Iodine causing panic attacks?

So Ive been pretty faithfully taking 5 drops of 2% lugols every day for about a month now, and it seems like every time I do, I get really sensitive to light and super anxious for like half an hour after. I didnt really think much of this, as Ive had serious issues with panic attacks in the past, and while it hasnt been bad at all for the last year, Im still pretty used to feeling anxious to a certain degree.

Last night, however, I drank some lugols in green tea, and had an all out panic attack like I havent had in a long time. I got extremely sensitive to light, and my heart was ready to fly out of my chest to the point where I considered taking myself to the emergency room (luckily, my wallet talked me out of this).

I do have a preexisting anxiety issue, and without a doubt I get more anxious after taking some lugols. I do believe Im hyperthyroid, though my thyroid tests always come back "within normal range", so could the lugols be making my hyperthyroid symptoms worse? Im pretty convinced that iodine/iodide is very beneficial, and I really would rather continue taking it, but Im not entirely sure that I want to put up with intense panic attacks like the one I had yesterday. Any suggestions or ideas on why this happens, or how I handle the lugols without the anxiety?

Iodine may be causing a die-off (pathogenic bacteria and yeast) reacation and displacing heavy metals. The same could happen with many other supplements, including Green tea, ALA, Curcumin, Probiotics, etc. This is very, very common. I also tend to suffer anxiety when I'm toxic or suffering from die-off.

You might reduce your dose and build up slowly. I would definitely recommend you to detox your colon, liver and kidneys... a heavy metal cleanse will certainly help. Mangesium, admino acids and other supplements can support detox AND provide and quench anxiety at the same time.

Actually the same happened to me some time ago (even with a small dose of iodine in the form of iosol, roughly 1.8 mg) so I decided to detox first and then resume iodine supplementation.

Good luck!

That damn bromide

http://www.breastcancerchoices.org/bromidedetoxsymptomsandstrategies.html

It's common though as well as other detox reactions mostly related to bromide.

curezone has a ton of info regarding Iodine supplementation.

On another note, this was pretty cool = http://www.curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1550916#i

jdp710 wrote:That damn bromide

http://www.breastcancerchoices.org/bromidedetoxsymptomsandstrategies.html

It's common though as well as other detox reactions mostly related to bromide.

curezone has a ton of info regarding Iodine supplementation.

On another note, this was pretty cool = http://www.curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1550916#i

I second JDP. You are using a full dose of iodine, that should be very proactive in removing crap like bromide, mercury, etc... after years of "bad habits" you could have a lot of bromide.

I was forgetting about that little bastard called bromide...

Funky,

Was the green tea decaf? Green Tea has theanine in it which helps offset some of the caffeine, but if you are prone to anxiety you should stay away from caffeine altogether. I would guess that your panic had much more to do with caffeine which blocks GABA. If you are hyperthyroid then iodine can raise your thyroid even more initially before it starts to lower it. I forget what this is called but I asked CS about it before. I'd recommend lithium orotate or 'Tru Calm' by Now Foods for anxiety. I'm taking both and they both lower the glutamate/gaba ratio.

Definitely appreciate the replies, fellas. I know that iodine will displace other halides in the body, but I suppose I assumed that because Im only 23, I hadnt really taken in enough to cause such a severe detox. I think Im going to drop down to one or two drops of lugols for the time being, just to make sure Im getting at least a little bit in me, and try to get rid of some of the heavy metals that Im sure are floating around my system.

In that breast cancer link, I noticed one of the bromide detox symptoms was vision issues. It seems like every other time I take lugols, my vision blurs and fades everywhere where Im not focusing.

Anyway, Im gonna make a trip to curezone, and try to come up with a gameplan. Between the curcumin, resveratrol, brewers yeast, and toco 8 Im actually feeling pretty good. Now I just gotta get it to where the lugols doesnt make me feel like ass.

Oh, and no the green tea isnt decaf, Id rather drink no green tea at all than drink decaf. Weirdly enough, caffeine doesnt seem to bother me much. Ive been drinking .5-1 gallon of green tea a day for almost a full year now, and I havent had any issues with it thus far. To be honest, Im actually a little more peaceful after 20oz of green tea than I am before I drink it, if that makes any sense. Im sure the caffeine doesnt help things, but considering I seem to tolerate it so well, I think the health benefits from drinking the tea outweigh any occasional slight jitters I might get if I drink too much at once.

TheFunkyStumpfighter wrote:
In that breast cancer link, I noticed one of the bromide detox symptoms was vision issues. It seems like every other time I take lugols, my vision blurs and fades everywhere where Im not focusing.

I totally recognize that symptom! That happens to me always with die off... hopefully someone can explain why it happen... Low blood sugar?


BTW Funky, don't forget your selenium and Magnesium, they also support the thyroid... Selenium probably being more critical in this aspect.

Yeah, the vision issues scared me a bit, as when Ive had them in the past, something much worse usually follows. Its an odd sensation because my vision will stay pretty healthy on whatever im focusing on, by my peripheral vision just blurs, and ultimately fades pretty bad. Nothing too bad seems to come of it, so I just make sure Im able to lounge around for 10-15 minutes after I feel it happening.

I do rub on mag oil when I remember, but sometimes this only ends up being a few times a week. Ive been toying with trying out that activated selenium supp CS was talking about not too long ago, but Im not sure I can afford to add to many other supplements on top of the ones Im taking, and the mk4 k2 I ordered for teeth issues.

Funky, that Jarrow's SeleNext is only $4.92 at iherb. You should go for it.

TheFunkyStumpfighter,

Iodine is taken up in parts of your eyes.

With an iodine deficient diet and with the high doses of bromide in our environment and diet, bromide is taking the place of iodine. When getting Iodine back in the diet, it will kick the bromide out, causing problems for awhile until we are able to excrete the bromide out of our skin or with enough sodium in our diet it will be taken out of our blood stream and into our urine.

I assume this is what's going on with the vision issues.

Interestingly, there are quite a few people who have mentioned better vision after long-term and high-dose supplementing Iodine. I definitely have but it could have been other things I'm doing.

Well, Im happy theres a good explanation for the vision issues. From what Ive been reading, I suppose Ill buckle down and do some heavy metal detoxing before I bring my lugols dose back up to 5 drops a day.

jdp- should I be upping my sodium intake to help things along? I typically dont eat very much sodium, so would adding a bit more help to get rid of the bromide more efficiently?

I am thinking of ordering soe lugols, what should I do to detox metals if I begin having problems? Should I just detox anyway to avoid problems?