| 5 star (20) | 100% |
Barok358 (Covina , Ca, Usa) on 12/21/2010: 
Nicole (Stanton, CA) on 12/23/2008:
I first noticed my husbands goiter close to 6 months ago, at that time it had become quite noticeable and was indeed very large. Obviously concerned for his health he went to see his doctor, who referred him to an endocrinologist, who then referred him to a surgeon. Strangely enough they told him his blood levels were normal and he didn't have a thyroid condition.... interesting since he has this giant goiter on his neck. lol
At the time there was so little that I knew about thyroid disease and I didn't have much interest in it, I was concerned for my husband but thought that surgery was the only option. Then my husband began to have panic attacks after my daughter was born, and at home no less (I now understand it to also cause and fluctuation of the thyroid hormone)! I honestly thought it was a mind over matter and went searching online to prove that he just needed to stop scaring himself. Instead what I found was that his panic attacks were actually caused by the goiter. Because I had my daughter at home without a midwife, just me him and my mother (planned it that way ; ) I had already learned a few natural remedies, while looking up honey and the wonderful benefits of it I also learned of coconut oil, though I only learned about it being good for pimples. I was interested in purchasing some coconut oil online and that's when I found some of the most amazing information. The site selling it said it helped with thyroid conditions, I wasn't going to believe them, after all they were selling it they would say anything to sell their product right? So I looked up thyroid forums and testimonies regarding the use of coconut oil and sure enough I found out that it was indeed beneficial to his thyroid. Well I ran out to the store and bought some the next day, in the car my husband was exhausted and began to have a panic attack and I told him to take some coconut oil, he only had a 1/4 of a teaspoon and ten minutes later his attack had subsided and he felt energized! After this experiment, we continued treatment and slowly worked up to 3tblspns a day where he's at now. After that revelation and since we had his attacks under control (and in fact after taking it for a week he no longer even experienced an attack) I went back online to find out what we needed to do to shrink his goiter. That's when I learned about iodine and how important it is and how many people are deficient and thus many are hypothyroid and even still many are undiagnosed with hypothyroidism. I also learned about what counteracts iodine, like soy which is a big one since it is in just about all prepackaged foods. When I found out how important iodine was for the thyroid and how the thyroid makes hormones for your whole body I became interested in what else iodine deficiency was responsible for, And do you know what I found? Lots! Here is a sight that lists all the symptoms of iodine deficiency...
But first, after realizing that my husbands thyroid was caused by a change in his diet, I began racking my brain thinking of what on earth has changed over the past year. I've been trying to figure it out for the past couple months and today I found it.
During our big change to all, well almost all, things healthy, I remembered reading about people using toothpaste that doesn't have fluoride in it.. I looked online for the reason why and WOW, what I found is shocking! Fluoride also counteracts iodine, it inhibits the uptake of iodine to your thyroid and we both know (at least by now) how important adequate amounts of iodine are to your thyroid. So I told my sister about it and she said that she didn't think we had fluoridated water, so I searched for the cities that had it in OC and that's when I came across this article ( http://www.ocregister.com/article/water-fluoride-county-1924513-muir-doctors ). I told my sister what I'd found out and how the time they added fluoride pretty much coincided with the onset of my husbands goiter and the worsening of his thyroid (I believe he has been hypothyroid for a long time as have I and my mother based on the symptoms) and my sister said that she has experienced a worsening of her asthma over the past year!
I am interested in asking friends of mine who have symptoms of iodine deficiency whether they experienced and increase or decrease in their symptoms over the last year (without divulging anything till they have answered so that my findings are not biased) I will report back later with some of my findings, but I am interested if anyone else has experienced similar problems after their area had been fluoridated.
http://charles_w.tripod.com/fluoride.html
http://www.ocregister.com/article/water-fluoride-county-1924513-muir-doctors
http://poisonfluoride.com/pfpc/html/symptoms.html
Katie (Edison, NJ) on 10/22/2008:
Jayna (Fountain Valley, CA) on 08/08/2008:
Ann (Worcester, MA) on 05/25/2008:
Jan (Buffalo, NY) on 04/18/2008:
Angie (Sparta, MO) on 12/09/2007:
Donna (Aspen, CO) on 10/17/2007:
Maria J (Orlando, Fl) on 08/06/2007:
Anne-Marie (Palm Coast, FL) on 02/04/2007:
Tel (Dewey, AZ) on 10/07/2006:
Elizabeth (Gaston, OR) on 09/25/2006:
Dan (Largo, FL) on 09/16/2006:
He mentions that the Japanese diet includes 14mg per day of iodine on the average (coastal Japanese ingest even more.) The US RDA is 150 ugs (micro grams) per day -- about 100 times less than the Japanese eat -- and the recommended upper level for iodine is no more than 1.1 mg/day, and they estimate the average requirement to be 95 micrograms per day or about 150 times less than the Japanese consume.
The 125mg Kelp tablets that I have from Vitamin Shoppe, have 225 ugs of iodine in them. Thus, to get to the Japanese level of Iodine (14 mg/day), I would have to take 62 of these tablets a day! Dr. Brownstein also states that iodine is stored in the thyroid which requires 6 mg/day and is also stored in a women's breasts and required for proper breast development. The breasts require 5 mg/day for a 110 lb woman.
And catch this... Breast cancer researchers have to starve test animals of iodine in order to be able to induce breast cancer in any significant number of them. Hmmm...
Another 2 mg/day of iodine is required by the adrenals, hypothalamus, pituitary, and other organs. Therefore, the total required iodine for a woman is 5 6 2 = 13 mg/day. The RDA is 150 ugs per day, so a woman would have to take 86 times as much as this to achieve the 13 mg/day needed by her body, and even more if she had a larger body or bigger breasts. A man has smaller breasts and his prostate requires somewhat less iodine than a woman's breasts. However, a man's body is generally larger than 110 lbs, so this would have to be factored into the total requirements for a man.
Dr. Brownstein states, "Over the last 30 years, iodine levels have fallen over 50% in the United States. Breast cancer rates have risen dramatically. Thyroid illness from hypothyroidism, autoimmune including Grave's and Hashimoto's, as well as thyroid cancer has risen dramatically."
Since the Japanese have so much iodine in their bodies (they're ingesting 100X our 150 ug RDA of iodine), and iodine is essential for dealing with radiation exposure, it makes me wonder what might happen happen if there were a mishap involving massive radiation exposure in a country such as ours where the iodine level is so pathetically low.
And this may well be an important consideration, as cancer rates have been shown to rise after radiation has been released into the atmosphere, which apparently happened quite a bit with the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons in Iraq in 2003. Background radiation levels were measured at many times normal in England (click this link - http://www.llrc.org/aldermastrept.pdf - and check the graphs) just a few days after the fighting started in Iraq. Cancer rates in Iraq in 2001 were about 10X what they were before Desert Storm where much less DU was used than in 2003. The big problem is that the effects are global (see: http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2006/DU-Europe-Moret26feb06.htm). So, the problem for us is that the DU rounds burn up or pulverize and tend to stay in the atmosphere, allowing the "aerosol of sub micron" size to enter the slip-stream and come back to America to bite us all.
Therefore, we all need to be aware of any nutritional and purification techniques which will handle radiation.
I've just upped my iodine intake to 1.35 mg/day (6 kelp tablets of 225 ug each) and I feel warmer already (maybe this will help me burn off my excess fat even faster.)
Donna (Aspen, CO) on 07/20/2006:
Iodoral can be purchased from www.illnessisoptional.com or the Optimox website. Even if you absorb (which I did), I think this is good for you. Try the Iodoral for a week - one pill a day- -to make sure it agrees with you first. A rash means an allergy. By the way, you only absorb 12% of what you paint the rest goes up in the air...it's a halogen. Publication #4 at www.optimox.com explains why some doctors are afraid of iodine, it was a faulty study-- one study and our health was sacrificed!
Karen (England) on 04/25/2006:
Lorraine (Charlotte, NC) on 03/27/2006:
Ted (Port Orchard, WA) on 02/10/2006:
Lynda (Brisbane qld aust.) on 01/19/2006:
Donna (Aspen, CO) on 11/24/2005:
Donna (Aspen) on 03/01/2004:
More regarding your thyroid: your thyroid is 65% iodine. It also regulates the oxygen that gets into your cells. Lack of sufficient oxygen in your cells is the root of all cancers. And, everyone who has died from cancer is found to have a deficient thyroid gland. A low body temperature (under 97.6) is also caused by low thyroid function, this is your first signal that something is wrong. Sea Kelp pills also supply iodine......painting though, w/ iodine, is always there for your thyroid to feed on! Lugols is a stronger iodine, it is 6%, so just doing the math-- if 2% should stay on for 24 hours then Lugols should stay on 72 hours. Just go with the drug store 2% variety, mine is Swan brand, and watch it absorb, if yours disappears really quickly then as a daily painting you could use the stronger Lugols. Or you can buy Iodoral tablets on the web. They are 12% iodine. I take one every other day. However your thyroid can only absorb a very small amount everyday, you cannot force it to drink more than it can absorb naturally. The excess isn't wasted though, it uses the excess that you feed it daily to help regulate the organs and blood. But I feel that painting is the best, I will paint every day the rest of my life. Hope your iodine stays on for days!
