I’ve long had a tendency for a bit of mild eczema from time to time, that was very minor, and had some association with stress. In my meandering studies of nutritional relationships, I eventually came across some interesting material by two American doctors- David Brownstein and Jorge Flechas, who are among a small but growing body of doctors that suspect a general, mild though broad iodine deficiency to be responsible for a number of health complaints.
In today’s video, I want to share what happened when I put some topical iodine on my eczema, and I also want to share some of the information I came across during my research on iodine, since I thought you may find it interesting.
Iodine was discovered in 1811. In the late 1800’s doctors became aware of the relationship between goitre (enlarged thyroid mass in the throat) and deficiency in iodine. The rise in industrial farming, poverty, erosion, leading to mineral deficient soils led to an epidemic of goitre across the world, with more severely affected regions showing populations with diminished physical size, head circumference and IQ to the point of severe retardation.
The subsequent iodification of salt, flour and milk was the first recorded public health mass supplementation program that had massively positive effects, reducing goitre to minimal levels wherever it was introduced. Currently, the WHO estimates that at least 2 billion people suffer from chronic iodine deficiency, and they further state that iodine deficiency is the leading cause of preventable intellectual and developmental disability in the world. (Apologies for mis-spelling goitre in the video!)
The RDI of iodine for adults is 150ug (lactating mothers are advised to take up to 290ug); with an upper limit of 1100ug for adults, though consuming upwards of 3000ug per day is not uncommon in Japanese diets.
The largest food source of iodine is seafood, in particular wakame seaweeds, as eaten in Japan and Korea, which give about 642ug per gram, compared to iodised salt, which gives about 77ug per gram. 1 cup of milk gives about 99ug per gram, according to the Linus Pauling Institute.
Dr. Flechas says that this is adequate purely for thyroid needs, but not the body in total. In recent times, the harvesting of seaweeds has been problematic because of its tendency to absorb toxins and heavy metals, but also now with the effects of radiation leakage from the Fukushima disaster in Japan
In the body iodine acts as an :
Antiviral
Antibacterial – both from an immune stimulating point of view, but also externally
Anticancer – through enabling cellular apoptosis. Prevents cancer cells from immortality
Antiparasitic
And it alkalises (raises Ph) of the body naturally -of interest to those who have an interest in alkalising.
Also mucolytic – loosens up mucus and phlegm in asthma, emphysema, and has been used for over a century for that purpose.
Lets now have a look at the different types of goitre.
Hypertrophy Versus Hyperplasia Goitre
Iodine deficiency causes goitre – of which there are 2 types, one which is hormonally driven, and the thyroid hyertrophies (or enlarges) due to excessive hormonal stimulation; and the other is goitre due to iodine deficiency, which results in hyperplasia.
The difference is that hypertrophy of tissue means that the number of cells remains the same, but they grow in size, while hyperplasia is a proliferation in the number of cells.
Hyperplasia is much more common in glandular tissue, because it doesn’t have the growth and maturity constraints that other structures such as the heart has, for example.
Iodine is stored primarily in the glandular tissues of the body, with the largest concentrations found in the thyroid, breasts, ovaries, testes, prostate; pancreas; as well as stomach, but also the skin (20%), brain and muscle (30%). The salivary and lacrimal and sweat glands also depend heavily on iodine for the production of saliva, tears and sweat –
So one of the common signs of deficiency of iodine is dry eyes, dry mouth and dry skin. The give away with dry skin is a failure to work up a sweat even when you’ve been vigorously working out, and you are red and puffed out.
Because iodine deficiency leads to hyperplasia responses in glandular tissue, it has been found to relate to an increased incidence in a number of cancers, particularly, again in glandular tissues, such as breast, ovarian, thyroid and possibly testes and prostate; as well as in alimentary cancers such as the stomach and oesophagus.
Women tend to have higher levels of thyroid disease than men, because oestrogen inhibits the uptake of iodine. Then when they hit menopause, the oestrogen disappears and the thyroid is suddenly stimulated to grow
The brain also depends on iodine for mental alertness and activity, so another sign of iodine deficiency is fogginess, fatigue and confusion. Chronic developmental deficiency causes mental retardation and failure to develop higher centres of intelligence. According to Brownstein and Flechas, supplementing with iodine not only increases mental activity, but can keep you awake at night, so should be taken in the morning. They further claim that iodine supplementation in pregnancy can significantly increase higher IQ in children, while a deficiency of the mother in pregnancy can lead to neurological deficit and even conditions such as ADHD.
Flechas described a typical deficiency pattern:
If the thyroid is deficient – you get enlargement, cysts, nodules, decreased function
If the breast – cysts, scar tissue, nodules, enlargement, lack of function, pain
If ovaries – cysts, scar tissues, enlargement, pain, PCOS
If skin – cysts, nodules, scar tissue, decreased function (sweat, excretion of toxins)
If muscles, cysts, scarring, nodules, pain, – i.e. fibromyalgia
If the brain – fogginess, decreased IQ, confusion, ADHD
So if governments have already dealt with low iodine by fortifying salt, flour and milk a century ago, why is there supposedly a problem again?
A lot of it has to do with competing Halides:
Note that all the 5 elements in the halide column compete in the body for receptor sites, and they also displace each other. A century ago, only chloride from salt was in any way available to compete with iodine, but its form is very stable. The presence of other halides was negligible. Of course, our water supply is now fully chlorinated, with industrial chlorine being a neurotoxin, and on top of that, both our water supply and dental treatments are also fluorinated, making it extremely difficult for the small doses of iodine we get in the western diet to be maintained in the body.
On the subject of dietary iodine, nowadays, the iodised salt in flour competes with bromides, that are the end product of bakers adding Bromates (to improve the bonds between gluten molecules and rapidly improve the dough). Bromide, like chlorine and fluorine actively compete with iodine.
Bromides are also found in many medicines – antidepressants, antibiotics and asthma medication in particular; as well as in soft drinks; industrial acrylics, pesticides, and plastics – that new car smell is the result of bromide plastic fumes still curing. Bromides are a huge source of iodine competition in the body, that we never had until the 1950’s.
So we have 3 halides (bromine, chlorine and fluorine) directly added to our internal and external environments that directly compete with and displace iodine – something that was not the case 100 years ago.
The dairy industry used to use iodine in its sterilisation process, which ensured additional amounts of iodine made it into our milk, but now they have replaced this with chlorine based sterilisation, which adds insult to injury.
As for iodised salt – who eats it anymore? Medical health warnings have told us to eat very little salt, to start with, and then when we do, we seem to be obsessed with buying designer salt – like Himalayan, kosher or Maldon salt, which isn’t iodised.
There are two types of available iodine – Iodine, and Iodide. Iodine diffuses readily into the cells, while iodide, which is a salt of iodine, needs to be transported across cell membranes.
One of the problems in iodide absorption is damage to the transportation mechanism across the cell membranes. Dr Flechas notes that therapeutically, dosing a patient on 3000mg per day of vitamin C; adding up to 13mg of iodine plus supplementing with Vitamins B2 and B3 helps to repair and normalise them.
The greatest source of dietary iodine has traditionally been seaweed, with Japanese people being reported to consume about 13 mg of iodine through seaweed sources per day.
Supplemental sources of iodine vary depending on your location, but a classic formulation is Lugol solution, which contains both forms.
Unfortunately, iodine testing is not very common, but researchers have devised a urine clearance test, where a dose is given to the patient, and urine is collected over 24 hours and the urinary levels of iodine are checked, to see how much has been excreted. The higher the excretion of iodine, the more saturated and normal the system is. The less iodine in the urine, the more the body has requisitioned it to address a deficiency.
Supplementing can take several forms. A common and long standing treatment is with drops of Lugols solution, which entails following a protocol as developed by Drs Brownstein and Flechas, and in my opinion is excessive. For links to their protocols see the description below. One of the reasons for concern is that high dosages of iodine can induce hypothyroidism, by suddenly stimulating TSH levels, that inhibit production of thyroid hormones T3 and T4. So any intervention needs to be strictly monitored by your doctor. Of course, you can also rub iodine directly onto your skin, though this can be messy and difficult to quantify. However, rubbing small amounts onto small, local areas of skin over a few days should give you some indication of success in management of a skin condition, without risking overdosage.
Dr. Jorge Flechas Youtube channel – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvtz1Hu6xcpPcO3uxRK2uLZj4navu5YOW
Dr. David Brownstein- Webpage: https://www.drbrownstein.com/
Disclaimer: This video is not an endorsement, recommendation or promotion of Drs. Flechas and Brownstein; I declare that I have no material interest in their work. This video is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be used as medical advice. If you have any medical condition you should always seek the advice of your doctor.
