Iodized salt and other sources of iodine

The issue with iodized salt is that you may get enough iodine that way to prevent goiter, but there are some good studies now that show most people can benefit from doses 100 times more than that.  Whole-body sufficiency is associated with much lower rates of breast, endometrial and prostate cancers, and can reduce brain fog, muscle pain, and a host of other ailments.

[[MORE]]One problem I have with iodized salt actually has nothing to do with its iodine content.  I’m also not anti-salt as many docs and medical writers seem to be these days.  What I do object to, though, is pure, refined sodium chloride.  I much prefer sea salt.  One of the things I’ve learned about long-term health maintenance is the importance of obtaining adequate amounts of micronutrients—many of which are available in high-quality sea salt, but are not present in the refined stuff.

If you’ve never tasted it, the difference is dramatic.  It reminds me of honey: there’s the usual store-bought stuff that’s familiar and bland, and there’s the gourmet and very tasty stuff.  In the case of salt, the good stuff comes from places like Baja California or Spain (I prefer the “macrobiotic” brands myself).

I also think kelp can be a good source of iodine.  One part of a theory I’ve heard about how the Japanese stay thin and healthy is their relatively high intake of kelp, which of course includes iodine.  Inland Japanese ingest about 13mg/day of iodine, which is 100x the RDA (and about 100x more than most Americans or Europeans get).  They even use seaweed as fertilizer.  If you’re looking for a source of seaweed:
http://www.alcasoft.com/seaweed/  

While we’re at it, there are a few more things you might like to know about iodine:  Initial high doses can displace bromine and fluorine from the body, which can cause rashes and other temporary problems.  Iodine can also help to eliminate toxic metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury, and can be a good alternative to chelation for those metals.

Here’s a link to a page with a number of interesting papers along these lines:
http://optimox.com/pics/Iodine/opt_Research_I.shtml

If you do supplement to correct a deficiency, you might want to follow-up with a quantitative iodine loading test to assess your status:
http://www.optimox.com/pics/Iodine/loadTest.htm  

You might also enjoy Dr Brownstein’s book: Iodine, why you need it, why you can’t live without it:
https://www.drbrownstein.com/bookstore_Iodine.php

High doses of iodine are also a key component of some successful alternative cancer treatment programs, such as Gerson. Here’s a link to a very interesting paper that talks about Gerson's cancer treatment, including his use of iodine:
http://gerson-research.org/docs/GersonM-1978-1/

The less iodine you have, the harder your thyroid gland has to work; the harder it works, the more inflamed it can become.  I had a thyroid nodule myself years ago; it went away after a year or so of targeted supplementation (including thyroid hormone).

Iodine deficiency has also been implicated in fibrocystic breast disease.

Here's an interesting fact about iodine deficiency and vegetarians:

"Vegetarians also have substantially greater likelihood of iodine deficiency than carnivorous people, since foods of plant origin are less rich in iodine than animal-derived foods. One study demonstrated iodine deficiency in 25% of vegetarians and an incredible 80% of vegans, compared with only 9% of those consuming a mixed diet that contained meat."

If you do need to supplement iodine for a while to correct a deficiency, one good source is a product called Iodoral.