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AAPI’S NUTRITION GUIDE TO OPTIMAL HEALTH: USING PRINCIPLES OF FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE AND NUTRITIONAL GENOMICS Unfortunately, this is the prevailing opinion of most endocrinologists and mainstream doctors about iodine. The doctor has not seen it in eight years because he has not tested for it. And, of course, he mentions the salt myth. No wonder iodine is the most misunderstood nutrient. Let’s see why people are so confused about iodine. History of Iodine Iodine was found to treat goiter (swelling of the thyroid) by Coindet (1774-1834). This was the first time a single item (iodine) was used to treat a specific illness (goiter). This is known as the birth of Western medicine as doctors are still taught today to make a diagnosis and provide the one item--in most cases a pharmaceutical drug-- that can treat the illness. In the early 1900’s, there was a high prevalence of goiter in the Great Lakes area of the United States. The soil in this area is known to be very deficient of iodine. Nearly 40% of school-aged children had goiter at this time.i David Marine was a physician from Ohio who had been doing research on animals and humans and their problems with iodine deficiency. In fact, Dr. Marine had done research with goitrous (swelling of the thyroid) dogs and found that when he added iodine to their feed, he had seen them change from ‚wizened and listless‛ to ‚active and robust‛.ii iii iv He did further research on iodine deficiency and thyroid problems in fish, sheep and other farm animals. He found that iodine could rectify thyroid problems and goiter in a wide variety of animals suffering from iodine deficiency. From the results in animals, Dr. Marine estimated the amount of iodine necessary to treat the goiter epidemic that was occurring in vast areas of the U.S. in the early 20th century. In Akron, Ohio, Dr. Marine conducted the first large-scale study on using iodine as a therapy to reduce goiter in people. Dr. Marine chose Akron due to the high rate of goiter that was occurring in school aged girls. In the early 1900’s, approximately 56% of school-aged girls had goiter in Akron.v There was a 600% increase in goiter in adolescent girls versus boys.vi Why would there 158 be such a large difference in girls versus boys? The first tissue to grow during puberty is breast tissue. Breast tissue contains the second largest concentration of iodine (next to the thyroid gland). Therefore, at puberty, as a girl begins to grow breast tissue her iodine requirements become larger as compared to a boy. Marine studied two groups of students: 1. A control group of 2305 students where no iodine was given . 2. A treatment group of 2190 students who were given 9mg/day of sodium iodide (averaged daily) for 2.5 years. This dose of iodine is nearly 100x the RDA for iodine. The results were stunning (see Figure 1). The control group (no iodine) showed a 22% increase of goiter. The treatment group had a significantly lowered 0.2% incidence of goiter.vii Dr. Marine reported these results and the U.S. quickly implemented the iodization of salt in the Great Lakes. The rest of the country adopted the policy of adding iodine to salt shortly thereafter. Today, the World Health Organization actively promotes the use of iodized salt to prevent goiter. 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 Treatment Group 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 The iodization of salt was hailed as the first public health miracle. However, I will show you that although the iodization of salt can prevent goiter in the vast majority of people, it does not provide 0 Subjects Goiter Control Group 2012 Subjects Goiter
AAPI’S NUTRITION GUIDE TO OPTIMAL HEALTH: USING PRINCIPLES OF FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE AND NUTRITIONAL GENOMICS enough iodine for normal thyroid function or provide enough iodine for the rest of the body’s needs. Myth 1: WE GET ENOUGH IODINE FROM SALT Iodine is added to table salt at 100ppm as potassium iodide, which amounts to 77μg iodide/gm of salt. The RDA for iodine is set at 150μg/day for adults in the U.S. and slightly more during pregnancy and lactation. Remember, the RDA was only set to prevent goiter (swelling of the thyroid) in the vast majority of people. The average American takes in 4-10gm/day of refined salt/day. If we do the math (77μg/gm x 4- 10gm/day=308-770μg/day) We can see that we are ingesting more than the RDA. So, isn’t myth 1 true? Don‘t we get enough iodine from salt? The research is crystal clear that we DON’T get enough iodine from salt. An interesting study completed in 1969 showed that only 10% of iodine in salt is bioavailable.viii ix Therefore, if we go back to our original calculations, we can now see that iodized salt provides somewhere between 30- 77μg/day—which is markedly below the RDA for iodine. Refined salt is a lifeless, devitalized product that is best avoided. Not only is iodized salt a poor source of iodine, we have been conditioned to avoid salt by the media and mainstream medicine. Presently, less than 50% of U.S. households use salt. What is the consequence of this? Iodine levels have fallen over 50% over the last 30 years according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.x You can see that this is a recipe for making a whole population of people iodine deficient. That is exactly what has happened in the United States. Myth 2: Iodine supplementation will cause/worsen thyroid disorders. If Myth 2 were correct, the declining iodine levels would be a good thing for preventing thyroid disease. However, this has not been the case. As iodine levels have been falling over the last 30 years, thyroid disorders, including hypothyroidism, Hashimoto’s disease, Graves’ disease and thyroid cancer have been increasing at near epidemic rates. 159 We would expect the opposite to occur—thyroid illnesses declining-- if iodine were the cause of these disorders. In fact, I find it impossible to treat any thyroid illness if there is an inadequate iodine level in the body. OTHER REASONS FOR IODINE DEFICIENCY The largest amounts of iodine occur in the oceans. Sea vegetables and ocean fish can contain larger amounts of iodine and are the foods that provide the most utilizable iodine for the body. Diets lacking in sea food can predispose to iodine deficiency. Also, diets high in refined bakery products, such as breads, pastas, and cereals can cause/worsen an iodine deficiency problem. WHAT HAPPENED TO BAKERY PRODUCTS? BROMINE I believe one of the reasons I am seeing such a huge percentage of iodine deficient patients is due to mismanagement of our food industry. The food industry has given us refined, devitalized food that has left us, as a population, nutrient deficient, obese and fatigued. Although there are many problems with the food industry, I will concentrate on the food industry’s biggest mistake: not putting iodine in our bakery products. Up until the early 1970’s, iodine was added to bakery products as a dough conditioner. In the early 1970’s, the food industry changed its practice and began substituting bromine for iodine. Why did this substitution occur? It is not clear from the literature. Bromine is in the chemical family of halides, of which iodine is a member. Bromine and iodine are very close to the same size and structure. All halides compete with one another for binding and absorption. The body has receptors and uses for iodine, such as making thyroid hormone. There is no known use of bromine in the body. Bromine interferes with iodine utilization in the thyroid as well as wherever iodine concentrates in the body. xi Bromine is a known goitrogen—it promotes the formation of goiter in the thyroid. Bromine can bind to iodine receptors in the breast and is a known carcinogen to the breast. On the other hand, iodine has anti-carcinogenic properties. Remember, iodine will concentrate in the glandular tissue of the body— the thyroid, breasts, ovaries, uterus, and probably 2012
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