Benefits of Iodine
Iodine is a very misunderstood nutrient that comes with a whole host of noise in the health and wellness world. It is arguably one of the most essential not only for every cell of our body but also for every aspect of our fertility, both men and women. When you start to learn about the benefits and its uses on a historical level, you realize how essential it is for endocrine and overall metabolic health. This blog post is just a brief introduction to the role of iodine, its importance, and nutritional resources!
What Is Iodine?
Iodine is part of a group of elements called halogens, which also includes chlorine, fluorine, and bromine. It’s found in every cell of our body and is vital for producing hormones, especially thyroid hormones. Our thyroid gland contains the most iodine, and without enough iodine, our hormone receptors don’t work as well.
Iodine is also responsible for maintaining the health of all our glands, specifically, our thyroid, ovaries, uterus, breast, and prostate. When an iodine deficiency is present, cystic/fluid-filled tissue can form and lead to a nodule and sometimes cancer. While iodine is essential for healthy hormones and glands, it's also essential for our immune system. Poor immune system response is directly impaired by a sluggish thyroid. An iodine deficiency will lead to low thyroid hormone output and impact how our immune system functions. Iodine also has many therapeutic properties like being anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal.
Two forms of iodine are used in the body—iodine and then the reduced form of iodine, known as iodide. Iodide contains one extra electron and actually improves the solubility of iodine in supplements. Iodine is difficult to get into a solution that uses water as its solvent, but if you pair it with iodide, this fixes that problem. Different tissues in the body respond differently to different forms as well. For example, the thyroid gland and skin primarily use iodide, but breast and prostate tissue primarily use iodine.
Historically, in both China and Egypt, kelp was used to address and treat cysts, nodules, and cancers. Lynne Farrow documents the historical record of iodine rich foods used by ancestral cultures in her fascinating book: The Iodine Crisis (Highly Recommend Reading!)
Iodine Deficiency
Most men and women in the western world are deficient in iodine due to our highly industrialized food system, lack of nutrient dense soil, and high exposure to environmental toxins. About 60% of women of childbearing age in the U.S. lack sufficient iodine, and this has worsened over the last 40 years. According to Lynne Farrow, an Iodine researcher, there has been a 180% increase in Thyroid Cancer since 1970s and contributes this to the removal of iodine in our food and the high exposure of bromine that blocks the uptake of iodine by the thyroid.
Outside of not getting enough through the diet, halogen exposure is one of the main contributing factors to iodine deficiency.
Chlorine, Fluorine, and Bromine all work on the same receptor networks as Iodine but the over exposure in our environment leads to blocking the uptake of iodine. We have high levels of these halogens in our food, water, medical resources (dentistry and surgery), as well as our furniture.
The Bromide Dominance Theory refers to the over exposure of bromide as a major cause of iodine deficiency that contributes to metabolic diseases including cancer.
Best Food Sources of Iodine:
Quality Sea Salt (not iodized table salt that contains no trace mineral content)
Quality Dairy: VAT pasteurized or Raw Dairy
Quality Meat: Grass fed, from nutrient dense soil
Sea Vegetables: Kelp, Kombu, Nori
Seafood: Oysters and Wild Caught Cod