OT: I have a Thyroid Nodule - Ultrasound tomorrow

Since there has been a lot of cancer talk on here... and a low percentage of thyroid nodules can be cancerous (I of course hope mine is not), I thought I would ask if any of you guys have been through this. Mine was discovered incidentally from an cervical MRI looking for a bone spur. Spine was fine... but then they said.. "but hey you've got this 7-11mm thyroid nodule we want you to have check out with an ultrasound".

gregslater - Lugol's iodine should shrink this over time.

Check out this video presentation on iodine by Dr. David Brownstein where he addresses this issue.

It's a bit torrent.

http://btjunkie.org/torrent/Iodine-The-Most-Misunderstood-Nutrient/3952ad34874320d635ff929696349f4cbe07aeb2fe59

Thanks I'll check that link out.

I have World Organic's liquid potassium iodide drops here just in case there is a disaster haha but I see that is different than Lugol's 5% Iodine + 10% Potassium Iodide... I know yall have at least one thread here on Lugol's iodine so I will look at it as well.

Depending on where you look online, there is from <1% up to 25% chance of it being cancerous. Go figure. Doc told me that if you did an MRI of everyone in his office of their kidneys, adrenal glands, thyroid, etc. that a very large percentage would have some type of nodule.

Well my nodule is 13mm and my thyroid looks healthy... according to the tech that said she wasn't even suppose to tell me anything about it legally. So I still don't know what the doc's plan is for the next step... thyroid scan for hot or cold nodule? FNA biopsy (was hoping they would have did that today with th ultrasound), or watch and see? Doctors appointment for review isn't for 3 weeks. Wonder if I called and bugged them next week if they would tell me more.

Well I have my lab test numbers back and an ultrasound writeup from the lab about the nodule... according to my doctor the next step is an FNA biopsy late July (when I return home). The doc says that many of these are benign, but if it is not they will have to take out all of my thyroid.

The doctor was impressed with my blood test results though, especially the lipids. He asks if my family had lots of longed lived members.

Sucks about this thyroid thing though. I feel great with no pains... until I think about it. Then the day goes down from there.

gregslater - Having heard about the shrinking or dissapearance of thyroid nodules with iodine supplementation have you had a chance to check into this possibilty?

What I found is that even docs that are really big on iodine, most still want to find out if the nodule is cancer first before starting you with high doses of iodine. I have some 2% lugols here and went from 3mg to 6mg a day recently. Taking it slow as I really wish I could find some actual print that said more on this issue.

Then you have some sites like the vegansociety that stat too much iodine can cause thyroid cancer. They don't reference an studies or anything. Would be nice to see some proof to back that up on their website.

gregslater - I found the David Brownstein information to be quite valuable as he had personally checked out over 8,000 patients before and after iodine supplmentation. I felt that did a very adequate job in explaining some of the misconceptions of iodine and why many practioners were ill informed as to the safety of iodine. Essentially he found that in real people did not translate into some of the studies that were improperly tested and dogmatic.

Yes I watched the 1.5hr video you mentioned. Plus 4 others (bsBCancer, bsDetox, bsIodine, and bsMercury) and read lots of others stuff. But specifically related to nodules is scarce.

I believe the fear of Iodine "toxicity" or Iodine causing cancer is from using inferior Iodine products that contain Iodine salts. I have found two very pure Iodine solutions that contain only elemental Iodine in alcohol. I have given bottles of this stuff to my sisters and my mom and they can't believe how great it is working. Form everything I read I was pretty sure you were NOT supposed to ingest anything with Potassium Iodide in it, could be wrong though. I am also using the stuff and it works really well.

If anyone is interested I can post some links. The one is from a seller on eBay the other is some guy down in Alabama I believe. The product from Alabama is the one I am using now and is actually based off of Edgar Cayce's instructions on preparing an Iodine solution. He calls it "detoxified Iodine".

The type you are referring to is know by names such Magnascent or Nascent or more generically Atomidine.

Lot of people swear by it, but others say that by the description of how it is made that it would be be a free radical, and should not be consumed. I am curious to know the truth about its safety.

Well as I mentioned, I went straight to the FNA biopsy as the primary care doc said this was the only way to know for sure. So I went to the surgeon that he recommend/referred me to for the FNA.

Got the good news back today that mine was labeled "follicular cells" and the surgeon said no need to remove at this time.

But he followed that news up with that I would need to have an ultrasound every 3 months and a FNA every 6 months.

So as I was driving away, I wondered why he didn't say the words "benign" or the word "adenoma". A little more reading on the subject then I discover that an FNA Biopsy cannot distinguish between a follicular ademona and a follicular carcinoma.

http://www.thyroidcancer.com/thyroid-newsletter6.htm

Bummer

CausticSymmetry wrote:gregslater - Having heard about the shrinking or dissapearance of thyroid nodules with iodine supplementation have you had a chance to check into this possibilty?

One thing that might be a problem is if the nodule is hot and already causing hyperthyroid symptoms:

http://www.uptodate.com/patients/content/topic.do?topicKey=~86Luwf7XVJzv8

In comparison, hyperthyroidism may become worse in patients with a hyperfunctioning adenoma or multinodular goiter, because the iodine provides more substrate for new hormone synthesis. These patients should not be treated with iodine until a thionamide has been given to block thyroid hormone synthesis.

It may be too late for me. My initial thyroid panel showed fairly good numbers... but on the low end of normal TSH and high end of T4. I had no issues then though... Now for the past 2 weeks I have had an increased heart rate. My resting pulse has always been in the 60s to low 70s. Now it runs anywhere from 80-100. I had hoped it was the ill-thought out combo of LDN (which I have been taking for about 2 months with no issues) and a short run of Flexeril for some muscle aches (which I had used in ther past with no issues). Both separately can cause tachycardia... together they probably are a bad idea given that Flexeril's TCA type actions inhibit the uptake of norepinephrine and serotonin. :-) Well Flexeril has a half-life of 18 hours and should have been out of my system in ~3 days. And it was as the near euphoric/absolutely no pain feeling went away about that time. I can say I do miss that last part, but the potential for serotonin syndrome isn't worth it at this point.

Have you ever taken Selenium & Iodine together? Selenium has anti-cancer properties and will help the hormonal balance while taking Iodine. There are a couple instances where taking just Iodine or Selenium on their own will exacerbate the problem like you noted above. When Iodine is taken with Selenium it will help make sure that there is no oxidative damage to the thyroid and also help with the conversion of Thyroid hormones.

hapyman wrote:Have you ever taken Selenium & Iodine together?

Yes, selenium levels are very important to the thyroid (as well as manganese and zinc, to name a few more that are also important to a lesser extent). A deficiency of selenium may lead to either hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism depending on iodine levels, and selenium without iodine can make hypothyroidism worse. The deiodinase enzymes that convert T4 to T3 are selenium enzymes.

I track my intake from diet and supplements (as well as fasting/morning BG, BP, pulse, and temp) with cron-o-meter to help ensure proper balance of these minerals as well as many other things.

gregslater wrote:... A deficiency of selenium may lead to either hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism depending on iodine levels, and selenium without iodine can make hypothyroidism worse. ...

To put another way that better refects my situation... an increase in selenium without iodine can result in a decrease of T4... so if after my next panel I am indeed running hot I will drop my iodine in half and leave the selenium were it is to see if T4 comes down and the heart beat stabilizes.