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Iodine

Related Topics:

• Hypothyroidism

Specific Recommendations:

• Iodine at Amazon.com and iHerb

News & Research:

• Poor iodine levels in women pose risks to fetal intellectual development in pregnancy - Science Daily, 4/22/21 - "Mild to moderate iodine deficiency has been shown to affect language development, memory and mental processing speeds ... During pregnancy, the need for iodine is increased and a 150mcg supplement is recommended prior to conception and throughout pregnancy. Unfortunately, most women do not take iodine supplements before conceiving. It is important to consume adequate iodine, especially during the reproductive years" - See iodine at Amazon.com.
• Veganism: Vitamin B12 is well supplemented, iodine is a matter of concern - Science Daily, 11/10/20 - "Of those participating (18 women and men respectively per group aged 30-60 years), almost all those following a vegan diet and one third following a mixed diet took different food supplements ... The study results were particularly noteworthy with regard to the trace element iodine. Iodine excretion measured in urine samples provides information on how well the body is supplied with the trace element. The majority of the participants had a deficiency. The deficiency was significantly more pronounced among vegans -- in one third of them, the level was below 20 micrograms per litre (?g/L), the limit defined by the World Health Organization (WHO); anything below this represents a serious shortage. A vegan diet has, however, also shown health benefits, such as a higher fibre intake and lower cholesterol levels. For both diets, about 10% of participants had an iron deficiency" - See iodine at Amazon.com and iHerb.
• Low Iodine Intake Linked to Hearing Loss in US Teens - Medscape, 6/19/18 - "US teens with the lowest levels of urinary iodine were five-times more likely to have hearing loss associated with speech comprehension than their peers with higher iodine levels"
• High burden of Iodine deficiency found in Israel’s first national survey - Science Daily, 3/27/17 - "62% of school-age children and 85% of pregnant women fall below the WHO's adequacy range ... According to the researchers, the high burden of iodine insufficiency in Israel is a serious public health and clinical concern. By comparison to data from other countries with a similar extent of deficiency, these data suggest that there is a high risk of maternal and fetal hypothyroidism and impaired neurological development of the fetus in Israel ... Individuals can improve their iodine status through increased consumption of iodine-rich foods such as milk, dairy and salt water fish. They can also replace regular table salt with iodized salt ... only a small fraction of the salt sold in Israel is iodized, and it is sold at a much higher price than regular salt, although it does not need to be" - See Lugol's Iodine Solution(2 oz.) Twin Pack(2 bot.) at Amazon.com.
• Many pregnant women have insufficient iodine; may impair baby's neurological development - Science Daily, 8/26/15 - "the median urinary iodine concentration (UIC) in the study group was 98 μg/l, which is far less that the recommended minimum levels of 150 μg/l"
• Iodine deficiency in pregnant women impairs embryonic brain development - Science Daily, 1/20/15 - "iodine is extremely important for embryonic brain development. Even a mild iodine deficiency can impair the child's intellectual development; recent studies in the UK and Australia have shown that IQs are in fact reduced by a few points ... The most extreme form of iodine deficiency presents itself in the form of a condition known as cretinism, which includes metabolic changes, deformities of the skeleton and underactivity of the thyroid gland"
• Iodide protects against dangerous reperfusion injury after heart attack - Science Daily, 11/7/14 - "When mice with induced heart attacks were given intravenous infusions of sodium iodide five minutes before reperfusion, it reduced myocardial infarction, or MI, damage by as much as 75 percent. And when mice were given sodium iodide in their drinking water for two days before the procedure, they showed similar significant protection against the damage ... only iodide boasts a superior safety profile. Even in large quantities, iodide is very safe, they noted. And it's already approved for human ingestion -- and widely available. "You can buy it on Amazon right now," Roth noted"
• Talk to Pregnant/Nursing Patients About Iodine Supplements - Medscape, 8/11/14 - "iodine deficiency in the United States is occurring at least marginally in about one third of pregnant women ... this deficiency may be compounded by environmental exposures that are ubiquitous: for example, perchlorate, which may take the place of iodide and thus make iodide less available for the thyroid and for breastmilk ... One reason for the deficiency in iodine is the increased consumption in the United States of processed foods; these don't contain, in general, iodized salt. The second contributor is that the supplements taken in pregnancy or by breastfeeding women, as we mentioned before, don't contain adequate amounts of iodine and are not always labeled correctly ... few supplements contain adequate amounts of iodine and labeling issues persist"
• Iodine Content of US Weight-loss Food - Medscape, 6/15/14 - "The recommended iodine intake is 150 mg/day in adults, 220 µg/day during pregnancy, and 290 µg/day during lactation. Individuals exclusively consuming restricted diets as part of a weight-loss program may be at risk for mild to moderate iodine deficiency ... These results indicate that the dietary content in the foods from 3 U.S. commercial weight- loss programs is far less than the recommendations for iodine intake of 150 µg/day in nonpregnant, nonlactating adults. Individuals following each weight-loss program should be advised to take a multivitamin containing 150 µg of iodine daily" - See iodine at Amazon.com.
• Iodide Supplements Needed by Pregnant, Nursing Women - Medscape, 5/26/14 - "Many women of reproductive age in the United States are marginally iodine deficient, perhaps because the salt in processed foods is not iodized ... Iodine deficiency, per se, can interfere with normal brain development in their offspring; in addition, it increases vulnerability to the effects of certain environmental pollutants, such as nitrate, thiocyanate, and perchlorate. Although pregnant and lactating women should take a supplement containing adequate iodide, only about 15% do so" - Note:  I wasn't even aware that the salt in processed food isn't iodized and I don't use extra salt in my diet.  See iodine at Amazon.com.
• Iodine Deficiency Still a Concern, Despite Vast Improvements - Medscape, 5/21/13 - "In the United States, median UIC levels among individuals aged 6 years and older remained in the normal range, at 144 µg/L, from 2007 to 2010, but median UIC among adults has been on the decline, with a drop of more than 50% between the 1970s and 1990s, say the authors ... And the prevalence of UIC below 50 µg/L among women of childbearing age has increased nearly 4-fold during the same period, from 4% to 15%, while the median UIC among pregnant US women has declined to less than 150 µg/L, suggestive of mild iodine deficiency ... The cause of the decline among pregnant women is unknown but may have to do with reductions in dairy intake ... only about 70% of salt is iodized, and about 85% of salt ingested in the United States is from commercially processed foods that do not contain iodized salt" - See iodine at Amazon.com.  I put a couple drops in my coffee every day.
• Mild iodine deficiency in womb associated with lower scores on children's literacy tests - Science Daily, 4/30/13 - "Although the participants' diet was fortified with iodine during childhood, later supplementation was not enough to reverse the impact of the deficiency during the mother's pregnancy ... inadequate iodine exposure during pregnancy was associated with lasting effects. As 9-year-olds, the children who received insufficient iodine in the womb had lower scores on standardized literacy tests, particularly in spelling. However, inadequate iodine exposure was not associated with lower scores on math tests" - See iodine at Amazon.com.
• How Much Iodine Is Too Much? - Medscape, 1/18/12 - "at relatively higher doses -- 400 mcg a day and up -- study participants began developing subclinical hypothyroidism ... people -- at least in China -- should get no more than 800 mcg a day"
• Thyroid Health: How Much Iodine Helps? - WebMD, 6/28/06
• Inadequate Iodine Intake Linked to Low Intelligence Quotient - Medscape, 8/9/04 - "This study demonstrates that the IQ of schoolchildren in a developed country can be influenced by iodine intake"
• Iodine supplements for mothers who smoke? - Nutra USA, 1/29/04
• Iodine Deficiency, A Main Cause Of Mental Disabilities, Will Be Eliminated In Three Years Across The Globe - Intelihealth, 5/9/02 - "In extreme cases, iodine deficiency can cause goiter and cretinism, a thyroid deficiency causing arrested mental and physical deformity. In its milder forms, it ripples across entire societies, with lesser degrees of mental impairment"
• Prognosis Not So Bright For New Breast Disease Drug (Iogen for fibrocystic breast disease) - Intelihealth, 2/16/01 - "iodine rids women suffering from FBD of symptoms. Two unrelated studies, one in Canada and one in Russia, involving nearly 1,500 women, showed iodine reduced the number of cysts and the level of pain. . . . Iogen contains no iodine, but when it is broken down by the body, it becomes molecular iodine. And unlike the iodine found in foods, which is toxic to the thyroid in large quantities, Iogen seems to deliver large doses of pure iodine without dangerous side effects."
• The Importance of Thyroid Supplementation - Life Enhancement Magazine, 11/99
• Low thyroid levels during pregnancy may lower child's IQ - CNN, 8/18/99
• Are Vegetarians Iodine-Deficient? - Nutrition Science News, 6/99

Abstracts:

• Women Remain at Risk of Iodine Deficiency during Pregnancy: The Importance of Iodine Supplementation before Conception and Throughout Gestation - Nutrients. 2019 Jan 15;11(1) - "Commencing an I-supp of 150 µg/day prior to conception and continuing throughout pregnancy is required to ensure adequacy. Timely advice regarding the importance of adequate iodine nutrition, including supplementation is needed to reduce the risk of irreversible in utero neurocognitive damage to the foetus" - See iodine at Amazon.com.
• Dietary Iodine Exposure and Brain Structures and Cognition in Older People. Exploratory Analysis in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 - J Nutr Health Aging. 2017;21(9):971-979 -"In this large Scottish older cohort, the proportion of individuals reporting extreme (low vs. high)/medium iodine consumption is small. In these individuals, low iodine-rich food intake was associated with increased brain volume shrinkage, raising an important hypothesis worth being explored for designing appropriate guidelines" - See Lugol's Iodine Solution(2 oz.) Twin Pack(2 bot.) at Amazon.com.
• Low Urinary Iodine Concentrations Associated with Dyslipidemia in US Adults - Nutrients. 2016 Mar 17;8(3) - "Those with the lowest decile of UIC were more likely to be at risk for elevated total cholesterol (>200 mg/dL) (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.51, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03-2.23) and elevated LDL cholesterol (>130 mg/dL) (AOR = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.11-2.23) and lowered HDL/LDL ratio (<0.4) (AOR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.18-2.33), compared to those with UIC above the 10th percentile. In US adults, low UIC was associated with increased odds for dyslipidemia"
• Iodine Supplementation Decreases Hypercholesterolemia in Iodine-Deficient, Overweight Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial - J Nutr. 2015 Jul 22 - "Our findings suggest that moderate to severe iodine deficiency in overweight women elevates serum TSH and produces a more atherogenic lipid profile and that iodine supplementation in this group reduces the prevalence of hypercholesterolemia. Thus, iodine prophylaxis may reduce cardiovascular disease risk in overweight adults"
• Iodine-deficiency disorders in the Aseer region, south-western Saudi Arabia: 20 years after the national survey and universal salt iodization - Public Health Nutr. 2015 Jan 7:1-7 - "The study documented that 18 years after the national study, and after more than a decade of universal salt iodization in Saudi Arabia, the problem of iodine-deficiency disorders is still endemic in the Aseer region"
• Iodine deficiency in pregnant women in Austria - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2014 Dec 10 - "In Austria, iodine deficiency has been considered to be eliminated owing to table salt fortification with iodine, but whether this also applies to pregnant women is unclear. Even mild iodine deficiency during gestation may lead to neurocognitive sequelae in the offspring ... Pregnant women in the Vienna area had a median urinary iodine concentration (UIC) of 87 μg/l. Only 13.8% of the cohort were in the recommended range of 150-249 μg/l ... doses of 100-150 μg per day are not sufficient to normalize iodine excretion. Sodium and iodine concentrations in the urine were tightly correlated (R=0.539, n=61), suggesting that low intake of iodized salt might contribute to insufficient iodine supply" -  Note:  I read somewhere that the salt in processed food isn't iodized.  Seems like the take-away message from this study is that if you're watching your health by avoiding table salt you're probably going to be deficient in iodine.  See iodine at Amazon.com.
• Critical Need for Iodine Supplements During Pregnancy and While Nursing - Science Daily, 12/18/12 - "Iodine levels in the US have been decreasing, which has the potential to negatively impact the mother and unborn child ... Iodine, which is not naturally made in the human body, must be consumed through foods rich in the element or through supplements. Iodine is required for the production of thyroid hormone, and adequate thyroid hormone levels are critical for normal fetal neurodevelopment. National and international health organizations currently recommend that pregnant women take at least 150 µg of potassium iodide daily ... There is concern that even mild iodine deficiency in pregnant women could lead to children with lower IQ's"
• Iodine supplementation improves cognition in mildly iodine-deficient children - Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Sep 2 - "The overall cognitive score of the iodine-supplemented group was 0.19 SDs higher than that of the placebo group ... Iodine supplementation improved perceptual reasoning in mildly iodine deficient children and suggests that mild iodine deficiency could prevent children from attaining their full intellectual potential"
• Iodine uptake and loss - can frequent strenuous exercise induce iodine deficiency? - Horm Metab Res. 2005 Sep;37(9):555-8 - "Crude calculations reveal that if sweat iodide losses are not replaced, dietary stores could be depleted in an athlete undergoing a regular training regime ... iodine loss may have implications for thyroid status and possibly consequences for athletic performance"
• The effects of iodine on intelligence in children: a meta-analysis of studies conducted in China - Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2005;14(1):32-42 - "The intelligence damage of children exposed to severe ID was profound, demonstrated by 12.45 IQ points loss"