Feeling Off? It could be Iodine Deficiency

By:  Frank Nuber, RPh

Sometimes you have those situations when a patient’s tests show balanced hormone levels, but she’s not responding to therapy. One of these cases caused me to lose sleep pondering what I was missing that could make the difference for her. She was exercising, fixing her diet, reducing stress and applying her hormones. But it just wasn’t working. We discovered that she was iodine deficient. She began taking a non-prescription iodine supplement and miraculously recovered in less than two months.

Iodine is an often-overlooked essential trace element required for hormone synthesis. While all cells in the body need iodine for proper functioning, all glands (thyroid, adrenal, etc.) especially need iodine for the production of hormones. Many believe iodine deficiency is a major cause of breast cancer and other diseases of the reproductive organs, such as ovarian, uterus and prostrate cysts and cancers. The mainline Japanese population consumes 13.8 mgs of iodine per day, and Japanese women have one of the lowest breast cancer rates in the world. Iodine levels in U.S. soil have fallen 50 percent over the past 50 years, making U.S. soil iodine deficient.

The Great Lakes region has some of the lowest soil iodine levels in the world and, as a result, high levels of cancers related to iodine deficiency. Other medical conditions associated with iodine deficiency are goiters, Graves Disease, Hashimotos Disease, fatigue and impaired immune system function. Iodine deficiency during pregnancy can lead to miscarriages and reduced IQ in surviving offspring.

Iodine detoxifies the body by removing mercury, fluorides, chlorides and bromides. However, iodized salt and the iodine supplements usually found in health food stores contain the iodide form of iodine. There has been little success treating patients with only iodide. According to Dr. G. E. Abraham, “Of all the elements known so far to be essential for health, iodine is the most misunderstood and the most feared. Yet, it is by far the safest of all the trace elements known to be essential for human health. It is the only trace element that can be ingested safely in amounts up to 100,000 times the RDA.”

We do routine testing for iodine deficiency. When you’re unresponsive to your hormone therapy, you just might have an iodine deficiency. If you have questions, give me a call at (636) 278-6561.

My job is helping women restore their lives!