The Missing Mineral – Part 1

Are you missing this one vital mineral in your diet?

If you are, you may be unnecessarily suffering from:

• Thyroid disease – high and low thyroid disorders with or without goiter
• Fibrocystic breast disease
• Polycystic ovary syndrome
• Brain fog (muddle thinking, hard to think clearly)
• Constipation
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Heart disease , especially persistent atrial fibrillation

So what is this missing mineral?

I’ll give you a hint. If you eat sea food you may have plenty of this mineral in your body.

Did you guess that this commonly deficient mineral is iodine? Well, you’re right.

From 1900 to 1960 almost every physician prescribed Lugol (iodine supplements) for hypo (low) and hyper (high) thyroid disease and for many other conditions. But then doctors became afraid to use iodine due to medical misinformation. Consequently iodine deficiency goes unrecognized, causing many distressful medical conditions.

By simply supplementing with iodine your body could respond in some astounding ways.

If a person has low thyroid hormone levels, the pituitary activates, secreting TSH. This Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) whips the thyroid, signaling it to produce more hormones. The thyroid gland produces as best as it can, but if it doesn’t have all the building blocks it needs (like iodine) it cannot produce enough thyroid hormone. So TSH levels stay high, always trying to whip the thyroid gland into better production. In this case, low iodine levels stress both the thyroid and the pituitary glands.

Adequate body iodine levels remove the stress from the pituitary so TSH levels go down to normal. Consequently the thyroid gland can relax. It’s not being whipped anymore because it has the iodine building block it needs to produce the amount of thyroid hormone required.

The symptoms of thyroid deficiency begin to go away. Dry skin, constipation, obesity, sluggishness, fatigue, brain fog and other symptoms start clearing up.

Wow, would you ever have imagined that one little missing mineral could cause so many problems?

When we start eating enough iodine, we can even excrete toxic metals via the kidneys better. The liver detoxification pathways improve. Menopausal symptoms may improve. Cancer rates, especially of the thyroid and breast are reduced. Some people even regrow hair in the right places.

Besides the thyroid, all of the tissues of the body need to be saturated with iodine especially all of the hormone glands. Without adequate iodine, it’s impossible to have a balanced hormonal system.

The ovaries contain the second highest concentration of iodine. No wonder replenishing iodine can help reverse polycystic ovary disease (lots of cysts on the ovaries = lots of pain). Iodine helps reverse painful cysts in the breasts also. Iodine balances estrogen and favors the type of estrogen that’s less likely to induce cancer.

Bottom line: all of your cells and tissues need adequate levels of iodine. If your levels are low, you may be suffering from a myriad of symptoms that are difficult to diagnose and/or treat. Isn’t it amazing that a simple thing like eating enough iodine can make such a difference.

In the next article we’ll discuss:

Why iodine levels are so low.

How to test yourself.

What you can do it about it.

Blessings,

Dr. Jo