Avoiding iodine screwed up my thyroid, can I reverse this with iodine supps?

Last October I had a thyroid test and had the following results:
T4         134.80              (66.00 -181.0)      [nmol/L]
TSH           6.19      H     (0.27-4.20)           [mIU/L]

Then I did some diet changes and decided to switch to sea salt (non-iodized), thinking I probably had enough iodine in my food.

This was a HUGE mistake. Within 3 weeks my heart started pounding like crazy (all day long, all the time) and at the slightest stress and at random times of day my body would send out random surges of adrenaline (probably compensating for low thyroid) which made me feel like I was going to die within 5 minutes. 2 month after that I got another test with these results:

TSH 5.20
T4 99

Pretty huge drop in T4 just within a few weeks. I know that this low T4 is behind the disregulated heartbeat, because my mom has also a very low T4 and had similar heart problems for years. Also taking synthroid helps me greatly (it's the only thing getting me through the day at the moment).

I just started taking 500 mcg of KI hoping to get my thyroid at least back up to previous levels... do you think this will work? Or did I do permanent damage? My heartbeat has been screwed up for 9 months now.

Probably a lot of halides set up camp so it might take a lot more iodine to fix this...

Weird. Why not just go back on your old diet?

One would imagine that getting enough iodine would fix it. Natural sources like kelp are probably fine...

Would look into older threads on salt loading (Vitamin C, Magnesium and selenium are necessary).

I'm not a fan of sea salt unless it's sun dried (because if not, there are no electrons).

hoppipolla wrote:Weird. Why not just go back on your old diet?

One would imagine that getting enough iodine would fix it. Natural sources like kelp are probably fine...

I tried reversing all the dietary changes, I've even been using iodized salt again for the past 5 months. Hasn't helped. My thyroid still can't make enough T4 to regulate my heartbeat properly. I've never had heart problems all my life, certainly not anything like this.

I just don't know how much iodine it's going to take. I suppose bromide/floride might have gotten in when I stopped getting enough iodine so now I have to use much more to push them out.

CausticSymmetry wrote:
Would look into older threads on salt loading (Vitamin C, Magnesium and selenium are necessary).

I'm not a fan of sea salt unless it's sun dried (because if not, there are no electrons).

I use magnesium chloride, eat brazil nuts for selenium and have Vitamin C on the way.

CS do you think this is just a case of iodine deficiency? I don't know what else could have caused T4 to drop so much in just 2-3 weeks.

I haven't had any negative reactions to the KI so far aside from an acne breakout that took a day to clear up. I feel like I have somewhat more energy. I will keep slowly bumping up the dose as I think my body's giving me the go ahead.

DeadlyDevice - Synthroid is only synthetic T4. Sufficient iodine is required (or other minerals to convert to the more active T3).

A natural desiccated form would help better.

Also, the amount of iodine needed (both iodide/iodine) is a total 12.5 mg per day (more in some cases).

More info here (I am currently updating this).

http://web.archive.org/web/20120713000610/http://healthyfixx.com/plan/6/fixxing-your-thyroid

CausticSymmetry wrote:Would look into older threads on salt loading (Vitamin C, Magnesium and selenium are necessary).

I'm not a fan of sea salt unless it's sun dried (because if not, there are no electrons).

any particular reputable brands you recommend? ive been using celtic, not sure if it's sun dried though.

sanderson wrote:

CausticSymmetry wrote:Would look into older threads on salt loading (Vitamin C, Magnesium and selenium are necessary).

I'm not a fan of sea salt unless it's sun dried (because if not, there are no electrons).

any particular reputable brands you recommend? ive been using celtic, not sure if it's sun dried though.

The idea that you have to buy one specific product to be healthy seems kind of ridiculous.

The cheapest and one of the safest salts around is Morton's canning and pickling salt (the reason is that it is pure sodium chloride with no aluminum filler)

http://www.mortonsalt.com/for-your-home/where-to-buy

http://www.mortonsalt.com/for-your-home/culinary-salts/food-salts/31/morton-canning-and-pickling-salt/#detailtabs-buyonline

So... you have no other health issues at all? No IBS or signs of infection or mercury-containing fillings or anything like that?

Deadly,

If it were me, I would see an endocrinologist (preferably a thyroid literate doc) and get tested for Hashimotos. It can be cyclic, with periods of hypo and then periods of hyper symptoms. Did your last test include TG and TPO antibodies?

On that note, have you ever cut gluten out of your diet entirely?

CausticSymmetry wrote:The cheapest and one of the safest salts around is Morton's canning and pickling salt (the reason is that it is pure sodium chloride with no aluminum filler)

http://www.mortonsalt.com/for-your-home/where-to-buy

http://www.mortonsalt.com/for-your-home/culinary-salts/food-salts/31/morton-canning-and-pickling-salt/#detailtabs-buyonline

I've read that you don't need any salt supplementation period and that you can get enough organic sodium from plants. Any opinion on this? I'm looking at the nutrition facts of raw broccoli and 100 grams has 34 calories and 33 mg of sodium. If you ate only broccoli for the day (2000 calories) you would get 1700 mg of sodium and you only need about 2-3 grams of sodium anyway, correct? Animals don't salt their food and they do just fine so I'm wondering if you need any type of salt.

hoppipolla wrote:So... you have no other health issues at all? No IBS or signs of infection or mercury-containing fillings or anything like that?

Well I have plenty of health issues. Low energy, acne, bad skin overall, weight gain, weak nails full of ridges and weird colored lines, I can't think of everything at the moment.

My digestion is pretty decent if somewhat slow. Never had anything done with my teeth, I still have all of them and aside from some gum recession they're doing relatively good.

anthonyspencer54 wrote:Deadly,

If it were me, I would see an endocrinologist (preferably a thyroid literate doc) and get tested for Hashimotos. It can be cyclic, with periods of hypo and then periods of hyper symptoms. Did your last test include TG and TPO antibodies?

On that note, have you ever cut gluten out of your diet entirely?

Anti-TPO   8.82              (<34)                   [IU/mL]
Anti-TgAb  <10.00         (<115)                  [IU/mL]

I try to avoid gluten as much as possible but I always slip here and there. The docs here are hopeless. I had to fight with the GP last time just to give me a T3 test, today she just gave me a T4 and TSH test and won't give me anything else. The *****. I will change doctors but I hate them and try to avoid them as much as possible.

CausticSymmetry wrote:The cheapest and one of the safest salts around is Morton's canning and pickling salt (the reason is that it is pure sodium chloride with no aluminum filler)

http://www.mortonsalt.com/for-your-home/where-to-buy

http://www.mortonsalt.com/for-your-home/culinary-salts/food-salts/31/morton-canning-and-pickling-salt/#detailtabs-buyonline

very interesting.. i have some of morton's other salt, but i will pick this one up. thanks CS.

MAN I hope I am not saying this too early but I think this is working!! I have been feeling better every day, my heartbeat is becoming less and less noticeable. I've been off Synthroid for the 3rd day now, and had no adrenaline attacks.

I worked up to 725 mcg of iodine over 2 weeks. It seems that my thyroid has started to take care of business again!

Wow after 9 months of agony of being iodine deficient, being barely able to fall asleep at night, and not a single endocrinologist or heart specialist could see what was happening to me...

And I was probably borderline deficient for years before if it only took two weeks of not eating iodized salt to deplete me...

I wanna see just how far out of hypothyroidism I can get with iodine. I'm gonna work up to a few mg and then switch to Lugol's to see if it can fix everything that's wrong with me, because the way I've been feeling so far it looks damn promising!

There are few things better in life than having a second chance at gaining your health back..........

I used to be very anti-iodine, but shit... I'm a believer now.

Keep us updated, very interesting!

OK, thyroid test taken on the 24th July, at this point I was 12 days into iodine supplementation, and still on synthroid:

T4 108.00 nmol/L (66.00-181.00)
TSH 5.82 mIU/L (0.27-4.20)

T4 is still rather low which is why my heart is still giving me issues, but it's better than when it was 99. My first T4 test in Oct 2012 was ~130, back then I had no heart issues so there is still ways to go.


Today is my 6th day off any thyroid medication, worked up to 1mg KI and I'm doing decent, so obviously the KI is helping some. I'm just gonna need a lot more to fix this issue. I ordered Lugols 2% yesterday and I will move to that when I get it.

Still no side effects from iodine at all, I had some acne the first 2-3 days but after that nothing.

I'm on 150 mg. of Lugol's and it's only benefiting me as far as I can tell. I am careful to take the companion nutrients and get enough good quality salt.

This is a thread at an iodine forum about starting off with higher doses instead of working up to them: http://curezone.com/forums/am.asp?i=2071520

150 mg? Brave. That's still science fiction for me

The progress is very slow, but I am getting better every day. I almost cannot believe it. @1.1 mg currently. Still waiting on my Lugol's.

The heart works much more normal now, been off thyroid hormones for 2 weeks now, had no adrenaline attacks whatsoever. I wish i knew about the importance of iodine a long time ago.

RDA 150 mcg my ass...

The average person definitely needs more than 200mcg of iodine daily. However, I personally wouldn't take more than 13mg daily of iodine, certainly nothing 4x that amount without the proper complementary supplementation. Almost everything becomes a poison or pro-oxidant at high enough dosages. Curezone dispenses some really poor (potentially harmful) medical advice sometimes.

Slow and steady moderation always wins the health race.

Lugol's is TOXIC. Cant you understand this.When applied topically it is a caustic poison .It is made
from 2 chemicals in the lab that who knows where they are coming from and what about their quality.
Why put such a thing internally?

It doesnt make sense when people tell to begin slow.
For example when i hurted my joint ,i took 30! comfrey drops so easily and without any stomach pain.Nothing,
just benefits.
You cant overdose that easily on real foods,herbs etc.But when it comes to poisons you need a little to do the job.
But still it will remain a poison.


Seek natural forms of iodine.

Natural forms? Like what, seaweed which is loaded with industrial contaminants nowadays? I'm pretty sure you'll get more toxic eating seaweed for a same amount of iodine than taking some drops of Lugol's.

I agree about Curezone, there are people there taking grams of iodine which is insane to me.

Albert Szent-György who discovered vitamin C, took a gram of iodine per day and lived into his 90's.

Many on this forum have taken several hundred and some over a thousand mgs of iodine. I've personally taken
several hundred mgs for long periods. I usually average about 15 to 20 mg per day.

As for topical antiseptic iodine, that should not be consumed internally, but that's another matter.

Remember, Lugol's iodine was virtually the first medicine consumed in the 1800's.

http://www.optimox.com/pics/Iodine/IOD-05/IOD_05.html

CausticSymmetry wrote:Albert Szent-György who discovered vitamin C, took a gram of iodine per day and lived into his 90's.

Many on this forum have taken several hundred and some over a thousand mgs of iodine. I've personally taken
several hundred mgs for long periods.  I usually average about 15 to 20 mg per day.

As for topical antiseptic iodine, that should not be consumed internally, but that's another matter.

Remember, Lugol's iodine was virtually the first medicine consumed in the 1800's.

http://www.optimox.com/pics/Iodine/IOD-05/IOD_05.html

Then you are being self poisoned.

Get some drops of lugols internally and iodine will show up there in your hair (hair test) even after many days!!!
Whatever you put in your body,the body MUST have the chance to detoxify it.Otherwise it is a POISON
that it gets trapped in the body.Cause the body will always try to be free from anything.It will try to be perfect.

There are natural forms of iodine that are beneficial.There is tree natural iodine.Iodine near the sea from the air you are breathing .Some fruits has natural iodine.Black walnut has it.Seaweed from non polluted seas has it.

panoslydios - I don't know where you acquire your information from, but based on the remark about digesting meat, it can't be all reliable.

Natural source iodine is typical contaminated, so relying on Lugol's is not a bad idea. There's also Iosol which is concentrated kelp ammonium iodide.

There's nothing toxic about iodine/iodide, it's the poisons that come out...when you open up detoxification, it's best to start very slow.

CausticSymmetry wrote:panoslydios - I don't know where you acquire your information from, but based on the remark about digesting meat, it can't be all reliable.

Natural source iodine is typical contaminated, so relying on Lugol's is not a bad idea.  There's also Iosol which is concentrated kelp ammonium iodide.

There's nothing toxic about iodine/iodide, it's the poisons that come out...when you open up detoxification, it's best to start very slow.

Hey man i was also there.And trust me i know about iodine detoxification.(mainly bromide ).I know it does miracles to chelation.Period.That is true.It chelates lead,cadmium so easy.
Putting lugols in your skin and then put again 2nd time it will burn you really bad.
Imagine what does when ingesting it. It actually sterilizes the immune system.People also report flat moles after iodine which would also indicate some immunosuppresion.

If you were to be on chemical iodine then i suggest people to paint iodine tincture and nothing else.
And never ever take any chemical form internally.

Please let use common sense.This stuff is being created in the lab and its not natural.I thought this forum
is for natural methods and healing.True alternative medicine is far from ingesting chemical iodine.