WHY IODINE DESERVES OUR RESPECT
By Bruce Cohen
Sometimes you stumble onto something extraordinary, fascinating, mind-opening, and you wonder: how come I never knew about this before? Why did no-one tell me? How could I have been so ignorant …
It’s a feeling I’ve had several times in my life and the most recent manifestation of it arrived unexpectedly on my doorstep: Iodine.
Yes Iodine, that oh-so common, yet oh-so mysterious trace element once the cornerstone of effective natural medicine that has been pushed aside by the medical and pharma establishment. Astonishing when you consider that Iodine is an effective and safe natural antibiotic, a powerful anti-cancer (especially breast and prostate) agent, and a potent heavy metal detox tool. There is growing evidence that Iodine deficiency is now commonplace and is a key link to of a number of chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity.
But the medical establishment would have us believe that we should never supplement with Iodine, that it is downright dangerous. Despite this “iodophobia”, there is a growing and compelling body of evidence to the contrary and a small group of doctors is now actively promoting the use of Iodine at therapeutic dosages way above the RDAs.
Dr Guy Abraham, a US specialist in the use of Iodine, puts it bluntly: “Of all the elements known so far to be essential for health, Iodine is the most misunderstood and the most feared. Yet, it is by far the safest of all the trace elements known to be essential for human health. It is the only trace element that can be ingested safely in amounts up to 100,000 times the RDA.”
The more I read about the benefits of Iodine, the more convinced I became that I should get hold of some. Not any old Iodine. It has to be Lugol’s Solution, an inorganic form of pharmaceutical grade Iodine that the body can easily absorb and is the only form in which it should be taken. It was first developed by the French physician, Jean Lugol, in 1829 and consists of 10 parts potassium iodide (KI) to 5 parts Iodine to 85 parts of (distilled) water. (Lugol’s can’t be patented; which might explain why it has been downplayed, dismissed by the medical/pharma establishment).
I made a lot of calls, checked with many customers, but there just wasn’t any to be found. Lugol’s, once a mainstay of the medical profession, had simply vanished.
So I decided to make some. With my collaborator Gregory Sondak, who has deep knowledge of natural medicines and the benefits of Iodine, we approached a local pharmaceutical company to make us a batch of high-grade Lugol’s. We now have it and it’s available through Absolute Organix.
NOTE: Some people may be allergic to Iodine and use of it should proceed carefully, slowly. Do the research and consult with a health care professional, especially if you are pregnant, nursing or under medical care.
Iodine Fulfilment Therapy
This article by Dr Bruce West first appeared in the December 2005 issue of the Health Alert newsletter (www.healthalert.com). See also the links at the end of the article.
From 1900 to the 1960s almost every single U.S. physician used Lugol (Iodine) supplements in his or her practice for both hypo- and hyperthyroid, as well as many, many other conditions-all with excellent results. In fact, Iodine was considered a panacea for all human ills. Today a phobia – generated by medical misinformation against Iodine therapy – has caused physicians to avoid this powerful treatment like the plague.
By avoiding Iodine therapy, you could be missing out on the very link that could get you well. Today we know that total body Iodine fulfilments or sufficiency can finally resolve tough, stubborn problems that resist all other treatments. Called orthoiodosupplementation, this treatment employs elemental Iodine supplements until the thyroid gland and all other Iodine-sensitive sites in the body have reached Iodine sufficiency.
The most commonly difficult problems for which this therapy has been called a panacea are fibrocystic breasts, polycystic ovary syndrome, hypo- and hyperthyroid (with or without goiter), brain fog, constipation, obesity, diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), and even some heart problems-most notably irreversible arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation.
Why Iodine is Important
Iodine is detected in every organ and tissue in the body. It is found in high levels in the thyroid gland, liver, lung, heart, and adrenal glands. It is found in the highest concentrations in fat and muscle tissue. It is depleted out of the thyroid gland and other tissues when thyroid hormone medications are prescribed. Iodine has been considered so important that up until 20 years ago, it had been routinely added to bread as a supplement. Now because of politics and fear of Iodine, the thyroid-toxin bromine has taken its place as a bread supplement. And in the past 20 years there has been an increased prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, as well as more thyroid and breast cancers.
According to Guy E. Abraham, MD, perhaps the world’s most knowledgeable expert on Iodine and the thyroid, “Medical iodophobia has reached pandemic proportions. It is highly contagious and has wreaked havoc on the practice of medicine and on the U.S. population. More misery and death in the U.S. may have resulted from [medicine’s unwarranted fear of Iodine] than from both World Wars combined.”
That is quite a statement from a former professor of Endocrinology and a man who pioneered ways to assay Iodine and minute quantities of hormones in the body. This man in the past 35 years has received more biochemistry, diagnostics, clinical chemistry, and hormone and Iodine research awards than anyone I know of. And he has studied Iodine therapy in high doses in over 4,000 people-publishing his findings in a document titled “The Iodine Project.” These findings once and for all dispelled the medical myth and fear of Iodine therapy.
Whole Body Iodine Sufficiency
Thyroidologists like Dr. Abraham have learned of the tremendous benefits of what they call whole body Iodine sufficiency-when the body is saturated with sufficient Iodine to supply all the tissues. Along the way, they have also discovered some amazing things about current thyroid treatment, thyroid drugs, and Iodine. The very first thing discovered is that Iodine is the treatment of choice for hypo- and hyperthyroid problems-with or without goiter.
Doctors could get as high as a 90% cure rate with hyperthyroid (overactive thyroid) by using what would be considered high doses of Iodine daily.
In addition to thyroid therapy, all thyroid patients should be on Iodine therapy, with the goal to reach a whole body Iodine sufficiency. When this state is reached, the following results have been observed:
. Goiter is reduced or eliminated.
. Stress on the pituitary gland is eliminated.
. Increased excretion of thyroid poisons and heavy metals occurs via the kidneys.
. The liver’s detoxification mechanisms are enhanced.
. Obesity is more easily overcome-in fact, Iodine therapy may be a critical and unknown factor in obesity.
. Diabetes and high blood pressure are more easily controlled.
. Breast tissue normalizes with decreased occurrences of fibrocystic breast disease.
. Menopausal symptoms are improved.
. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome can be cured.
. Brain function is better, with less brain fog.
. Heart function is better, with reduced arrhythmia problems.
. And cancer rates, especially of the thyroid and breast, are reduced.
Doctors have found that patients who achieved Iodine sufficiency were often able to resolve diabetes problems without insulin. They could normalize blood pressure without medication. Goiters were resolved. And those taking thyroid hormone medication could greatly reduce or completely eliminate these drugs.
We are just beginning to discover the amazing curative powers of Iodine. While it may not be the panacea that old-timers have claimed, it is indeed critical. It is often the missing factor in “incurable” conditions like obesity, diabetes, breast disease, polycystic ovaries, thyroiditis, hypothyroid, autoimmune thyroid problems, and more.
LINKS
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-QCZAmXHqg
VIDEO: Part I: Dr Joseph Mercola interviews iodine expert and author Dr David Brownstein.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUnxqpsdoJQ&feature=relmfu
VIDEO: Part 2: Dr Joseph Mercola interviews iodine expert and author Dr David Brownstein.
* The Safe and Effective Implementation of Iodine by Dr Guy Abraham
I received this by email from Dr A Kruger, Medical Director of Hoogland Hydro:
I am shocked. Just having read this piece of psudoscience upon returning from overseas, I wonder if any of you are aware of the damage that supraphysiological levels of iodine does to inter alia the thyroid gland. I have had to treat severe hypothyroidisms from people just for eating more seaweed than recommended due to the suppressive biofeedback that iodine has on the thyroid via the hypothalamus-pituitary axis.
Please desist from destroying people’s health this way. You might face criminal charges if you don’t.
Dr Kruger’s response is interesting. He might want to rethink his position.
Like you Bruce, I am absolutely convinced of iodine’s HUGE part to play in re establishing our good health. Even WHO believes 30% of the world’s population are overtly iodine deficient (but do little to alleviate this well known problem), and that dreadfully high figure does not take into account that middle “grey area” portion of people who require iodine but have no obvious signs and symptoms. Dr David Brownstein in the US has tested 5,000 people and found 96% of them to be iodine deficient, based upon an iodine uptake test. Go to https://www.drbrownstein.com/homePage.php
It all fits. This deficiency MUST BE one of the missing links in our optimising the health of our patients.
The medical professions poor opinion and completely misplaced fear of this ESSENTIAL supplement is based upon a single 1948 study by Wolff and Chaikoff who reported that organic binding of iodine in the rat thyroid in vivo was blocked when iodide plasma levels reached some “critical high threshold”, a phenomenon that became known as the acute Wolff-Chaikoff effect. (Wolff J, Chaikoff IL. Plasma inorganic iodide as a homeostatic regulator of thyroid function. J Biol Chem 174:555–564. 1948.)
The bad news is that EVERYONE remembered this one, but it seems (one of medicines great mysteries!) absolutely NO ONE read the follow up trial result by the same two people in 1949: the maximum duration of the inhibitory effect that iodine had on the thyroid was 50 hours. Within 2 days, an escape or adaptation occurs, so that normal hormone biosynthesis resumes. (Wolff J, Chaikoff IL, Goldberg RC, Meier JC. The temporary nature of the inhibitory action of excess iodide on organic iodide synthesis in the normal thyroid. Endocrinology 45:504. 1949.)
Iodine is categorically NOT responsible for producing hypothyroidism. Dr Kruger’s misinterpretation of climbing TSH levels is again part of the physiological response to much needed iodine supplementation, which is quite well explained in Dr Brownstein’s book “Iodine – why you need it”.
Iodine is absolutely NOT toxic to the very gland that uses it to make its primary hormones. Iodine makes up >50% of the weight of the T4 molecule. Would nature and the result of our evolution make the uptake of the main constituent of its hormone toxic to the gand that makes this hormone. I think not!
And while I am at it – is it possible that we could actually be allergic to iodine if it is essential for the synthesis of one of the most fundamentally important hormones in our bodies? Now THAT also does not fit. Perhaps we are allergic to one of the other constituents our learned friend the pharmacists have incorporated into iodine formulations? Like us being allergic to procaine penicillin, and testing negative for allergies to penicillin…
More often than we realise, everything is not what it seems.
25th October 2010.
Dr J. Pridgeon has recently put my husband and myself onto Iodine. have been taking 10 drops (Lugols Iodine) daily, I feel so much better more energy, my husband has not noted any difference yet.
What do you think of Dr. A. krugers comments?
My child is 13 years old and have a massive overacting tyriod. They told me after several scans and sonars that This Iodine treatment can not be given to her as she is to young as it is risky as this can lead to her not having children one day but will have to operate and remove the complete tyroid or maybe half depending on fliccker scan results. Is this the right decision? Please please help?
In general, the orthodox medical fraternity is unlikely to support iodine therapy – especially for overactive thyroid – and in the case of your child this approach could be 100% correct. Suggest you dig deeper … a good starting point is Dr David Brownstein – http://www.drbrownstein.com/