Iodine
When you supplement with Iodine, if you experience heart palpitations, anxiety, increased sweating and intolerance to heat, you should reduce the amount or temporarily stop, then try a lower dosage.
Other symptoms of too much iodine (that I have read) can be mouth and gastric irritation, acne-like skin eruptions, a brassy taste, increased salivation, or excessive nasal moisture.
To learn more, read these sites:
Symptoms of Iodine Deficiency Iodoral HelpMyThyroid iodoral results Measurement of urinary iodide levels by ion-selective electrode: Improved sensitivity and specificity by chromatography on an ion-exchange resin. IODINE PUBLICATIONS Herbhealers.com Dr. Derry ghchealth.com I was first introduced to the benefits of taking Lugol's solution of Iodine by the book Folk Medicine: A New England Almanac of Natural Health Care from a Noted Vermont Country Doctor by D.C. Jarvis, MD.
Here is an excerpt from the part of this page titled Interactions between selenium and iodine that gives important information about the importance of selenium levels if you are supplementing with iodine. The point is that adequate selenium is especially important if you are getting higher amounts of iodine. Selenium is inexpensive, for example for example look here.
"We've all heard that many doctors tell hypo patients, especially those with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, not to take iodine because it can aggravate their condition. The reason seems to be that selenium protects the thyroid gland from oxidative damage and this damage can increase significantly if iodine is supplemented. Taking iodine will increase thyroid hormone production and the production of H2O2 which damages the thyroidal cells. The lack of selenium prevents GPX from being able to protect the cells from this oxidative damage. While I doubt if most doctors realize why iodine should be restricted (it certainly seemed counter-intuitive to me at first), they have learned through experience that iodine can increase the thyroid damage in Hashimoto's. The information that selenium should be supplemented along with iodine is so new that most of them are unaware of it."This site suggests that fluorine inhibits the thyroid iodide-concentrating mechanism. Fluorine does not impair the capacity of the gland to synthesize thyroid hormone when there is an abundance of iodide in the blood. However, inhibition of the thyroidal concentrating capacity when the total iodide pool is low will impose a critical limitation of hormonal synthesis.
According to Walt Stoll, MD, "Fibrocytic disease is one of those totally unnecssary conditions. Total elimination of caffeine from the diet, high doses of vitamin E and the properly adjusted dose of Lugol's solution will resolve nearly 100% of this condition within 3-6 months and will greatly improve ALL."
Here is another article on Iodine And Fibrocystic Disease.
Dr. David Derry had this web site, which is no longer active "Iodine in adequate doses prevents the development of cancer cells, and adequate thyroid hormone in the connective tissue prevents the spread."
Dr. Derry wrote a book, titled Breast Cancer and Iodine: How to Prevent and How to Survive Breast Cancer.
A good book is Iodine: Why You Need It Why You Can't Live Without It by David Brownstein, M.D., who has treated thousands of patients using iodine. You can see some video excerpts of Dr. Brownstein talking about iodine here.
The following was found here: "Lugol's is perfectly safe (if not allergic) to take day after day, when needed, because of its peculiar attaching property. It arrives in the stomach, reattaches to everything in proximity. In the past, 2/3 of a teaspoon (60 drops) of Lugol's was the standard dose of iodine given to persons with thyroid disease. Six drops is small by comparison."
Iodine Test
Several doctors suggest you can test easily for iodine sufficiency in your body by applying some on your skin and noting how long it takes for the stain to disappear. Most say it should remain visible for 24 hours, including these:
1 2 3 4 These suggest a different time frame.
10 hours 4 hours However, after reading this article by Guy E. Abraham, M.D, "The bioavailability of iodine applied to the skin", it seems that the iodine skin patch test is not reliable. It would seem to be better than nothing, and also worthwhile for spot treating certain areas of the body. Dr. Derry says he uses topical iodine to successfully treat all "suspicious lesions" on the skin.
Purchasing Iodine
For topical use (on your skin) you can buy a little bottle of Tincture of Iodine cheaply at almost any drug store. (You may have to ask the pharmacist as they may keep it behind the counter.) It is sold as an antiseptic. This is what is used in the skin testing mentioned above.
Places that sell Lugol's Solution of Iodine:
herbhealers.com Jcrows.com naturodoc.com drclark.com Amazon 1 oz Amazon 16 oz Places that sell Iodine in tablet form (Iodoral®):
Google search for Iodoral® quackcenter.com
