containing ingredients. I am hypothyroid.
Can iodine make me worse?
Same here! I’m hypothyroid and I’d like to know if I should avoid kelp or embrace it.
How much kelp is safe to take? I have low thyroid. I was taking 750 Mg (?) mlg (?) not sure which and it seemed to cause thyroid storm. Which tells me it works but I stopped it because thyroid storm is nooooo fun. What is a safe amount?
Are Iodine supplements safe to take if a person has thyroid problems? And should we take them if we do to help our Dx.?
You might check out this website and get the book: Iodine why you need it.
http://www.drbrownstein.com/
I have Hashimoto’s and my Endocronologist said there is nothing he can prescribe for it. I now am being treated by a Nurse Practitioner who titrated me up to 50 mg of Iodoral/day and I feel better.
Thank You Mike, I just ordered the book.
Doses of 10 mg iodine (66 times the minimum daily requirement (150 mcg)) are used against cancer, to detoxify against brome and fluoride and is apparently needed to fulfill the body needs.
Minimum daily requirement is
just enough for the thyroid gland which monopolises it.
Any surplus would simply go to other much needed uses in the body.
Overactive Thyroid would not be caused by the extra iodine.
If anything, less infections are a benefit of sufficient iodine levels.
http://www.iodine4health.com/body/breast/derry_breast.htm
As a hypo person I look forward to an iodine assist on handling wieght gain. I was diagnosed 9 years ago and have yet to find an endrochronoligist that can provide a consistent course of action. I have only been following a T4 synthroid as a treatment, that’s why I have been following about.com. Looking for more….thanks
Hi ale, you don’t say where you live but any Endo in Ireland who cam out with such a grossly ignoreant statment would find himself short of patients – at the very best!
Hashimoto’s – which is a form of hypothyroisim is certainly treatable – with T4 or and combination of T4 and T3 and treatment in the early stages can be hihly beenficial and has been found to pevent the patient goign on to develop full blown hypo. I can’t advise on Ildoral and nurses (Nurse practitioners) are not legally permitted to prscribe anything.
Some of these comments on iodine are dangerous. Especially for those with Hashimoto’s. Even small amounts of iodine can trigger hyperthyroidism and awful symptoms, as I and many others can attest to, some of us ending up in the ER. Dr. Brownstein’s cinical methods and experience is sloppy and I’ve talked with some of his patients who reacted badly to the iodine, yet Brownstein did not have good, stringent follow-up protocols or controlled methods. Use caution with iodine, and more is NOT better for many. Yet to read his book you would think hardly anyone had adverse reactions. Simply untrue.
I was on Synthroid for 10 years. I never did feel well from it and I continue to gain weight. What was worse is that I could not lose weight no matter how hard I tried. My doctor thought Armour was off the market. Armour put me in a very bad mood all the time. I then found a doctor who let me try Cytomel. Well I have been taking it ever since. My weight is slowly coming down and I feel more normal on Cytomel than I ever did on Synthroid.
I got really ill from the iodine in vitamin pills, and other hashimotos patients have posted about similar experiences too. Only a few have reported getting better with some iodine. Iodine is proven to even cause temporary hypothyroidism because it can block thyroid hormones in large doses. It has been used like that in hyperthyroidism (for a short time before surgery to shrink the thyroid gland)(just to illustrate that it can be very potent)
Hello, doctors! Taking iodine is voodoo medicine? I guess they are very misinformed. How sad that they don’t know the average American is consuming/being exposed to enough bromide to displace iodine in the body, thus causing thyroid, breast and prostate issues. Bromide is even in our flour and bread!
Why, I wonder, did I have a goiter since childhood and NO doctor ever recommended that I have an iodine supplement? Now I have no thyroid thanks to doctors like this.
Actually, voodoo medicine is where doctors take out the thyroid gland and then tell us that one tiny pill will make it okay. It doesn’t work that way, but they keep saying it!
Check out http://www.naturalthyroidchoices.com for more info on iodine and thyroid health.
Have Hashimoto’s and 0 to little adrenal function. Feel sick and exhausted most of the time; so I stay in bed and only go out to the docs or if I absolutely have to. I didn’t take my Iodine/Potassium Supplement and couldn’t even move – just to test your theory – I couldn’t take it anymore, and I took a 1/2 and w/i minutes I was able to function! Co-incidence? I think not! It DEFINATELY WORKS FOR ME – guess it depends what kind and how much and what else you’re taking..