... and here's the link.... 

www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/iodine12345

Interest in iodine supplementation has grown in leaps and bounds over the years among thyroid patients, especially considering that thyroid hormones are primarily composed of iodine!

Why does my body need iodine? Besides the fact that thyroid hormones need iodine to exist, it also plays a huge role in breast health, removes fibrocystic breast disease, rids you of toxins like bromide and more, helps with healthy levels of stomach acid, is anti-fungal, and is anti-cancer…and so much more.

Can’t I get my iodine needs met with iodized salt? What about the small amount of iodine in natural desiccated thyroid? Apparently not, say many experts. It’s far less than is needed. Plus with salt, the iodine evaporates.

Should I test my iodine levels before supplementing with it? Yes. It’s often advised to order an Iodine Loading Test, here or here, which is easy enough to do in your own home.  You then send back your specimen, and wait for the results. These results can be important in revealing whether you might need to supplement or not. Some have chosen to do an iodine patch test on the skin, but results vary so widely that the loading test is the preferred and the most accurate determination.

What are the iodine supplements? The most popular are either Lugol’s liquid iodine, or Iodoral pill form. Lugols comes in 2% and 5%. One drop of the 5% equals 6.25 mg iodine. Iodoral is measured into 12.5 and 50 mg tablets. These can be ordered off the net by searching for either. Janie uses Lugols in her morning drink.

Are there nutrients I should take before going on iodine? Do I need selenium? Experts on the use of iodine state there are key nutrients one should take to counter the detox of bromides, chlorine, fluoride that iodine will promote, as well as block negative reactions to iodine. Many start these one month before introducing iodine:

• Vitamin C (the highest amount you can tolerate, which is into the thousands of mg)
• Magnesium (400 mg daily),
• Selenium (400 mcg maximum) and unrefined Sea Salt ( 1/2 – 1 tsp of salt as part of the supplementation, once a day and for three days maximum.  If you go longer than that, iodine will need to be reduced and the liver/detox pathways supported).

See thyroid patient Jane’s Guest Blog post about companion nutrients here: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/2013/12/29/companion-nutrients-the-key-to-iodine-protocol/

What about problems patients have reported with iodine use? Some patients have reported an aggravation of their Hashimotos symptoms after using iodine.  In fact, some European and Asian countries have an explosion of Hashimoto’s cases due to immense iodine supplementation in food.

On the other side the coin, certain studies and intelligent analysis report that autoimmune problems associated with iodine use actually are the result of low selenium levels, as well as low copper or low zinc. This underscores the need for supporting nutrients. Patients also repeatedly report that their antibodies went down thanks to their iodine use! To read interesting details about the association between the aggravation of Hashimotos and the rise of antibodies, go here.  Part II is here.-

From the website www.myhdiet.com/pdf/research-Advances_in_Iodine_Nutrition.pdf , which you might recognize by having to do with the "Hallelujah Diet", there is information which was brought to my attention from one of the astute people in one of the astute-filled Facebook groups (credit where credit is due!).  It was very consistent overall with what I had provided in 2013 and started this topic with, which had gotten about 2, 200 reads in the time it's been on Lumigrate at the time of this comment addition. 

I looked around this website for other things and the overall and found it a worthy site to be linking to from Lumigrate.  I included, similarly, their topic about water, because they presented it very much in synche with how I have at Lumigrate --- it comes down to if RO or distilled is best and how to get a pure water -- and then does it matter about the minerals.  Naturally, they are selling products based on the demands created from their education, which most sites do. That was the intention for Lumigrate initially but so far, it seemed that it was best to be not going that route and forging a new pathway based on solely education and supportive services for proactivity. 

I've liked the way that Dr Donaldson has written the documents I've seen at this website, and this is how this one begins (I've taken the liberty to add some more breaks to make it easier for tired brains to read, which is often the case with those seeking the information Lumigrate provides): 

Recent Advances in Iodine Nutrition 

Michael Donaldson, PhD 

Summary 

Though iodine is known for its importance for the thyroid, little has been publicized about its other roles. Iodine is needed in microgram amounts for the health of the thyroid. For the rest of the body iodine is needed in larger amounts, hundreds of micrograms or even milligram amounts; perhaps as much as 100 times as much as the RDA. 

Iodine supports the health of many organs in the body. It is taken up by most every gland and, when taken in milligram quantities, is found in nearly every tissue of the body. The thyroid cannot function properly without an adequate supply of iodine, and much of the subclinical hypothyroidism in the USA is likely just a shortage of iodine.

The immune system uses iodine to fight infections, so many chronic illnesses tax the body’s iodine supply. The reproductive glands and tissues have high levels of iodine in them, if iodine is provided.

This iodine is necessary for optimal function of the breasts, ovaries, endometrium, and prostate. Research has shown that milligram amounts of iodine can reverse fibrocystic breast disease. Iodine suppresses chemically-induced breast cancer in rats. Iodine balances estrogen levels, thus supporting ovary health.

Sufficient iodine is needed for a stable rhythmic heart beat. Iodine, directly or indirectly, can normalize serum cholesterol levels and normalize blood pressure.

Iodine attaches to insulin receptors and improves glucose metabolism, which is good news for people with diabetes. Iodine is essential for the development of the central nervous system; women need a good supply before becoming pregnant.

Iodine may also play a role in bone health and lung function. Even the skin needs iodine. Iodine has been shown to help remove heavy metals from the body along with bromide. 

NOTE: I also BOLDED the part ^ about bromide. 

Then, another portion I thought was most applicable for catching the attention of YOUsers of Lumigrate, so they might see why I'm recommending this resource among things to look at, follows:

 Hypothyroidism can be caused by a multitude of factors, including a lack of iodine. The Hallelujah Diet takes care of most of the other factors, except for iodine. Hypothyroidism slows down your entire metabolism and causes many symptoms which vary in different people. Not everyone has all of the symptoms. Some of the common symptoms are given in Table 1, taken from Dr. Brownstein’s book, Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can’t Live Without It ⁽⁸⁾. Two of the most common symptoms are fatigue and being cold when everyone else is warm. 

Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome may be a manifestation of a hypothyroid condition. It is no coincidence that hypothyroidism, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome are all much more common in women. There is a common link—women need more iodine than men. This is true not only during pregnancy and lactation, but for every women. Breast tissue requires iodine for maintenance of structure ⁽⁹⁾ and to keep cells exposed to hormone surges from multiplying out of bounds. 

Since iodine is an integral part of the thyroid hormones, it is obvious that a lack of iodine is going to have a direct effect on the ability of the thyroid to produce these hormones. Even if a doctor prescribes replacement thyroid hormone, iodine is always still needed to fully support the function of the thyroid. The prescription hormone takes care of the symptom, but sufficient iodine will meet the underlying cause of many cases of subclinical hypothyroidism all. 

Autoimmune disorders of the thyroid are also more common when people lack sufficient iodine. Both hyperthyroid and hypothyroid conditions can result from a lack of iodine, in combination with other factors. Dr. Brownstein mentioned that 92% of his patients with Hashimoto’s or Grave’s disease also were deficient in iodine ⁽⁸⁾. Further, symptoms improved dramatically when they took high amounts of iodine to build up their body’s supply of iodine. 

 I'm suggesting people go to the source for ALL the information, and providing a few highlights here, so on we go to the part about thyroid. 

 Thyroid 

The thyroid utilizes iodine to make thyroxine, or T4 as it is commonly called, and triiodothyronine, or T3. Thyroxine contains 4 iodine atoms and triiodothyronine contains 3 iodine atoms. The thyroid secretes about 10% T3 and 90% T4 into the bloodstream. The organs of the body can convert the T4 into the more active T3 form via enzymes called deiodenases.

Release of the thyroid hormones is controlled by thyroid releasing hormone, from the hypothalamus, which is sent to the pituitary, which secretes thyroid stimulating hormone, TSH, which causes the activity of the thyroid to increase and secrete more T3 and T4.

Elevated levels of T3 in the blood downregulate the hormones from the hypothalamus and pituitary. High levels of iodine temporarily (26-40 hours) inhibit release of T3 and T4 from the thyroid (acute Wolff-Chaikoff effect), but then normal function of the thyroid continues as previously (escape from the Wolff-Chaikoff effect) after the thyroid down-regulates the number of sodium-iodide symporters in the cell membranes of the thyroid. 

The thyroid hormones regulate your metabolic rate, and thus energy production, of the entire body. The effects are felt in every system and cell of the body. A glance at the symptoms of hypothyroidism (see Table 1) gives an idea of the wide range of effects.  

Table 1. Signs and Symptoms of Hypothyroidism. 

 Again, much great detail before this portion about HEAVY METALS that I thought was worth popping into the highlights here (while reminding it's best to go see all the details and the full article): 

Organs with Heavy Metal Accumulations 

Heavy metals accumulate in various organs of the body. Now it appears that there is another weapon in our gallery. When Dr. Abraham was checking the bioavailability of Iodoral, a tableted iodine supplement, he found that some individuals had several-fold increased levels of mercury, lead, and cadmium after taking Iodoral (12.5 mg iodide/iodine) for one day ⁽⁴⁹⁾.

Arsenic and aluminum were also reported to be detoxified with Iodoral ⁽⁵⁰⁾, along with the halides bromide and fluoride. Iodine can replace the other halides and cause them to be removed from the body. In fact, many of the symptoms that are reported when high doses of iodine are taken are actually from the detoxification of bromide. The use of a natural sea salt (1/4 teaspoon of salt taken 3 times, about 6 hours apart) will increase the renal clearance of bromide and reduce detoxification symptoms due to bromide. 

Bromide is used as a pesticide, and now fluoride is also being used as a pesticide on crops. Bromide also makes into our diets as brominated vegetable oil in citrus flavored sodas like Mountain Dew. Bromide resides in the fatty tissue of the body, making it difficult to lose weight as well. Iodine has a very noticeable effect at removing bromide from the body. Iodine will replace bromide and allow the fat to be burned away normally. 

In a pilot study of 8 patients Dr. Brownstein found that bromide excretion increased by an average of more than 50% when the patients took 50 mg/day of iodine as Iodoral ⁽⁸⁾. Dr. William Shevin, a medical and homeopathic doctor, has also seen benefits of iodine in getting rid of the bromide burden of the body, assisted with the natural sea salt to enhance the removal of bromide by the kidneys ⁽⁵¹⁾. 

Most Effective Forms of Iodine 

There are basically three forms of iodine used for supplements—elemental or molecular iodine (I₂), ionic iodine, usually potassium iodide or ammonium iodide, and protein-bound iodide, such as Standard Process’s Prolamine. These forms are all utilized by the body, although there is evidence that they are not exactly equivalent. Research by Drs. Eskin and Ghent found that the I₂ was the most beneficial form of iodine for fibrocystic breast disease ^{(29, 30)}, and that it had less affinity for the thyroid. They did research with protein-bound iodine as well and found that it did not work as well for fibrocystic breast disease as the molecular iodine. 

It is generally taught that molecular iodine is reduced to ionic iodide before it is absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. However, a series of studies with rats compared the uptake and distribution in the body of iodide (as NaI) and elemental iodine (I₂).

The researchers found that the thyroid much preferred the iodide form compared to I₂ ⁽⁵²⁾, that the iodine was distributed differently in the body, depending on the form used ⁽⁵³⁾, and that I₂ could alter T4 levels ⁽⁵⁴⁾, presumably by reacting with metabolites of T4 in the GI tract, thus reforming T4 ⁽⁵⁵⁾. Eskin and coworkers ⁽⁵⁶⁾ found that this was true in laboratory rats as well. Thyroid gland hyperplasia was reduced with I₂, but eliminated with I^-, while mammary gland hyperplasia was decreased with I₂ but increased with I^-, and fibrosis of the breast was reduced with I₂ but remained the same with I^-. Rats with chemically-induced breast cancer had 30 percent incidence of breast cancer when they were fed I₂, compared to a 72% incidence of breast cancer in the control group, along with fewer tumors and longer time until cancer developed. The rats fed T4 or I^- did not differ in incidence of breast cancer from the control group ⁽⁵⁷⁾. So, different tissues of the body take up the I₂ and I^- differently and they are not exactly equivalent. 

Elemental iodine is quite reactive and can disassociate in the GI tract and iodinate various proteins and lipids, unlike iodide that is taken up as a free ion into the bloodstream. For about 2 hours elemental iodine is detected in the serum, but only iodide is detected thereafter ⁽⁴⁹⁾. 

So, for supplementing iodine, it appears that a mix of elemental iodine and iodide (as in Iodoral or Iosol) is called for to supply the thyroid and the rest of the body. 

 Optimal Amounts of Iodine

The RDA for iodine is 150 μg/day for non-pregnant adults, 220 μg/day during pregnancy, and 290 μg/day during lactation. The RDA for adults is based on the amount of iodine that the thyroid normally accumulates from day to day, and on the prevention of goiter in children. The tolerable upper intake level (an upper limit of intake that is very unlikely to harm anyone) is 1,100 μg/day. The tolerable upper intake level in Japan is provisionally set at 3,000 μg/day, since they do not have sufficient data to determine the optimal iodine intake for the Japanese population ⁽⁵⁸⁾. 

There have never been any studies done on the optimal amounts of iodine needed for the whole body. 

Drs. Ghent and Eskin, and others treated fibrocystic breast disease with 6 to 10 mg/day of iodine in order to reverse this condition. Other female disorders disappeared along with  the breast disease, too. From the research presented here it is clear that the role of iodine in the body goes far and beyond simply making thyroid hormones. 

Again, more details at the link / source, but I wanted to bring forth here the IODINE LOADING TEST because this is something that my providers put off recommending, some saying there just wasn't a good, reliable test yet, but then I got to a holistic dentist who seemed to know more about the endocrine system than anyone else in Grand Junction, Colorado, and he had been satisfied with a laboratory out of Lakewood, Colorado. He knew to also test for bromine/ bromide and that was not an additional charge over testing for iodine uptake / excretion. By finding that I was only absorbing 50%, not 90% AS THIS SOURCE TALKS ABOUT and gives interesting background information I did not previously know (hence part of my REALLY liking this resource and ENCOURAGING a going to the source / take the link) -- AND doing essentially what is stated here with iodine supplementally, increasingly, I was shocked when I no longer needed to take supplemental thyroid hormone.  

AHA, is it possible there's a desire to have people becoming and staying dependent upon providers to be prescribing the thyroid hormone? Or is it just oversight and lack of continuing education on their part.  YOU decide.  In the mean time, YOU can go on and continue your education, take action, and trump the providers in what you know. As increasing numbers of savvy consumers are doing.  So here's what they have about the iodine loading / challenge test.

AND after that they immediately go into the ever-important TSH information, which is provided at many places on Lumigrate already but I liked the way Dr Michael Donaldson presented it at MyDiet dot com, or with the Hallelujah research group. (At this website, again please take the link!) 

Iodine Loading Test 

The iodine loading test was designed to measure the body’s saturation with iodine. Initially the loading test was used to measure the bioavailability of Iodoral, a tableted form of Lugol’s solution. However, when people showed such high retention of iodine (unlike what is seen at microgram intakes) the usefulness of the test quickly became apparent. In the iodine loading test a person takes 50 mg of iodine as Iodoral. A 24-hour urinary sample is taken to see how much is retained by the body. If less than 90% is excreted (more than 10% retained) Dr. Abraham says this is indicative of an iodine deficient state. The 90% level was chosen because it correlated with feelings of well-being in volunteers who reached that level of saturation. If a very low amount (<15%) is excreted then Dr. Flechas says that the presence of cancer is suspect. After a period of about 3 months using 12 – 50 mg of iodine/iodide a repeat iodine load usually shows a much improved state of iodine balance with much more excreted rather than retained ⁽⁴⁹⁾. 

Thyroid TSH Test 

When going to get thyroid tests, beware that the thyroid stimulating hormone, or TSH, test is not really the “gold-standard” that doctors have declared it to be. Just because TSH is normal doesn’t mean that your body has optimal amounts of thyroid hormone in all organs and tissues.

Dr. David Derry states that the TSH test has little clinical value for determining whether a person has a abnormal thyroid hormone condition or not. He says, in an interview with Mary Shomon ⁽¹⁷⁾, “the pituitary cells, which have TSH in them, are the most sensitive cells in the body circulating thyroid hormone.

Therefore when one treats hypothyroidism by following the TSH and trying to make it normal the pituitary cells are happy but the rest of the body is short-changed by a considerable amount.” In other words, when the TSH is normal, this only means that the pituitary gland has the right amount of hormone for its needs. The rest of the body may not have enough, and clinical experience indicates that this is so.

A recent review pointed out that during iodine deficiency, there can be normal, elevated, or low levels of T3, the active form of thyroid hormone, in different tissues of the body ⁽⁷³⁾. So, a hypothyroid condition can exist in some organs while having normal TSH measurement.  

 More great details if you go to the source, much about the Japanese, breast cancer, just tons I naturally did not bring here because I'm keeping it pared down for our purposes.  I wanted to then highlight what they provided about sources of iodine. 

Sources of Iodine 

We have examined most available forms of iodine supplements since the fall of 2005. There are two main sources that we can recommend to you. Both of these are a mix of iodine and iodide to supply all parts of the body with the form of iodine best suited for each part. 

Lugol’s Solution has been clinically used since Dr. Lugol made it in 1829. It is a solution of potassium iodide (KI) and molecular iodine (I₂).

Lugol’s solution is also useful as a stain for microscopy work, and is sold for this purpose, but not as dietary supplement. 

Iodoral is a tableted version of Lugol’s solution. Lugol’s solution is absorbed onto a colloidal silica excipient and tableted, then coated with a thin layer of pharmaceutical glaze. Each tablet contains 12.5 mg of total iodine, 5 mg of I₂ and 7.5 mg iodide as KI. Each tablet is scored so that it can be easily broken in half if desired. A 50-mg tablet is now available as well for those doing high levels of iodine supplementation. Some people will find the tablet form of iodine more convenient than a liquid supplement. 

Iosol is a 4% solution of ammonium iodide and iodine in glycerin. Each drop contains 1.83 mg of iodine, about 0.8 mg as iodide in ammonium iodide and 1.0 mg as iodine (I₂). The drops can be diluted in water, of which a portion can be taken for even lower doses.

The doctors who developed Iosol in the 1940s were looking for a form of iodine that had fewer allergic reactions compared to potassium iodide. Their claim is that ammonium iodide is more “available” as free iodide ion compared to potassium iodide, in which they claim the potassium and iodide ion bind more tightly together. Some people have been able to tolerate Iosol more easily than Lugol’s solution or Iodoral. However, it has been difficult to determine which of these supplements really works better. 

Sea vegetation concentrates iodine from the ocean water. As mentioned above, some species contain relatively high levels (kelp, Kombu) while others have very little (Nori, Wakame). The iodine in sea vegetation is all iodide, so it may not work as well as molecular iodine for some organs in the body. Nevertheless, it is a natural, whole-foods source of iodide, so it comes with many other minerals and nutrients present in whole foods.

Contamination with heavy metals can be a serious problem with sea vegetation. Recently, 8 of 9 herbal kelp supplements from a health food store were found to have excessive levels of arsenic in them ⁽⁷⁴⁾. For this reason, and because only iodide is present, this is not a preferred source of this mineral. 

These are the three main sources of iodine available, though there are others. Personal preference and convenience may be the determining factor for which one you want to use for yourself. The bottom line is that we need more iodine than the microgram amounts occurring in our foods now and we need to find safe ways to incorporate more iodine into our diets. 

 One last time, take the link to this website, read this whole article, I've only brought out the highlights that I thought were the most effective to show on this thread, along with the overall that's presented here.  Many sources provided, but ones I've been impressed with and hopefully am helping YOU sort things out and increase your odds of getting 'grate' information. 

 Live and learn. Learn and live better! ~ Mardy

Impressed, I was, to see this at the top of the landing page at IodineSource dot com: 

"There is much to learn, and much to unlearn" --- Edgar Cayce

So without further ado, I suggest you go and look all around at Iodine-Resource dot com.  I'm going to be providing some highlights, below, to show you why I really liked this resource.  

If YOUsers of Lumigrate have paddled around enough in the Forums with the content I've added in 2015 and recently prior, you'll no doubt see that I had gotten 'into' OneRadioNetwork as a resource.  I've liked their content so much I have been known to transcribe or do a good overview with as much as my fingers can collect in a couple of passes listening (which takes about half a day), and naturally link out to the topics and hope that I am encouraging people appropriately with what I provide to GO TO THE LINKS and as I say, take a trip and go see the sites. 

It was at OneRadioNetwork where I started hearing the person behind this website, and you'll see that at this link the OneRadioNetwork interviews are provided, as well as other places he's been to get his word out.  (Which I'm going to go to and listen to as well, maybe I'll discover another place I like as much as OneRadioNetwork now that I've scoured their old interviews pretty thoroughly AND keep up on the new).  www.iodinesource.com/ 

From the link to the home page at IodineSource (above), I really enjoyed what is provided with the History of Iodine, at this link, and was thrilled to see that they are good with passing on their resource if credit and links are given and work.  I am going to do a tiny bit of adding more breaks to longer paragraphs because I know that the majority of YOUsers of Lumigrate have significant brain fatigue, damage, injury, and whatnot.  And this makes it more readable (and hopefully they'll like what they read and GO TO THE SOURCE on the link!) 

www.iodinesource.com/HistoryOfIodine.php

A Look Back

Sir Humphry Davy in his laboratory.

The discovery of iodine, like most discoveries, was a fortuitous accident. The most fortuitous accident in the history of medicine, is one story many of us are familiar with: the discovery of penicillin. We've all heard the stories of the mold ruining the cultures and how suddenly, a mind shift occurred and bingo, the birth of antibiotics. Few realize that penicillin had been discovered a lot earlier, back in the late 1800's by a medical student.

But, sadly, the world wasn't ready for it and, the haughtiness of physicians at that time would not allow them to look upon a mere student's discovery with more than condescending curiosity. Even fewer are aware that Pasteur discovered and wrote up the first antibiotic experiment, in which he watched a substance gobble up his bacteria specimens. That "substance" wasgarlic.

In 1811 when Bernard Courtois (1777-1838) discovered iodine, he was not searching for a way to heal his fellow humans. On the contrary; he was looking for a way to kill his fellow humans. Napoleon's army at the time required huge quantities of gunpowder and supplies were running short.

Saltpeter (potassium nitrate—KNO3—sometimes spelled saltpeter) is a major component in gunpowder and requires an abundant source of sodium carbonate to be manufactured. Sodium carbonate is extracted from wood ashes, but the war had gone on so long that they'd run out of willow wood, the preferred source.

Someone suggested using dried seaweed (burnt to ash), which seemed to be abundant off the coasts of Normandy and Brittany. The suggestion worked and the French were back in business, making gunpowder and killing people.

However, in the process of making saltpeter, excess sulfur compounds were created and they had to add sulfuric acid to the mixture to get rid of them. Courtois accidentally added a bit too much acid one day, and poof, a violet vapor cloud appeared and condensed onto the colder, metal objects and formed lustrous crystals.

Courtois, a working chemist, realized he'd created something new. He performed a few minor experiments with this new substance and noted that it combined well with phosphorous, hydrogen, and a few metals, but did not combine easily with oxygen or carbon. Furthermore, he discovered that it was quite explosive when mixed with ammonia and did not decompose when burned.

He suspected he'd discovered a new element, but the war (Napoleon having stretched the government's coffers to the point of bankruptcy) was the focus of France's spending at the time, and without funding, he could experiment no further. Besides, there was a war to fight.

So he turned his discovery over to the French chemist (and physicist) Charles-Bernard Désormes (1777-1862), who, with the help of his son-in-law Nicolas Clément (1779-1841) performed the scientific investigation into this new element.

Courtous, for some reason, also gave samples to Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac (1778-1850) and André M. Ampère (1775–1836).

Both teams went to work investigating this new substance and in November of 1813, at a meeting of the Imperial Institute of France, Désormes and Clément announced their discovery. A few days later Gay-Lussac and André M. Ampère published that this was either an element or a compound of oxygen.

No one yet knew for sure exactly what it was, until the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy got into the picture (you might recall Davy as being the Father of Stoners in our essay The History of Anesthesia) and did some experiments with samples given him by Ampère.

Davy published, on the 10th of December, 1813, a little piece in which he described this substance's qualities as being similar to chlorine, and that it was quite analogous to both Fluorine and Chlorine. He named it Iodine from a Greek word for "violet colored", but the hubbub did not stop there. Suddenly the priority rights over the substance were in dispute (who did what first and so on), while both Gay-Lussac and Davy acknowledged that Courtois was the discoverer.

Later, Jean Lugol discovered that bonding iodine to a mineral (potassium) made it water soluble, and allowed for the later discovery of iodine's antiseptic qualities. Iodine naturally dissolves in alcohol, but not in water until it is first bonded to the elements potassium or chlorine.

The use of antiseptics, the general use of antiseptics and acceptance of the theory of germs, was far off. Iodine made it's leap into medical history when a Swiss physician, Dr Jean François Condet, announced that iodine could reduce goiters (enlarged thyroids).

At this moment, modern medical science is born. For the first time in history we have a specific disorder that is relieved by a specific treatment, which was discovered through empirical reasoning (experimentation based upon trial and error).

Please note: this treatment is a nutritional substance. The human body was designed to ingest minerals from the sea. This is nutritional medicine, not chemical medicine. Please note this, because medicine abandons this mind set later when … well, you'll have to see when.

Iodine suddenly became hip and people consumed it till they turned blue in the gills. It was a powerful stimulant loaded with uncomfortable side effects and when a group of under-worked physicians, with little to do, got together, the first regulations of medicine were initiated and iodine became a semi-controlled substance.

Like most controlled substances, the controllers knew very little about the substance they were controlling and for the sake of the public safety, they came up with an off-the-wall RYA (Required Yearly Amount) for iodine that had nothing to do with empirical science. Just one more example of people with control issues thinking they know what's best for you and me.

Luckily, a true scientist, with an appropriate name to boot, in 1917, published his findings on the study of thyroids in fish, dogs, and humans found in the Great Lakes region. His name was David Marine. He discovered that the amount of iodine our medical authorities had limited we humans to in a year's period was most likely the amount our bodies needed in a two week period.

The medical establishment poo-pooed these findings, and Marine's work has never been endorsed by the medical establishment. Keeping humans ill is profitable for drug companies, and by 1917 pharmaceuticals were the most profitable business around and growing faster than a forest fire in a wind storm after a ten-year drought.

But it was an Indian (from India) who is credited with ushering Iodine into the Medical Hall of Fame. His name is Sunker Bisey. He won a contest run by an English Manufacturing firm in which the winner would get a full scholarship at a major British university. Bisey boarded a ship to jolly old England, waved goodbye to his family, but never made it to the university.

Arriving in England dying of Malaria, he was treated to the best physicians the British Isles had to offer, but to no avail, and he soon opted to die in his homeland, and set sail. At a stopover in France where firing up kilns of seaweed was now the latest craze, someone suggested treating the dying lad with Iodine. Long story short: Bisey finished his education in England and set sail for New York where he intended on bringing this magnificent new treatment for disease to the world.

He had some minor successes with local physicians, but nothing to write home about. In 1927, out of total frustration, he wrote a letter to a crackpot psychic and requested a reading on iodine. When he received his reply, it brought tears to his eyes, according to Phil Thomas, an Edgar Cayce historian.

The letter confirmed Bisey's overall assertions and outlined an electrification process by which the iodine could be exposed to a magnetic field while suspended in a wet battery; a process that would transmute the iodine into a state the body could fully recognize and fully assimilate.

As Phil Thomas writes in his paper "IODINE - The Once A Century Element," Sunker Bisey wasted no time in assembling the necessary equipment and running the experiment. Having worked with the element for many years he knew instantly, upon tasting the detoxified form that Mr. Cayce's suggestion had finally cracked the coded mystery of the once unruly element.

He set about replacing the raw form with the new iodine … and within days he started hearing back positive reports of his new found discovery. In the months and years which followed thousands of people were routinely cured of a wide assortment of ailments, most of which had no viable treatment … prior to the advent of atomic iodine.

Now here is where the story goes sour. I'm not big on conspiracy theories, so I'll let you construct your own conclusions.

Sunker Bisey built up his iodine empire because he had no competition. His simple, inexpensive nutritional therapy was all the rage. Edgar Cayce did more readings on iodine, especially his new form which had such names as Detoxified Iodine and Atomic Iodine, but eventually would be called Atomidine. But there was only one person marketing this form of iodine and he was about to be put out of business. Put out of business by the Government.

Gee, I seem to recall a tenth amendment and something to do with restriction of free trade.

The government, in it's almighty wisdom, decided to iodize salt. This would guarantee that every American got their daily requirements for iodine. The amount the government would require to go into salt was not based upon David Marine's research (which was scientific) but rather it was based upon the 100-year-old recommendations by that group of busybody physicians with few patients to treat and way too much time on their hands.

The required daily amount (RDA) of iodine is just enough to keep our thyroids from expanding, not unlike the RDA of vitamin C today which is just enough to keep us free of scurvy, but not enough to prevent a pre scurvy disorder known as CVD, or Cardiovascular Disease. (See our publication Bypassing Bypass).

The average American was lulled into a false state of security and Bisey's business eventually crashed. He died a pauper in 1935, passing on his business, what was left of it, a few notes and lots of Atomidine no one wanted, onto his son. His son, who apparently had no interest in following in his father's footsteps (and die a pauper), turned around and sold the process to a pharmaceutical company that immediately buried it and forgot about it.

Even Edgar Cayce quit doing readings about Atomidine since it was no longer available, but near the end of his life, he resurrected a slew of iodine readings and introduced a theory of "vibrational" medicine that many are still investigating to this day. For more on Edgar Cayce, how he's been labeled a quack by some and a prophet by others, see: Edgar Cayce.

From the Cayce readings, we get this: Knowing the tendencies, supply in the vital energies that we call the vitamins, or elements. For, remember, while we give many combinations, there are only four elements in your body: water, salt, soda and iodine. These are the basic elements, they make all the rest! Each vitamin as a component part of an element is simply a combination of these other influences, given a name mostly for confusion to individuals, by those who would tell you what to do for a price.

This is an amazing statement, laughed at by the so-called scientific community, but investigated by others. Scientific types will tell you that water, salt, and soda (calcium carbonate) are not elements, while iodine is. Cayce was not an educated man. Recordings of his readings are hard to understand at times, because he went into a trance. In other words, he was asleep and sounded oftentimes like someone talking in his sleep. When he uses the word element, he is not using a chemistry denotation, but rather a loose connotation.

He often said that three or four drops of Atomidine three or four times a week were all you needed to stay healthy. How much exactly? That's hard to determine since it's your body that needs it at your levels and not at mine or your neighbors'.

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Bernard Courtois

Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac

Sir Humphry Davy

 

 

Live and learn. Learn and live better! ~ Mardy

I like all the websites I've referred to, above, and definitely appreciate seeing the massive 'overlap' of information that various quality sources provide.  But when I got into looking around at Iodine ReSource dot com, I was stunned and also felt a comaradarie.  I'd just been telling people in a Facebook group that I was not inclined to be doing anything IT-ish, I simply knew that the website I'd create (which you see as Lumigrate) was a needed tool to get message out to people and so I was going to have to learn and use the tool.  Same with taking photographs of things that you see on Lumigrate, or video.  Some people enjoy that kind of thing, I do not. 

The About information for the creator of Iodine Resource struck a chord with me because so many of her symptoms were identical to mine, including the 96.8 temperature.  I used to joke that since I was found to be dyslexic, that was funny the way my temperature was not the normal 98.6.  She talks about how her mother passed it along to her -- and I have noted so many symptoms similar to my mother's only worse for me as I'm simply later along on Earth and things were worse.  My mother was from the midwest, as the creator of this website is and discusses.  I'm going to provide the About information so you see what I'm talking about AND I believe it will encourage YOU to go on the link to see the site, if you do. Here's the link: 

www.iodine-resource.com/

My Iodine Journey

My name is Jill Van Eps and I live in sunny Florida.

My iodine journey started in Iowa where I was treated for a low iodine condition as a child because I was always sick.

I remember drinking a glass of orange juice with iodine in it every morning before going to school. At that time, I didn't ask questions, I just drank it.

College ended abruptly when I came down with mononucleosis. My parents had to come pick me up from school. I was too weak to take a bus home.

I lost a year of my life sleeping continuously. I was not allowed to go out in the sun. Why - I have no clue. Later, I found out the doctor believed I had leukemia.

I remember trying to climb the steps to the doctor's office. I couldn't walk up the steps. I had to sit down on the step and push myself up with my arms step by step. Now that's weak!

After the mono experience, I was left with a low body temperature of 96.8degrees. Living in Florida is not bad - when its hot outside, I'm quite comfortable.

As a young woman when I was about 24, I woke up one morning and felt a lump in my throat. I was terror stricken. I ran to the family doctor to cure the problem. After all, they know everything - right?

He prescribed a drug to supposedly alleviate the problem. When I asked what it was used for, he informed me it was used to sedate lions. I went home and promptly flushed the pills down the toilet.

My cure was to stop wearing turtle neck tops - my favorite of course - to keep from feeling the lump.

Then, my mother became mentally ill. She was sniffing spoons and believed all the food in the home was tainted. I poured her into the back seat of the car and took her to the hospital.

After admittance, I gently helped her into the bed where she curled up into a fetal position. My heart broke.

The kind, overweight doctor told her she needed to lose weight (not). It didn't matter that he was an overstuffed pig. His solution was to drug her up on heart shaped pills and send her home.

Now I Know

I now know all of these situations were due to low iodine or iodine deficiency. My mother's mental condition was really low iodine.

She lived in the Midwest all her life. She passed on her hypothyroid condition to me at my birth.

My extremely painful monthly periods where I would pass out; the mononucleosis; the hypoglycemia and its symptoms and the goiter are all markers of iodine deficiency. The Midwest area of the United States has one of the lowest levels of iodine in the soil in the entire country.

This area is known as the "goiter belt". I lived right in the heart of it. 

My Physical Signs of Iodine Deficiency

You read on this site that one of the symptoms of iodine deficiency is thinning eyebrows known as "sign of Hertoghe".

Here is a picture of my eyebrow. As you can see, the outside third portion of the eyebrow has virtually disappeared!

Another symptom of iodine deficiency is the high color in the cheeks.

This is not the color of health. I will be quite pleased when it finally disappears - which I know it will. 

Also, I have NO hair on my body. None - zip - nadda. I used to think that was cool - no armpits to shave - no legs hairs to shave. Little did I know - you got it - low iodine.

My Goal

My search for facts about iodine and iodine deficiency has led me to create this web site containing helpful information I have gathered along the way.

Its information I need to know so that I can become healthy again.

My goal is to develop a community of kindred souls who can share and help each other return to vibrant health.

I know that by providing this information to you. you can reclaim your health.

From the About Me page at www.iodine-resource.com/about-me.html

If you wish to go to the home page of Iodine Resource dot com: 
Leave About Me and Return to Iodine Resource Home Page

 

---

This was a link provided by someone in the Facebook group studying the research of Steve Beddingfield, who I've focused upon in 2015 heavily because he's just the only one out there on what I think is THE cutting edge, telling us about THE Stuff that's ultimately the underlying root cause of the mayhem going on with escalating unwellness of everything in the ecosystem, including humans and our pets, which has been my focus (though I do get into information about soils as it get to food. 

The group mate had provided the link you'll see on the left that's about 'cherry angiomas'.  Since those are so visible, and so common, it's become one of the main things I've used when talking in person to people, to get them realizing there are symptoms outwardly of what's going on inwardly. 

In a group such as Steve Beddingfield's, I've repeatedly stated that these common 'red dots' on the skin are symptomatic of deficiencies; he's tended to try to connect them to interlopers (I affectionately call them) which he sees under his microscope. That's the fun of featuring his evolving work and group information, it's a layperson researcher with a bunch of other sick and motivated people trying to learn together, and we're constantly having to remind ourselves that the teachers often are learning too, and it's a very organic process. So I was thrilled to see that someone in his group had brought the standpoint of Jill Van Eps' topic about cherry angiomas to the group because 1) it supported what path I was suggesting be remembered about cause and 2) I learned of this amazing resource. It's going to be one of my favorites, I susped. 

Live and learn. Learn and live better! ~ Mardy

 

 

 

In April 2016, per the date on this today as I add on to this comment thread with this new resource I found recently, Maggie's Holistics NY (dot com) maggiesholisticsny.com/you-absolutely-need-iodine/, the following excerpt is worth noting. 

 

Maggie’s Holistics Colloidal Iodine’s are like no other iodine on the market. What sets it apart from the other Iodine’s is that our iodine is mined 7000ft deep in the earths crust from the Northern Hemisphere and broken down to its atomic state, making it more bio available to every cell in the body- no chemicals used in this process.

Potassium iodine which derives from sea vegetation either from the pacific in which case is Fukushima radiated or farmed. It then undergoes a chemical process and must latch onto potassium or sodium element making it a compound. Maggie’s Holistics Iodine latches onto itself making it a safer, purer form of iodine.

Daring to think out of the box through the past decade has resulted in tackling  my family’s health issues successfully. I credit my Holistic practices to my new found knowledge that I now share with the world.

In further pursuing information via Maggie's website, I found more elaboration about her family's health, which I think is of value to add -- her son is no longer 'on the spectrum' -- so there's an autism aspect to this story.  In the thinking of many who I've studied in the past few years, and in drawing my own conclusions from connecting the dots, I agree: what is increasingly seen as autism behaviors or symptoms correlates with what is seen as chronic fatigue and pain and other chronic, environmental illness conditions such as MS, lupus, etc., in adulthood. 

As a person goes further around the sun in trips ("ages"), you'll see symptoms that get diagnosed in mainstream as "Parkinsons", "Lewy bodies protein disorder", Alzheimers (or other dementias, sometimes they just call it dementia and don't go into elaborating what variety). Amyloid is a common denominator in children with autism diagnosed and aged with Alzheimer's diagnosed, and many in between.  

We've seen prolific information coming out of MIT via Dr. Stephanie Seneff for the last handfull of years focusing on the key role of glyphosate in "autism", and then the other disorders as I've mentioned here.  In more recent times, I've seen her getting into the details of the interrelationship of these symptoms AND, more importantly, the cascade of things within the body that leads to whichever dis-ease states.  Why one person will go the path of dementia primarily with another going the path of a movement disorder primarily has reasons which are explained.

Glyphosate is the main active chemical in "Roundup", which is associated with Monsanto and GMO, but which was utilized increasingly by agriculture on non GMO crops as a defoliant for harvest purposes.  Dr Seneff's correlations of statistics relative to disease statistics and amount of glyphosate sold/used is compelling at the least, convincing at the most.  Glyphosate is not the only factor in the massive unwellness on Earth in things human and otherwise, but it's a major component, certainly, in my opinion, and increasingly with others.

That's "another story for another day" that I'm going to provide at Lumigrate, but I wanted to refer to it here because iodine (and salt, another massive topic that seems it should be simple but it ends up with a lot of aspects to learn about if one wishes) having to do with the overall balance of things in the body, detoxification of things in the body, etc., is key.  And, with salt, as with iodine, what brand you chose to utilize, if you chose to, is critical! How salt is mined, for example -- blowing it up out of the Earth, which leaves traces of what's in the blasting compounds, which can be heavy metals. 

I like that Maggie had related a bit about how the source is mined for the iodine that is manufactured, which she sells. Further checking on how it's extracted and what testing is done on whatever is in the end product might be of benefit.  It's challenging for smaller companies, I'm sure, to provide all the things the larger companies provide, but as a resource, I want to provide as an example the website of the salt that I choose to purchase and utilize for a lot of my use.  Real Salt is out of Utah. 

I live about 25 miles, since 2004, from the Colorado/Utah border and have been at an overlook near a salt mine around Moab, Utah on a trip to hike and sight-see around Moab.  I have an appreciation for these old sea beds which have salt from the seas before the seas were polluted, as they have become in recent times.

As you'll see at the video about the Real company, if you watch it (it's only about four minutes), they relate how they started out and have grown, and the values they have about doing business.  Maggie's website tells the user a lot about what she believes, what she's studied, and I REALLY resonated with it.  You might too.  And you might not.  But I wanted to offer it here as a suggestion.

Here's the Real Salt website link to the topic about analysis, as I sign off from this comment!  www.realsalt.com/minerals-analysis/

Live and learn.  Learn and live better! ~~ Mardy