Brought to you by Mary Shomon Your Thyroid Guide
Low-Iodine Diet: Yes or No?
March, 2003 -- For years, there has been a debate over whether or not thyroid cancer patients should follow a low-iodine diet as a way to help make radioiodine (RAI) treatment more effective at targeting any remnant thyroid tissue.
Dutch researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of two groups of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer who had total thyroidectomy followed by routine RAI. One group followed a standard diet and the other group followed a low-iodine diet. In the low-iodine diet group, the 24-h urinary iodide excretion was decreased to 26.6 micro g compared with 158.8 micro g in controls, and radioiodide uptake in thyroid remnants was increased by 65%). Overall, the researchers concluded that a low-iodine diet improved the effectiveness of the treatment.
Find out more about the low-iodine diet here:
Source: “Effects of low-iodide diet on postsurgical radioiodide ablation therapy in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma,” Clin Endocrinol 2003 Apr;58(4):428-35
