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