Hidden Treasures of Knowledge - Iodine
Dear Family and Friends,
In mid October Brenda and I went to Washington to visit Tadd and Darlene and see the ballroom tour team perform. While we were there Tadd recommended that I read an article. He tried to print off the article several times. It wouldn’t print so he gave me the web site where I could go to read the article. He actually did us a big service by not handing me the article. When we got back home I went to the web site and read the article. While I was on that web site I noticed another article. That other article introduced me to another hidden treasure of knowledge that I need to share with you.
[This email is quite long. It is multiple pages. I worked on it over the past two months drawing information from numerous sources in the hope of collecting valuable information for you so you would not need to go find it. It includes information that affects your life, but you, like I was, are probably not aware of it. I strongly recommend that you read it all the way to the end even if you need to read it over several sessions. If you don’t have time to read this email at least go this web site and read this article by Dr. Donald Miller.]
http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller20.html
Iodine
The article that I discovered talks about iodine. When I read the article I knew almost nothing about iodine. The article definitely caught my interest. I have now read two dozen articles about iodine and purchased a book about iodine. What I learned will be especially interesting to you if you are a woman or have any women in your life.
Fibrocystic Breast Disease - Breast Cancer – Reproductive Organ Diseases
We have all watched with dismay as the incidence of breast cancer has sky rocketed from one in twenty about 30-40 years ago, to one in seven today, and the rate continues to rise. We see ribbons all over the place and organizations encouraging us to contribute to the effort to find the cause and cure for breast cancer. As I explained what I have learned about iodine to members of the family, my daughter-in-law Raven (Bryce’s wife), said “send me the information. I will be happy to read it. I think most women just believe that eventually all of us will have to deal with breast cancer.”
It may very well be that the rise in breast cancer is linked to the decrease in the intake of iodine over the past 60 years. And it is not just breast cancer that is linked to decreased intake of iodine, but all reproductive organs apparently need iodine. Recent researchers have discovered that ovarian cysts, uterine cysts, fibrocystic breast disease, and for men, prostate cancer are all related to decreased intake of iodine.
It is estimated that 90 percent of women in the U.S. have or will have fibrocystic breast disease (FBD). In the 1920’s it was 3 percent. A month ago I didn’t know anything about FBD, which has been described as tender or even painful breasts during the monthly cycle. Apparently it progresses from tender to painful to very painful breasts that increasingly over time become filled with cysts and fibrous tissue. It has also been described as a precursor for breast cancer.
The researchers I have recently been reading (all of which are medical doctors or other medical professionals) have said that increasing the intake of iodine may reduce, or even eliminate, fibrocystic breast disease, ovarian cysts, uterine cysts, breast cancer and prostate cancer. They say that all of these reproductive organs have receptors for iodine and have a definite need for iodine. They say that our daily intake of iodine 30-40 years ago was many times more than it is today. Our decreased intake of iodine today may be a reason for the increase in reproductive organ diseases like FBD, breast cancer and prostate cancer. Iodine is not expensive. It is certainly worth learning about to possibly avoid the suffering or death.
The Established View
The established view of iodine is that only our thyroid gland needs iodine. The recent iodine researchers say this is not correct. They say that every cell of our body has receptors for iodine, especially our reproductive organs. The established view also says that we only need a microscopic amount of iodine. The RDI (Recommended Daily Intake) for iodine is 150 mcg (micrograms). A microgram is one thousandth of a milligram. So the RDI is 15% of one milligram. The established view also says that anything above about 2-3 milligrams a day can be toxic. The more current view is that this is also not correct.
Japanese
One study, done in 1964, discovered that the Japanese have a daily intake of 13.5 milligrams of iodine. That is 100 times more than the RDI in the U.S. The Japanese women also have the lowest incidence of breast cancer. The reason the Japanese eat so much iodine is because of the seaweed in their diet. An average person in Japan eats something like 4.5 grams of seaweed every day. There are about 3 milligrams of iodine in each gram of seaweed. So, the average person in Japan eats about 13.5 milligrams of iodine every day. And they are some of the healthiest people in the world. (A more recent study says that today the average Japanese eat even more seaweed than they did in 1964, about 14 grams. That would mean that they are now consuming about 42 mgs of iodine per day on average.)
Either the Japanese are mutants capable of consuming much more iodine than the rest of the world, or our established view of the amount of iodine that our bodies need is much too low. Proceeding on the assumption that our established view is faulty a number of researchers, most of them medical doctors, have conducted several studies over the past 15 years that has discovered a connection between our low intake of iodine and the increased incidence of breast cancer, FBD, and other reproductive organ diseases. This is really valuable information because over the past decade we have seen a rapid rise in the incidence of reproductive organ diseases and we haven’t seemed to be able to discover the cause.
History
So, how do we get our iodine and why has the intake of iodine gone down in recent years? Iodine was discovered in 1811. Its connection to goiter was discovered in the late 1800’s. Goiter is a swelling of the thyroid due to reduced intake of iodine. To keep people from developing goiter, in the 1920’s iodine was added to salt so that everyone would get some iodine every day. This is iodized salt that everyone is familiar with. Iodine was also added to bread so that one slice of bread provided the 150 mcg (the RDA) of iodine.
Iodine Intake is Going Down While Health Problems Go Up
Over the past two decades many in the medical profession have convinced everyone that we should reduce our intake of salt. Low salt and no salt everything is the way we are supposed to eat today. Today about 40 percent of the population buys salt that has no iodine. Most people have reduced their intake of salt by about 60%. So even the people who buy iodized salt are getting much less. Iodine was also taken out of bread and replaced by bromine which just happens to be an iodine blocker. All of this reducing of iodine in our diet has translated into an average intake of iodine that is only a fraction of what it used to be.
The RDI for iodine was established to prevent goiter (since they thought that the thyroid was the only thing in our body that needed iodine). Even though salt and bread only provided a tiny amount of iodine it was enough to prevent goiter, but as iodine intake has gone down our average intake has apparently has not been enough to prevent breast cancer, fibrocystic breast disease, ovarian cysts, and prostate cancer. Other health problems are also related to our reduced intake of iodine because every cell has receptors for iodine. Two other major problems are mental retardation and cretinism, a severe form of mental retardation that includes physical deformity. The International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders has as its major goal the elimination of mental retardation and cretinism due to iodine deficiency. Mental retardation due to iodine deficiency is a major problem in China, India and many other countries in the world today. Millions of people suffer from mental retardation (10 million in China alone) due to insufficient iodine in the mother during pregnancy. This tie between mental retardation and iodine highlights the need our brain has for iodine especially in babies while the brain is growing and developing. Apparently the brain does not lose its receptors for iodine. Parkinson’s disease is mentioned as being affected by iodine.
Misinformation
So, how could this happen? How could our understanding of iodine and its importance in our lives become so flawed? The story goes like this. In 1948 a study by Wolff and Chaikoff at UC Berkley found that when rats were injected with iodide in increasing amounts their thyroid gland stopped up-taking iodine. Today it is known that the correct interpretation would be that the thyroid gland became iodine sufficient and therefore the up-take was reduced. Wolff and Chaikoff incorrectly interpreted the results to be that as the iodine intake increased it blocked the intake of iodine by the thyroid. They concluded that increased iodine intake resulted in hypothyroidism and goiter. Dr Guy Abraham today says “this fictitious phenomenon became known as the Wolff-Chaikoff effect.” Unfortunately this erroneous Wolff-Chaikoff effect is believed by virtually the entire medical profession today and most of the population.
Dr Guy Abraham says “the second nail in the iodine coffin was hammered in by Dr. Wolff in 1969. By 1969, Wolff had moved to the National Institute of Health from UC Berkley. Wolff arbitrarily defined four levels of ‘iodine excess.’ The first level of excess started with intake above .2 mg per day and iodide intake of 2 mg or more was considered ‘excessive and potentially harmful.’ By the 1970’s, physicians concluded that one must avoid inorganic, non-radioactive iodine like leprosy.” Dr Abraham somewhat sarcastically adds, “Unless it was incorporated into the toxic, organic iodine-containing drugs” [that thyroid doctors like to prescribe], “then iodine could be tolerated because iodine could be blamed for the toxicity of these drugs.”
Guy Abraham – The Iodine Project
Dr. Guy Abraham is a medical doctor and former professor of obstetrics, gynecology and endocrinology at UCLA School of Medicine. He read the 1993 study by Ghent, Low and Hill that 5 mg of iodine a day had a very beneficial effect on fibrocystic breast disease. (Dr Abraham read the Ghent study in 1997.) The Ghent study did not confirm Wolff’s prediction that daily intake of 2 mg of iodine was “excessive and potentially harmful.” Dr Abraham said that “based on academic credentials and reputation, the opinion of a thyroidologist, Wolff, from the National Institute of Health, would prevail over the findings of Ghent, et al.” However, Dr Abraham was more interested in facts than the preconceived opinions of famous thyroidologists, therefore he began an extensive search of the literature on iodine medicine combined with some original clinical research of his own.
He discovered that the Japanese averaged 13.8 mg of elemental iodine daily, “and Japan is one of the healthiest nations, based on overall well-being and cancer statistics.” Japanese women have the lowest level of breast cancer of any other nation in the world. He concluded, “Either the Japanese are mutants, capable of thriving on toxic levels of iodine or we have been grossly deceived, and the human body needs at least 100 times the RDA.”
Dr Abraham also says, “It is of interest to mention that both radio iodide (which kills the thyroid gland) and goitrogens (drugs and other substances which stop the thyroid from up-taking the iodine that it needs) were introduced [in the late 1940’s] by the same group of investigators…at about the same time iodophobic misinformation started appearing in the medical literature again authored by the same investigators.”
Dr. Abraham discovered that Ghent Et al were not the first to discover the effect of iodine on fibrocystic Breast disease. Russian researchers first discovered in 1966 that iodine relieves signs and symptoms of FBD. They administered 50 mg of iodine per day to 167 women suffering from FBD and obtained a beneficial healing effect in 71 percent. Dr Abraham also discovered that doctors for decades would give iodine to patients. The Nobel laureate Dr Albert Szent Gyorgi (1893-1986), the physician who discovered vitamin C, wrote: “When I was a medical student, iodine in the form of KI [potassium iodide] was the universal medicine. Nobody knew what it did, but it did something and did something good.”
Dr Abraham did some extensive research of his own rather than just believing the accepted view of iodine put forth by Wolff and Chaikoff. He said, “After overcoming the delusion that inorganic, non-radioactive forms of iodine are toxic and becoming aware that the inorganic, non-radioactive forms of iodine were extremely safe and used extensively by US physicians for many medical conditions, the author initiated the Iodine Project.”
You can read all about the Iodine Project study and other articles about Dr Abraham’s iodine research at the Optimox site below. You can also read articles by Dr. Jorge Flechas, MD, and Dr David Brownstein, MD, who participated in the original study with Dr. Abraham. Dr. Flechas and Dr Brownstein are practicing physicians. They used several thousand of their patients in their medical practices, with their full knowledge and approval, in the Iodine Project. Here are articles by these doctors about their findings in the Iodine Project.
http://www.optimox.com/pics/Iodine/opt_Research_I.shtml
Dr Abraham’s articles are not too technical and are easily understood but they do contain a lot of scientific explanations.
Dr. Donald Miller - Read This
But, I recommend that you read this article, Iodine for Health, by Dr. Donald W. Miller, Jr, MD. Dr Miller is a cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle.
This article is a good introduction to iodine.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller20.html
You can also get to the article by going to Dr Miller’s own web site and find more information about iodine, vitamin D, vaccines and other subjects of interest to Dr Miller. Here is Dr. Miller’s web site.
Extrathyroidal Benefits of Iodine
Dr Miller wrote an article that appeared in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Winter 2006 entitled, Extrathyroidal Benefits of Iodine. It is about all the other ways that iodine is necessary for good health besides its use by the thyroid gland. The article talks about why iodine is helpful in cancer in general (especially breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer). Iodine functions as an antioxidant neutralizing free radicals, and it induces apoptosis (programmed cell death). We are constantly growing and replacing cells and tissues with new tissue. Apoptosis is necessary in this process. It is also important for destroying cells that represent a threat, like cancer cells, and cells infected with viruses. It has been said that the anticancer function of iodine may be iodine’s most important extrathyroidal (non-thyroid) benefit. Dr. Miller is only one of many who have written about the many benefits of iodine but Dr. Miller’s article is good.
Go to Dr Miller’s web site and scroll down to this article. http://www.donaldmiller.com/
Dr Miller explains “that iodine has a highly statistically significant beneficial effect on fibrocystic breast disease. Iodine reduced breast tenderness, nodularity, fibrosis, turgidity, and number of macroscysts, the five parameters in a total breast examination score that a physician….. measured.”
Dr Miller explains how iodine removes toxic chemicals and metals from the body like fluoride, bromide, mercury, lead, cadmium, and aluminum.
Dr Robert Jay Rowen, in the October and November 2004 issues of Second Opinion newsletter said this about iodine. “During the 19th century, iodine was considered the universal treatment: “If nothing else works, try iodine” was the adage. Considering the broad range of symptoms of thyroid deficiency (fatigue, hypertension, depression, hair loss, hoarseness, dry skin, constipation, cold intolerance, concentration difficulties, muscle cramps, menstrual problems, poor memory, inability to concentrate, weight gain, nervousness, infertility, irritability, bone thinning, just to name a few), no wonder it was promoted as the universal treatment….”
Dr. Bruce West, in the December 2005 issue of Health Alert newsletter, said “the goal [is] to reach a whole body iodine sufficiency. When this state is reached, the following results have been observed (gathered using sophisticated lab testing, fluorescence screening, clinical measurement, and a host of other high-tech medical testing procedures):
- Goiter is reduced or eliminated
- Stress on the pituitary gland with resultant high TSH readings is eliminated
- Increased excretion of thyroid poisons and heavy metals occurs via the kidneys
- The liver’s detoxification mechanisms are enhanced
- Obesity is more easily overcome—in fact, iodine therapy may be a critical and unknown factor in obesity
- Diabetes and high blood pressure are more easily controlled
- Breast tissue normalizes with decreased occurrences of fibrocystic breast disease
- Menopausal symptoms are improved
- Polycystic Ovary Syndrome can be cured
- Brain function is better, with less brain fog
- Heart function is better, with reduced arrhythmia problems
- Cancer rates, especially of the thyroid and breast, are reduced
Several articles I have read say that iodine helps with migraine headaches, lack of stomach acid, chronic illness, and fibromyalgia. Because if its impact on the brain Parkinson’s disease is mentioned in several articles as being helped with iodine.
Iodine: The Universal Nutrient
If you would like to read a general article about iodine by Dr. Guy Abraham click on this link. This is a good, easy to understand article entitled Iodine: The Universal Nutrient.
http://www.vrp.com/articles.aspx?page=LIST&ProdID=art1781&search_in=articles
A good web site for information about iodine is Iodine 4 Health.com:
Here is an article by Dr. Michael B. Schachter, MD entitled, Iodine: Its Role In Health and Disease, Some New Exciting Concepts.
www.mbschachter.com/iodine.htm
Here is an article by Laura Power, PhD, LDN entitled, The Iodine Deficiency Epidemic: Linked to thyroid & Breast Diseases, Cancer & Obesity. Linked to Mental Retardation in Children.
www.laurapower.com/iodinedeficiency.htm
Lugol’s Solution
In these articles you will read about Lugol’s Solution. This is a solution of 5% iodine and 10% potassium iodide in 85% distilled water. It was first used in 1829 and named after a French physician, Dr. J.G.A. Lugol. This is the solution of iodine that many doctors have used since 1829 to treat their patients. In November 2007 the U.S. DEA outlawed the manufacture and sale of Lugol’s Solution in the United States because it can be used to make methamphetamines (companies can’t make solutions of iodine higher than 6%). The fact that thousands of people (maybe millions) used Logol’s Solution to keep themselves health apparently was on no consequence. One drop of Logol’s Solution is about 6 mg of iodine. Doctors have used two drops a day in juice to give their patients about 12.5 mg of iodine, the amount the average Japanese get in their diet every day. You can still buy liquid iodine made in the U.S. in 2% solutions but Lugol’s was too high. You can still buy Lugol’s Solution but it must be manufactured and sold from outside the U.S. Lugol’s Solution is quit inexpensive at about $12.00 for an 8 oz bottle containing about 6,000 drops. You can buy it from a company in Ecuador called Alpha Omega Labs at this address.
http://altcancer.com/order_9_08.htm
Recommendations
Dr Abraham recommends that everyone take at least 12.5 mg of iodine per day (he recommends up to 50 mgs a day for FBD and other health problems and to get to whole body sufficiency more quickly). This would give us about the amount the Japanese received everyday in 1964 (the Japanese now average about 45 mg per day based on their current average daily intake of seaweed).
Iodoral
Dr. Abraham did not use Lugol’s Solution in his Iodine Project. He thinks it is fine for health purposes but he feels that a liquid solution is not precise enough for a scientific study because one drop can be a large or small drop which will affect the amount of iodine. Iodine as a liquid also stains clothing and has a very strong taste. A company called Optimox Corporation joined with Dr Abraham in the Iodine Project and makes a tablet version of Lugol’s Solution called Iodoral. It is a small tablet that contains 5 mg of elemental iodine and 7.5 mg of potassium iodide the same as Lugol’s Solution. This provides the amount of iodine that the Japanese got in their daily diet in 1964. This is the iodine that Dr Abraham used in the Iodine Project. You can learn about Iodoral and read the research of Drs. Abraham, Flechas, and Brownstein from the Optimox web site.
I believe that Optimox Corp only sells directly to other companies so you need to buy Iodoral from other sites which sell Iodoral. Some of our tissues prefer elemental iodine (i.e. breast tissue). Other tissues prefer iodine in the form of potassium iodide. It is recommended that we take a supplement like Iodoral that contains both forms.
Here are some sites that I have found that sell Iodoral.
If you want to buy one bottle of 90 tablets of Iodoral this is the best price I have been able to find. If you take one tablet a day 90 tablets would last three months. One bottle of 90 tablets is $25.60 including shipping. The site is run by a woman named Nancy Adams in Coos Bay Oregon. She also sells it in cases of twelve. Nancy also has a lot of good user testimonial information about iodine on her web site here:
http://www.quackcenter.com/iodoral.html
If you want to buy the 180 tablet bottle (a six month supply), I have found this site to sell it for a better price than the Nancy Adams site above.
http://www.illnessisoptional.com/ace/product.asp?ProdID=15899&CtgID=
There are a lot of sites on the internet that sell Iodoral iodine.
Potassium Iodide in Nuclear Radiation Prevention
If you follow the above recommendations and become whole body iodine sufficient by providing your body with the amount of iodine it needs to function properly then your thyroid gland will not be susceptible to cancer and death from radioactive fallout in the event a nuclear bomb is detonated and fallout comes over and exposes you to damaging levels of radioactive iodine.
While learning about iodine by reading the above information and more, I re-learned that iodine plays an important part in nuclear radiation. When an atomic bomb is detonated it gives off radioactive iodine. If we are in the path of the radioactive fallout, in our current state of iodine deficiency everyone’s thyroid gland would quickly absorb the radioactive iodine in the fallout and kill everyone’s thyroid gland. Thyroid cancer would follow. The government has been preparing for this possibility for decades. Millions of doses of potassium iodide have been manufactured and stored in government warehouses with the intent of distributing it to the population if an atomic bomb were detonated. The problem is, if there were a nuclear bomb detonation the government may not have time to distribute the stored potassium iodide before the damage would be done to our thyroid. It is recommended that if we hear that an atom bomb is exploded in the U.S. we should take potassium iodide as quickly as possible, preferably within 4 hours. The dosage is 130 mgs (milligrams). We continue to take this 130 mg dose every day there is a radioactive fallout threat.
This 130 mg dose contains about 100 mgs of iodine. This lets you know that iodine in large doses is not toxic or dangerous. The government recommends that everyone receive this 130 mg dose of potassium iodide as quickly as possible before radioactive fallout comes over. The official government information recommends that children take half the full dose and tiny babies take a fourth. But they say it would be better to give children a full dose than to let them be exposed to radioactive iodine and the resulting thyroid cancer.
I recommend that everyone put some potassium iodide in their emergency preparedness supplies. This link will take you to the official government (FDA) current guidelines: Guidance – Potassium Iodide as a Thyroid blocking Agent in Radiation Emergencies . It explains what they learned about the impact of radioactive iodine from the Chernobyl accident in 1986, and explains the current government guidelines for protecting your thyroid gland from up-taking radioactive iodine by loading your thyroid with good iodine.
http://www.nukepills.com/guidance-potassium-iodide-thyroid-blocking.html
Here is the same document in PDF format from the FDA web site. It must be downloaded, saved and then opened.
www.fda.gov/cder/guidance/4825fnl.pdf
Here is a web site where you can buy potassium iodide in 130 mg doses for use as explained above. This is the site of a company called Nukepills.com. Nukepills.com was created in 1999 as a means of supplying FDA approved Potassium Iodide directly to the general public and has international sales programs throughout Canada, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. However, this is not the only company that sells potassium iodide.
http://www.nukepills.com/potassium-iodide.htm
Conclusion
I recommend that you share this email with all of your family and friends. Women will especially be interested in the breast health/cancer information that it contains. Men should be interested in the help with prostate health. Men are now told that all men over the age of 60 either have or will develop prostate cancer. It may very well be that iodine deficiency is the reason for both of these cancers in women and men.
The thyroid gland produces hormones that are very important in metabolism and growth and many other health matters. There is a popular approach in medicine today when people develop thyroid problems. It involves killing your thyroid gland with radioactive iodine. After the thyroid gland is destroyed by the very method that the government recommends that we prepare to avoid, exposure to radioactive iodine, and/or the thyroid is cut out, the person is then put on thyroid drugs for the rest of their life, under a doctor’s ongoing care. The articles I have read say that the thyroid problems were probably caused by iodine deficiency in the first place and often can be reversed by adequate intake of iodine. If this situation pertains to you, you may want to discuss the information in this email with your doctor or ask him/her to read the research of Dr Abraham and others.
I have only linked you to a few of the articles I have read but I have given you enough information that you can research the issues for yourself. Read the material and decide for yourself if you are interested in breast health, ovarian and uterine health, prostate health, thyroid health, migraine headaches, chronic illness, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, detoxification, heart health, brain health etc. If I had to recommend one article it would be Dr Donald Miller’s article. If I had to recommend one source of more information it would be the Iodine 4 Health web site. It contains dozens of articles and studies: Hidden treasures of knowledge.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller20.html
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