Thyroid Basics Explained

A very good read on Iodine for those not familiar with the Weston A. Price Foundation. The website can be slow to respond at times.

[quote] gunner wrote:
After reading this and trying to diagnose myself my temp in the morning was 95.5 average. during the day never got over 96.5. I took 50mg of iodoral for 2 weeks sunday with no change, until Monday morning. I woke up nauseous and achy, back killing me couldnt find comfort. I puked thatmmorning and felt horrible all day. the next morning was rough but by the afternoon I felt great,alert, and my aches and even shoulder pain gone now since Tuesday. my morning temp is 97.3 but during the day it may drop to 96.5 and I have seen it up again in the afternoon. should I stay on a higher dosage to try and raise my temp or go to maintenance levels? I am still shocked and confused, but amazed that I feel better.I assume I had bromine poisoning. I would love to hear any input. thanks![/quote]

Using Body Temperature to determine if you are taking adequate Iodine/Thyroid meds is not always 100% accurate and shouldn’t be relied on solely; it can be helpful when used in conjunction with thyroid blood tests for example TSH, Free T3, Free T4. If you are taking over 1000 micrograms a day you should be at some point doing blood test to see how it’s affecting your thyroid.

In my opinion Iodine supplementation should start at 225 micrograms per day or less and then increase gradually, following a cycle of waiting a month or until side effects subside and then doubling the dose every month to 450 micrograms, 900 micrograms, 1.5 milligrams after three months, 3 milligrams after four months, and so on until the desired intake is reached. Itâ??s desirable to bring the TSH level close to one. If these steps are insufficient, your doctor can prescribe thyroid hormones. Options are levothyroxine, a synthetic T4 hormone; liothyronine, a synthetic T3 hormone; and natural thyroid extracts containing a mix of T3 and T4. Most doctors prefer to start with the synthetic T4 only, but most hypothyroid patients obtain better results from a mix of T4 and T3 than from T4 alone. I got this method from the book “The Perfect Health Diet” by Paul Jaminet and Shou-Ching Jaminet. This seems to me to be a better method than just jumping strait into high dosages of Iodine. I prefer this middle of the road approach to Iodine supplementation myself.

To reduce the risk of negative effects, high iodine intake should be accompanied by selenium intake comfortably above 200 micrograms per day, preferably through consumption of kidneys, shellfish, fish, and eggs; high intake of water and salt, to promote excretion of bromine and excess selenium; vitamin C and magnesium supplementation.

The Silent Epidemic of Iodine Deficiency

Halt on Salt Sparks Iodine Deficiency
Doctors say, Cut back on the Salt? But How Will We Obtain Our Iodine?

Thyroid Regulation

Heres a brain dump of the stuff I’ve been reading…with the body temperature…one study found that it caught hypothyroidism about 75% of the time (I suspect it misses people with low T4). You can also use body temperature to figure out your correct dosage. Blood tests are of extremely limited value because they don’t measure the amount of thyroid hormone in the cells(whereas body temperature is directly measuring the effect of T3 on cells).

According to the National Academy of Hypothyroidism there is more variation in the absorption of Thyroid hormones than in the variability of hormone levels. Chronic pain and chronic dieting are two example of things that reduce absorption. Thyroid hormone isnt absorbed by by diffusion(like dye dropped in water) its an energetic process. Slight decreases in cell energy greatly reduce t4 and rT3 absorption and to a lesser degree T3 absorption. A normal persons thyroid produces about 100 micrograms of T4 and 5 micrograms of T3 then 20 micrograms of T4 is converted to T3 in other tissues. So if you are using Dessicated thyroid 3 grains is approx complete replacement(its unwise to go over that dosage). The liver is one main place that converts the T4…and some T3 is essential for it to function properly.

This is why people who have had their thyroid removed do so badly on synthetic T4. Calcitocin is another thyroid hormone that is rarely mentioned and seems to affect calcium absorption(dosing with synthetic hormone likely drops your natural level of the hormone which may explain some side effects). High cortisol can cause hypothyroidism which is part of why high dosages have such horrible side effects…people are getting the side effects of hypothyroidism to boot. Now for the real surprising stuff…according to double blind studies it looks like correctly supplemented Dessicated thyroid can reduce heart attacks about 80 or more percent…essentially heart attacks are largely caused by hypothyroidism. Dessicated thyroid also greatly decreases high cholesterol levels.

“No one is allergic to iodine” I tend to agree with the statement the dosage makes the poison…even drinking too much water can kill you. If you put iodine every day on your skin in the same place it will do something like a chemical peel after a while. So not exactly harmless stuff either. I’ve been thinking that iodine in itself may act as a kind of second immune system. If what I’ve read about the maximum amount a human can contain(2g) is true we can in fact have a sanitizing level of iodine in our bodies. You can use iodine instead of chlorine in swimming pools at a similar dosage and effectiveness(around 2 ppm). 10 ppm is a rapid sanitizer. People who are taking mega doses of iodine are far surpassing 10ppm in their stomachs. Are they just killing off all of their gut flora and possibly killing another infection in other areas?.. I should mention that I’m referring to Iodine not Iodide-I’m not sure what percentage of Iodide actually becomes Iodine in the body…usually high doses of it are fairly harmless(used for prevention of radioactive iodine being absorbed in the thyroid after a nuclear reaction at around 60mg/day)

The other thing I was thinking about…I suspect humans used to consume more fish in prehistoric times(both sea and freshwater fish have high levels of iodine)-fish has one of the highest bioavailabilities of any meat…which to me indicates we may have evolved to eat it.

Would the morning and afternoon temperature testing protocol apply to females the same way? Meaning same target temperatures or any lower/higher?

Same for both sexes.

We see two situations:
Sometimes someone has low temps in the AM, but get to 98.6 during the afternoon.
We also see people who have low AM temps and low afternoon temps.

I consider the second case to be more of a problem then the first and expect that such individuals would be feeling very run down all of the time.

As for changes to a women’s body temp during her cycle; I don’t know what to make of that.

[quote]KSman wrote:
Same for both sexes.

We see two situations:
Sometimes someone has low temps in the AM, but get to 98.6 during the afternoon.
We also see people who have low AM temps and low afternoon temps.

I consider the second case to be more of a problem then the first and expect that such individuals would be feeling very run down all of the time.

As for changes to a women’s body temp during her cycle; I don’t know what to make of that.[/quote]

But didn’t I read that your temps seemed OK in the AM , but you could never reach the midday magic temp ?
Mine seem OK in the AM , but can never get past 97.5
with that being said… I never get cold , but often overheat and sweat.

What does one make of elevated TSH but perfect body temps and good energy? Thyroid needs over stimulation but is still getting the metabolic job accomplished?

I suspect there are these possible scenarios:

TSH is up and thyroid levels are low as well as body temps, more TSH is not enough.

TSH is up, thyroid levels are good as well as body temps, thyroid gets the job done with more TSH stimulation. [good energy]

TSH is up, thyroid levels are good and body temps are low. Suspect rT3 blocking fT3

All three scenarios can be from iodine deficiency and then there are thyroid pathologies.

There are many cases that are simple text-book. There are also many cases that are confusing and there can be other health/hormone issues that can be at work. I am still struggling with some situations.

KSman,

What are your thoughts on this and his treatment?

http://drlwilson.com/Articles/IODINE.htm

I did a hair mineral analysis test through him.

Nice article!

I am seeing that selenium is very important.

I found this video interesting, it is lengthy, but explains a lot

http://drlwilson.com/Articles/IODINE.htm

  1. Iodine can be slightly toxic. Here I differ from many doctors who use potassium iodide, elemental iodine in water, and other chemical forms of iodine. They say it is not toxic, but my research is that it is a little toxic and it can build up in the body.

As a result, I much prefer kelp as oneâ??s iodine supplement. Dr. Brownstein, whom I greatly respect, and some other natural doctors prefer to use iodine pills such as Iodoral, or liquids such as Lugolâ??s solution. Other natural doctors prefer supplements such as prolamine iodine, Liquidulse, or others. These are also somewhat toxic, in my experience, or have other problems. To learn exactly why I prefer kelp and to read much more about this amazing food, please read Kelp on this website.

The usual adult dosage of kelp is about 4000 mg daily. This is usually given as 6 (six) 660 mg capsules daily. Some people need a little more than this, and a few people need a little less.


Any comments on the use of Iodoral or Lugols vs Kelp?

Also, what happens if someone takes the 750mg dose and temperatures do not rise sufficiently?

Iodine is reactive and is part of the chemistry of kelp and when kelp or iodine is injected it reacts and associates with things in your gut. The term “chemical forms of iodine” seems like a deliberately inflammatory remark. The only iodine that is not part of a chemical is pure iodine.

Are the people selling kelp driving that language? Iodine is iodine and has been around since a local super nova dispersed heavy elements into space.

Take whatever form you care to use. Iodoral has been in short supply, there seems to be some on amazon now. You can get 4 60ml bottles of 2% Lugols for around $25 at amazon.

Iodine builds up the body? Yes, our bodies horde iodine, mostly in the thyroid. That is an evolutionary necessity/advantage.

Too much iodine is toxic, but one can also state that too little might be considered toxic because of the consequences.

If you take 750mg, and a lot of that may be excreted as you take it, you can then assume that you are no long iodine deficient. If temperatures are low, fT3 is probably not getting into your cells. Check TSH, fT3, fT3. If fT3 is mid range or higher and temps are low; rT3 is probably the reason. As iodine replenishment has the effect of altering TSH levels in a transient fashion, doing labs during or soon after iodine replenishment might not create representative lab results.

When a group of practitioners recommend a particular product, I want to know if they sell that in there office$!

The iodine content of kelp varies greatly. You need to look at the iodine content, not the weight of the kelp product. And salt may be a significant part of the weight as well.

If you are going to a rapid iodine replenishment in two weeks, that is probably not possible with a kelp product.

  • What is the max dose for IR? It seems that 750mg is the number that KSMan advocates. But if temps have not sufficiently risen, should one go to 1000mg before going on a maintenance dose?

  • After doing IR, how long should one wait before getting blood work done again? Also, would the maintenance does affect things if taking within a day or two the test?

Knowing that one can store 1.0-1.5 grams of iodine and not knowing what ones stores are when deficient and looking at what others have done on the WWW with 50mg/day dosing; I came up with 750mg knowing that much of that could be excreted during the process. This has been shown to restore body temperatures and energy levels in many cases.

If body temperatures do not increase, it may be that rT3 levels are good but fT3 is not getting into the cells and then elevated rT3 is suspected as the cause of that. In that case, IR=1000mg will not be helpful!

If after IR, one feels great and temperatures are good; there is no pressing reason to get labs done soon after. Otherwise, waiting a few weeks would be prudent. I think that TSH levels would be the main issue with transients and suspect that ft3, fT4 and rT3 labs sooner in would still product results that would have diagnostic value.

[Again, I suspect that low cortisol levels could affect aspects of ones thyroid health.]

IR always needs selenium and selenium should be part of one’s multi-vits.

What if body temperatures do increase, but do not get to the normal levels? And what if there is a long term deficiency of iodine? Under these cases, would it be prudent to increase the loading dose to 1000mg?

What if one has not had iodized salt or any source of iodine for a long time (years or decades)? This is my case, but I didn’t get goiter or have some other obvious problem. Why is that?

You have enough iodine in board for your tyroid HPA to get the job done is it is otherwise able. What if 1000 mg does not work … when do you stop?

There is no assurance that you only have a simple uncomplicated iodine deficiency.

This is getting past being part of a general thyroid basics sticky. “What IF’s” are not on topic. Please direct me to a thread of yours where we can go forward with this via the ‘ksman is here thread’

KSMan i recently bought the book The Iodine Crisis: What You Don’t Know About Iodine Can Wreck Your Life.

Here are a few copy/pastes from the book that say some different opinions on how long to take iodine then what has been told here. What is your opinion KSMan?

Do I have to keep taking iodine for life?

As far as we know, you need to take iodine for as long as it takes to build up and maintain tissue stores. Given our constant exposure to bromines, this will probably be a long time. Some people have been able to reduce their dosages after a few years when their Iodine Loading tests shows 90 percent saturation. The general rule is take iodine only as long as you want to be healthy and protect yourself against the daily bombardment of toxins (such as bromines) which disrupt body functions. The importance of avoiding bromine exposure is discussed later in the book.

Farrow, Lynne (2013-04-01). The Iodine Crisis: What You Don’t Know About Iodine Can Wreck Your Life (pp. 72-73). Devon Press. Kindle Edition.

When can I stop taking iodine supplements? The usual advice is to only take iodine supplements for as long as you want to be healthy (a healthcare professional?s attempt at humor in an otherwise serious subject).

Farrow, Lynne (2013-04-01). The Iodine Crisis: What You Don’t Know About Iodine Can Wreck Your Life (p. 67). Devon Press. Kindle Edition.

thanks