Category Archives: GAPS

Outsmart Your Diet

Paprika Chicken: Sure to Please and Super Easy

PAPRIKA CHICKEN

(Served four with leftovers.)

2 pounds of skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into strips or use the pre-cut “tenderloins”
1/4-1/2 cup melted butter or olive oil
Salt, 1 teaspoon
Pepper, 1/2 teaspoon
Garlic powder, 1 teaspoon
Paprika (or smoked paprika), 1 teaspoon
Oregano, 1-2 teaspoons

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (204 degrees Celsius).

2. Place the chicken in a 9X11 pan. (Don’t be afraid to cram ’em in there.)

3. Drizzle the chicken with either melted butter or olive oil.

4. Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and oregano.

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until juices run clear when the chicken is pressed down with a fork.

Serve alongside a side of potatoes or sweet potatoes or rice or squash and something beautifully green.

Family “gustar” report: 100% success rate. Everybody approved. Super delicious and super easy. If you want to make it even better, then consider pounding your chicken. But this adds a little more mess, work, and time. I am in fifth grade, and I make this for the family myself.

Warmest wishes for health and happiness from our kitchen to yours–from our family to yours!

~~Mary and Terri

Curing My Colon

5 Replies

Last post was my personal gastrointestinal story. Did you come back for more? Really? I know. Forget Freud and his envy idea. Freud had it all wrong. I have the real psychological envy theory figured out. What is it you ask? Drumroll. We all desire something actually within our reach. More drumrolling. Whether male or female. Final drumroll. Colon health. Yep. Forget those nether male parts. I want none of that. But colon health? Sure. A little bit of “colon envy?” Probably so.

How did I achieve the object of my heart’s desire, colon health? Let me tell you. (But let me first remind you that this is a personal story. It is not intended and should not be used as medical advice. Eating real food could be dangerous for your health, and I must tell you so for your own good.)

1. Massive nutritional intervention (aka dietary overhaul):

Did I say massive? Oh, man. Was it. My nutrition has changed so much, I don’t even recognize food served at potlucks and ball parks anymore. (Our soccer club is begging for parents to work in the concession stand. Not this mama. I’d lose sleep if I handed any of that stuff out.) I started a diet called GAPS and followed it for 18 months before diversifying what I ate. People really get hung up on names of diets, which I disagree with, but I certainly now know that a person has to have a blueprint to follow to start changing their diets. I would have failed without a guide. What people eat has become so off base, so unnatural, that we CANNOT see it. A real food-based diet was key.

So what do I eat? The bottom line is I eat REAL, unprocessed food and I usually try to avoid grains. My diet is rich in vegetables (all types but particularly greens), fats (plenty of it), fruits, and fresh meats. You will find my diet devoid of processed foods, sugar, processed flours, low in grains, and devoid of processed oils like vegetable oil. Did I mention that my diet was rich in vegetables? Well, my diet is rich in vegetables.

But diet alone wouldn’t kick the colon and relieve my envious spirit.

2. Identification of food intolerances:

I was shocked, appalled, and disgusted when the GAPS introduction diet helped me identify food intolerances for two reasons. One, I love to eat. Two, food intolerances seemed so, oh, I don’t know, just so weak and finicky. (I didn’t like the thought of being that dinner guest.) For awhile, I told myself the intolerances were just in my head. But careful exclusion and reintroduction revealed that I had sensitivities to dairy, nuts, coconut, chicken, eggs and certain fruits and vegetables. I also knew that gluten was problematic too. Definitely some of those foods slowed my gut down and I had to take them out. Out. Out. Out. Dairy, nuts, gluten, and eggs were worst offenders for me. (This will lead to my next saga of curing my leaky gut. Leaky gut leads to food intolerances.)

But diet and removal of problematic foods were not Holy Grails in my colonic development.

3. Experimented with probiotics:

I have used many types of probiotics and probiotic foods (and drinks). I don’t always use the same kind. My gut is moving now with one called Jarrow Ideal Bowel Support (lactobacillus plantarum). But last fall before I got pregnant, it was moving with VSL #3. (VSL#3 increases butyrate.) There was a period where it moved with GI Pro Health’s lactobacillus acidophilus. But never could I deviate from my diet and high dose magnesium. Some people have success with S. boulardi and soil based organisms, but these didn’t help me when I tried them. For me, it does seem valuable to drive up the dose to about 40 billion colony forming units daily. That is usually much higher than the labeled dose. Probiotics may help decrease inflammation, provide a better environment for the host’s normal bacteria, and may also make metabolites to feed other host bacteria.

Although much improved with diet, intolerance identification, and probiotics, my colon was still in Freudian-like angst.

4. Removed Mirena IUD:

I do not recommend this if you REALLY do not want an addition to your family. (For us–Welcome Baby Girl Number Four!) But progesterone is known to influence GI peristalsis, so to gain any edge I could, I had my Mirena IUD, which provides a little progesterone, removed. Incredibly, for about two weeks after the Mirena was out, my gut moved well on its own, only to revert to its usual slow self. Hormones definitely play a role in constipation. I hope to have more posts on this later.

Colon health still evaded my pursuits…

5. Working on GI colon barrier:

The integrity of the GI tract, its bacterial flora, and its mucous layer is important. If I can help these to be restored, I can decrease chronic inflammation in the gut which could irritate and exacerbate my bowel troubles. To work on my GI colon barrier I incorporate homemade broths and gelatin into my diet. I remove known inflammatory foods and foods that I am intolerant to, which would increase inflammation. I use the probioitics. Butyrate is known to be anti-inflammatory in the gut, and I started taking that.

Yee-haw. That just about takes care of it!

6. Butyrate:

For me, this supplement called butyrate (butyric acid) finally allowed me to stop taking anything for constipation. Now I have to get off of the butyrate again (like last fall)! I have loads of posts on butyrate, and although it seems very safe, I still don’t like supplements. Assuming you have the appropriate bacteria in your colon, you can eat particular foods to increase butyrate production. After having a baby recently, I have once again resumed butyrate and will try to transition to butyrate-producing foods once again to see if I can be supplement-free for my GI tract like I was briefly last fall!

Colon envy averted.

7. Other implemented changes that don’t work in isolation but help in a minor way:

Find quiet time to sit without interruptions: Not an easy task to accomplish but it seems to help. No TV. No cleaning. Just sitting and reading. The gastro-colic reflex is great in the morning, and so getting up early before everybody else and before the stress of the day helps capitalize on this natural reflex. If I miss this window, I may skip that day.
A warm drink in the morning: It seems to offer a slight nudge. Caff, decaf, or tea.
Feet on a stool to help anatomical alignment: I used my kids’ little step-stool for a long time. Then I bought a Squatty Potty, but my step stool was just as good. Let me tell you, a Squatty Potty or step stool is NOT going to get your bowel MOVING again if you don’t even have urges. But it may provide better anatomical alignment so that if you have stool in your rectal vault and an urge, it is easier to pass.
Large meals rather than grazing: A large meal stimulates the gastro-colic reflex more than a small snack. The term gastro-colic reflex refers to the movement of the colon in response to a meal.
Cherries: I hate to mention one food which helps. For so many years I had to listen to people tell me to just eat prunes, sauerkraut, pickles, or watermelon. “If that doesn’t do it–you’ve got problems.” Well, yes I did. No food ever, ever helped me. If it had, I would have been content to stop right there. But this past summer, I found that those large, red cherries actually did help peristalsis. Of course, bowls of them. So I tried some dried cherries. Worked, too.
Bowl retraining: As the rectum and colon are under chronic distention from chronic constipation and stool in the rectal vault, they will “reset” themselves to accommodate more stool. Thus, it will take even more distention and pressure to make it push stool out the vault. If you’ve had constipation long enough, you may need to have some bowel retraining, which you can ask your doctor about. It may require biofeedback exercises and enemas. Enemas are not good to use routinely.

Closing:

Despite my attempts at humor, if constipation is your problem, so much so that you’re considering a colectomy, then I strongly encourage you to ask your doctor if it’s okay to try the things I talk about above. I know some of you are just about unresponsive to anything. You may not achieve complete success, but maybe if you can get some of the simple over-the-counter meds working for you again, you might be able to avert a huge surgery. When I started this journey, I had to take high dose over the counter meds to get my GI tract to move three days later. Slowly, with these changes, magnesium started working again. And now, I’m actually confident I’ll be med-free for constipation in the near future. And along the way, I’ve shed headaches, fatigue, and allergy prescriptions. I’ve left some things out that I’ve tried since they didn’t seem to contribute greatly, but maybe they did more than I know. I don’t mind questions. Good luck. The best to you.

Remember, this is my story. Please seek the advice and treatment of a real, live doctor you trust.

Terri

The Unglorious Call to Action

9 Replies

That is a personal problem. Not a medical problem.

Here’s the poop. No. No. I mean scoop. My call to nutritional voodoo was, well, to say the least, not a glorious one. Other nutritional blog hosts–oh such extraordinary, amazing recovery stories from horrible illnesses like multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis. Motivating and inspiring us all to higher eating! My issue–hmmm. Right. Not so inspiring. Considered by the uninformed to be a personal problem, not a medical problem. Ah, well. Even if I arrived in Nutritional Nirvana via a clumsy fall on my derriere, I am here all the same. My gut is working. And the pursuit of that goal is pretty much what started this blog.

My History

I’m a 39 year-old female. I have had chronic constipation all of my life. Although not a common issue, I can remember twice in high school when I had horrible stomach cramps prompting me to head to the nurse’s office. On the way, the visceral pain overcame me, and I passed out leaning against the lockers in the hall. As a sixteen year-old girl I did not make the connection between constipation and these symptoms. Neither did anyone else! “You just need to eat more.” Mmm-kay. It never dawned on me that my gut was trying to move against a brick and it hurt! I thought bricks were normal. I mean, nobody talks about bowel movements at 16! (I suppose I’m not supposed to talk about them ever. But since I’m a medical doctor, no orifice or function makes me blush.)

Each decade, my GI function worsened, and I did finally realize in pharmacy school that my gut was abnormal. The next ten years brought rounds of different fiber preparations (I can make darn tasty desserts with Metamucil wafers), docusate, milk of magnesia, magnesium supplements, suppositories, Miralax, yogurt, probiotics, prunes, shredded wheat (half a box a day), and finally, despite my attempts to only use them sparingly, daily stimulant laxative became required. Mind you, even with those stimulant laxatives which were needed at doses which would kill a normal human being, my bowel movements still only occurred about every five to ten days and still were not easy to pass. My gut was slowing down from slow to stop and becoming refractory to everything I knew to try. I visited several doctors through the years and I always got the same answer: more fiber and water. Got a colonoscopy. Pretty negative. Got checked for low thyroid and celiac disease. Negative.

I decided to think outside of the box and took to the wilderness of internet medicine. Talk about crazy. How do some of these people say these things without a license? Guess I’m glad they can because it tipped me off in the right direction, and I embarked on the odd diet called GAPS (at least that founder has a medical license)–before I knew about Paleo which sounds way cooler than GAPS. (Ha! Ha! I actually have landed on a diet which has no name but uses the templates of several diets.) GAPS helped me identify food intolerances and taught me how to eat a nutrient dense diet. It got my gut usually responding again to high dose magnesium (Natural Calm), but I don’t think high dose magnesium is good to take for the rest of my life. So my endeavors persisted. My goal is NO supplement for my constipation. For myself, I try to use supplements as a bridge to achieve my health goals. Once my health goal is achieved, I’d like to try to maintain it with food choices if I can. However, I recognize there are conditions which will require lifelong dependence on medicines and/or supplements, not to mention declining content of certain nutrients in our food sources.

Achieving Success

This week I’ve lived large, taken a chance, and dropped the magnesium which sustained me through pregnancy. My gut is working daily! Back in November 2013, my gut was also working very well daily, and I was set to write this post back then. I had started butyrate (butyric acid), and although it isn’t supposed to make it to the colon, it worked like a charm on my gut. My GI tract moved daily and even my stupid food intolerances seemed diminished just in time for Thanksgiving.

But I hate supplements (please know that I do take some). I wanted to allow my body (I consider those bacteria in my gut to be part of my body.) to make its own butyrate, so I tried to incorporate green bananas, green plantains, cold potatoes, occasional bites of raw potato and sweet potato, some legumes, and potato starch slurried up in water each night to get my own gut bacteria to make butyrate. Things were going great. Just great! I was able to stop my butyrate and still have the same effects. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Then, we were blessed with pregnancy. Let me rephrase that. We were blessed with a baby. Pregnancy is no sleigh ride with jingle bells. (Increased constipation has always been in an issue in pregnancy. This time was much better. There was a time at about 14 weeks along where my gut completely stopped and nothing I did made it move. I got worried, but after a couple of weeks, that lifted and magnesium helped again.) However, I worked through all the food and supplement aversions and stomached magnesium, which I needed again every single day in excessive doses. I bid “good-bye” to butyrate and resistant starch foods, which sounded disgusting during this time. I delivered in July a beautiful, healthy girl.

About two weeks ago, I decided it was again time to get rid of that excessive magnesium and all that it was probably doing to my calcium balance. Besides that, the magnesium didn’t always work daily. I decided to take butyrate again and started incorporating resistant starch foods into my diet. Would the experiment work for me again? I was nervous since I had proclaimed success with butyrate in fall of 2013. What if it failed? I would have reported it, you know. But I would have felt very stupid because I never want to lead anyone astray. The experiment for me has successfully repeated itself. Now all that needs to happen is to continue the resistant starch foods and see if I can taper myself off of the butyrate supplement.

Closing

So you see, mine is not the most glorious nutritional conversion story there is. But it’s real. It has convinced me that eating a nutrient dense diet, excluding inflammatory foods, and supporting the body’s bacterial flora is key to health and curing disease. I am pretty much 100% convinced that this experiment would never have worked two and one-half years ago in the gut that I had then. I’ve worked very hard and tried a lot of things to rehabilitate my broken colon. In the next post, I am going to list what I feel has been most important for getting my gut peristalsis in working order. I will report what worked for me. Don’t assume that what works for me will work for you. I want to make sure you seek the advice of your doctor; I don’t want you to overlook serious health conditions because you’ve given up on conventional medicine. Don’t use my story as medical advice. That it is not. This is my story.

~~Terri
Photo credit:

Originally from en.wikipeida. Author Dflock. Now public domain.

Folate Delivery Dressing

Goal:

Eat more folate-rich foods, including greens.

Why:

Some people–maybe you–can’t metabolize the form of folate called folic acid very well. Folic acid is what is added to most grain-based processed foods and used in most vitamins. These people do much better with folates found naturally in foods. Since they don’t metabolize folic acid very well, their bodies are basically functioning on a “folate deficiency” despite adequate intake of folic acid.

So what?

I don’t know. Which reason do you want? Folate deficiency may play a role in depression? Bipolar disorder? Birth defects? Anemia? Atherosclerosis? Alzheimer’s? Chronic fatigue syndrome? Gout? Hearing loss? Blood clots?

Although the research on folate’s connection to many of these conditions is not clear-cut, there are some suggestions. On something as simple as eating real, folate-rich food, I don’t see a need to wait around for the million dollar research study.

Plan:

When it comes to folate, spinach leads the pack. I use this simple dressing which the kids enjoy to deliver folate-rich greens, including spinach, to my family.

Folate Delivery Dressing

1/3 cup of bacon drippings
1/4 cup of maple syrup (or honey or sweetener of choice)
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
Diced onion (may omit)
Salt and pepper to taste
Spinach (or greens of choice)

Heat bacon drippings in skillet over medium-high heat until melted and hot. Add onions and saute until golden brown. Add the maple syrup and whisk. Allow to thicken and bubble. Add apple cider vinegar and whisk again. Allow it to reduce and thicken a little. Salt and pepper to taste.

Use the dressing to pour over fresh spinach, tossing to wilt. Use just enough to coat as desired. Alternatively, the greens may be added to the pan and cooked a little.

Bottom Line:

Nutrient deficiencies abound. Not huge deficiencies that can be pointed at directly. But little micronutrient deficiencies. Feed yourself and your families fresh vegetables, fruits, and foods to overcome these deficits. You’ll feel the difference! It is important. I just wish I could emphasize this enough!

Thank you to my lovely, young daughters for the graphics on this post.

~~Terri

Iodine Post 4, Pregnancy

8 Replies

Personal Anecdote

One of the most serious effects of iodine deficiency is damage to a fetus. (Echo: Damage to a fetus…damage to a fetus…damage to a fetus.) Iodine deficiency wasn’t on my radar when I conceived last fall! I had had no dairy, no eggs, and no iodized salt for at least a year and a half, and I was taking no iodine supplementation, prenatal vitamin or otherwise. So I have to wonder about my iodine status prior to pregnancy and in early pregnancy. Early in pregnancy, I was too sick to tolerate a prenatal vitamin, and both my doc and I agreed that all I probably really needed to be sure to choke down was a folic acid supplement to prevent neural tube defects. (Strangely enough with the food and smell aversions, in my first trimester, I could not get over the urge to eat any and all kinds of seafood, which is a good source of iodine: sardines, oysters, mussels, clams, mahi mahi, tuna, shrimp, scallops, soft-shelled crabs, Nori, and dulse–you name it. I threw seafood cautions to the wind and gobbled that stuff down, since nothing else sounded good! Anecdotal but interesting.)

I wish someone would have told me that my best sources of iodine had all been removed from my diet, and even with them included, I would still have been at risk for iodine deficiency. So if you’re dairy-free, skipping iodized salt, vegan, intolerant or allergic to eggs, autoimmune Paleo, or follow a crazy diet (I can say that because I follow a crazy diet.), please just make it a point to make sure you’re getting sufficient iodine. And as always, don’t use anything on my blog as medical advice.

Not good. Statistics show that pregnant women’s iodine intake and levels are not sufficient and are continuing to decrease.

In the United States, there is a periodic survey which evaluates how our iodine intake is doing, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). NHANES has revealed that urinary iodine levels for pregnant and non-pregnant women in the United States have dropped significantly since the early 1970s. Adequate urinary iodine levels for pregnant women should be 150-249 micrograms/L (based on the World Health Organization standards). The United States has hovered around and then dropped below this point:

1971-1974: 327 micrograms/L
1988-1998: 141 micrograms/L
2001-2006: 153 micrograms/L
2005-2010: 129 micrograms/L (Goal is greater than 150 micrograms/L) (1, 2)

In the most recent survey, some regions such as California and Pennsylvania were alarmingly low, 105 and 125, respectively. And this doesn’t even take into account the interfering factors of halides in our food and environment which interfere despite levels of iodine!

So what does low iodine mean for pregnant women and their babies? (Not good.)

Iodine deficiency can lead to what is called “reproductive failure” in the female, which simply refers to repeated miscarriages and increased stillbirths. The more severe the iodine deficiency, the more the risk increases. One study showed that the frequency of reproductive failure was directly proportional to the severity of the iodine deficiency. Women who had iodine deficiency had twice the risk of reproductive failure. (There are many causes of “reproductive failure” besides iodine deficiency. Other nutritional factors such as selenium deficiency could also be responsible for reproductive failure. And aside from nutritional factors, there are many other causes, as well. So I am not saying, “Iodine is it.” Please don’t think that.) (3)

Known iodine deficiency effects on the fetus are numerous and include:

Increased miscarriages (loss before 28 weeks of pregnancy)
Increased stillbirths (loss after 28 weeks of pregnancy)
Increased premature births
Congenital anomalies (birth defects)
Increased perinatal morbidity and mortality (increased bad outcomes and death occurring shortly before or after delivery)
Cretinism (mental retardation with changes in stature, hearing–often a high tone defect, and sometimes the inability to use arms/legs due to severe rigidity)
Goiters in newborns
Hypothyroidism in newborns
Mental retardation
Lower IQ (3, 4, 5)

Medical literature supporting iodine’s role in producing a healthy, in utero fetus and subsequent neonate is NOT hard to find!

All degrees of iodine deficiency…affect thyroid function of the mother and the neonate as well as the mental development of the child. The damage increases with the degree of the deficiency…

Iodine deficiency results in a global loss of 10–15 IQ points at a population level and constitutes the world’s greatest single cause of preventable brain damage and mental retardation. (5)

When a mom is iodine deficient, iodine deficiency is passed on to the developing fetus who has NO way of getting iodine or thyroid hormone except through the mom. You are it, Mama.

When a woman becomes pregnant, her baby absolutely relies on the mom’s thyroid hormone, which requires iodine to be made. The baby cannot make its own thyroid hormone until later in the pregnancy, and even then, it still needs iodine provided by mom as the raw material for its own thyroid hormone production.

Iodine is 100% necessary for the production of thyroid hormone, and if it is not sufficient, then the mother and baby will be exposed to hypothyroidism (lack of thyroid hormone). Thyroid hormone is necessary for the function of all cells and is critically important for brain development, especially in a fetus and newborn. Thyroid hormone helps to make sure that the fetus’s cells grow, develop, differentiate, and express the right genes.

Most health organizations recommend about 150 micrograms of iodine daily for non-pregnant adults, but iodine needs increase when a woman becomes pregnant. To make more thyroid hormone to cover the baby’s needs, the woman needs more iodine. She also needs more iodine because during pregnancy, the blood filtration through the kidneys increases and extra iodine is lost in the urine during pregnancy.

It doesn’t end with pregnancy, either. Nursing mothers need more iodine because the iodine is transferred to the baby by her milk. The baby still needs iodine. (6)

The developing brain of the fetus is probably the most vulnerable target organ for iodine deficiency.

First Growth Spurt of the Brain

The developing baby’s brain has two major “growth spurts.” The first one is at 12-20 weeks (months 3-5). During this first one, the brain cells (neurons) are rapidly multiplying, moving to their correct places, and organizing themselves appropriately. Studies indicate that iodine repletion should occur by three months of pregnancy to prevent cretinism (severe mental retardation, deaf/mute, and effects on the arms and legs). Most of us in developed countries probably won’t fall into iodine deficiency enough that cretinism would develop, but I think it may be revealing in other neurological conditions as well, that getting the iodine levels back up in the first trimester is probably optimal. However, even if the first trimester is missed, iodine supplementation still shows beneficial effects in pregnant women and their fetuses.

Second Spurt

The second spurt of brain growth occurs in the third trimester and doesn’t finish until the child is 2-3 years old! This spurt allows the cells that support the brain’s neurons (knows as “glial cells”) to multiply, move to their appropriate places, and to become coated with myelin. By the time of the second spurt, the baby has a functioning thyroid, so it doesn’t rely on mom for thyroid hormone anymore, per se, but it relies on mom for its source of iodine. If mom is not eating enough iodine, baby still can’t make thyroid hormone for itself and its brain. If mom didn’t get enough iodine in the first trimester, damages can still be minimized.

“Correction of iodine deficiency during the second trimester reduced neurological abnormalities, increased head growth, and improved the development quotient in a severely iodine-deficient area of western China. Correction at a later period did not improve neurological development, although there was a trend toward slightly larger mean head circumference and higher development quotients than in untreated individuals. ” (6)

There is a spectrum of how insufficient iodine levels affects the fetus.

“Mental retardation from iodine deficiency is not limited to the extreme form of cretinism, but instead extends over a broad continuum to mild intellectual blunting that may go unrecognized unless carefully investigated. Thus, iodine deficiency puts virtually everyone in the affected population at some risk for brain damage. Many studies have compared performance of iodine-deficient children with that of iodine-sufficient peers on standardized intelligence tests…iodine deficiency lowered a mean intelligence quotient by 13.5 points. In view of the many people living in iodine-deficient areas and their vulnerability to its effects on the developing brain, these numbers indicate a staggering public health problem. This and neonatal mortality, rather than goiter, have become the main reasons for advocating urgent correction of iodine deficiency.” (6)

Severe iodine deficiency and cretinism: The most notable and sad outcome of iodine deficiency, as it is completely preventable, is cretinism. I have read that early Alpine explorers would come across entire villages of “cretins” isolated in the mountains. These local pockets of population lived off of iodine deficient land, and it wasn’t until food started coming in from elsewhere and iodine supplementation was implemented in the 1900s that the incidence of cretinism was reversed. At the time, doctors and people in general felt it was something “in the air” or “in the water” of the valleys or perhaps a “genetic fault.” Cretinism presents with:

Short stature
Mental retardation
Deaf and mute
Spasticity of limbs (the arms and legs can draw up tight and not extend properly)

Mild iodine deficiency: Mild iodine deficiency effects are more pervasive and not as concrete to pinpoint. Children from low iodine pregnancies have been found to have:

Lower IQs
ADHD
Elevated hearing thresholds/ hearing loss (4, 7, 8)

Dr. Jerome Paulson, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics council on environmental health says this in May, 2014 for NBC News:

“The brain development issues are very subtle and are not likely to be noticed in an individual child. It’s an issue for society as a whole when you have a large number of children who are not reaching their full potential.” (9)

If iodine deficiency is increasing in our pregnant women, wouldn’t congenital hypothyroidism in the newborn be increasing?

So as I typed this post up, I thought, well–if iodine deficiency is creeping up among our pregnant patients, then our babies should have a higher risk of hypothyroidism (low functioning thyroid). In fact, a month ago, my hairdresser was telling me about her good friend whose baby just wasn’t very active. They checked, and it was hypothyroidism. I’ve never really looked at or been notified about increases in newborn hypothyroidism (congenital hypothyroidism) in any of the journals I subscribe to, so I Googled it. (Because low thyroid function is SO detrimental to a newborn’s health and brain function, one of the tests mandated by every state in the newborn screening poke includes a test for congenital hypothyroidism.) Sure enough, there is a rise of congenital hypothyroidism. I cannot and will not say it is due to maternal iodine insufficiency because I think most health problems are usually caused by a combination of factors, but I certainly am suspicious about iodine deficiency’s role in this. In Krakow, Poland, before the introduction of iodized salt, 1 in 3920 newborns had transient hypothyroidism, and after the introduction of iodized salt, the rate dropped to 1 in 48,474. (2) Experts are also considering the roles of perchlorate (a toxic byproduct of rocket fuel and fireworks production) exposure, as these seem to be contaminating our environment and entering our bodies, interfering with thyroid use of iodine, and whether use of iodine-containing disinfectants at the time of birth could contribute. (2, 10)

So why don’t we just put our pregnant women on iodine and crank her up good?

Case studies show reports of hypothyroidism in significantly iodine supplementing moms: So you’re a natural person. You’re not afraid of supplements. You’re pregnant, and you think you’re going to run out and start loading up on iodine. Not so fast. There have been cases of congenital transient hypothyroidism in newborns from maternal iodine supplementations, at doses of about 12.5 mg. Whoa. I would never want a baby to have hypothyroidism from over-supplementation! On the other hand, I think this area should be explored better. Was the mom supplementing other important nutrients needed along with iodine? How transient would the hypothyroidism have been in the baby? If the mom had kept supplementing, would the thyroid disorder have stabilized naturally? But we don’t know the answers to these nebulous questions, and so I accept that too high of a dose of iodine in pregnancy may be dangerous to the baby as well! On iodine deficiency in pregnancy, it is probably best for the iodine naïve woman to err on the side of recommended amounts. (11)

Prenatal vitamins: Slowly, recommendations are moving toward making sure women get iodine in their prenatal vitamins, and word is getting out there. NBC News had a little blurb on their site about it in May 2014. But, in my opinion, the information still is not out there to women OR their obstetricians. I just don’t think obstetricians are aware of iodine deficiency numbers in pregnant women, and I would venture to say many (most?) obstetricians don’t look at the prenatal vitamins their patients take! Only about 50% of prenatal vitamins in the United States contain iodine! And if they do contain iodine, the iodine content may vary by up to 50% of what is on the label. (1, 12) The American Thyroid Association recommends that all prenatal vitamins contain iodine, 150 micrograms. (13)

Best to get iodine optimized BEFORE pregnancy: This is good, but I feel iodine sufficiency needs to be in place WELL BEFORE pregnancy! If our pregnant women are low, that must mean that our child-bearing population is riding completely on the edge. In addition, it may be that some of the ill effects seen with iodine supplementation have to do with the iodine status of a person in the long-run! So the more iodine sufficient a person is their whole life, the more they tolerate extra supplementation without conversion to hypothyroidism. Dr. Elizabeth Pearce et al report on a study from Sicily which shows that moms who re-introduce iodized salt in the first trimester after having been off of it for two years have markedly increased risk of mom being hypothyroid! However, in patients who had used iodized salt routinely prior to pregnancy for two years, the risk of hypothyroidism in mom was much less (although not absent). (14)

Conclusion:

Iodine deficiency is absolutely a problem in many pregnant women. Iodine should optimally be sufficient in the first trimester, and unfortunately this is often a period when women are not aware that they are pregnant or they are too ill to take a prenatal vitamin with iodine or eat iodine containing foods. I think that brings us back to the idea that we are functioning, many of us as a population, on a near empty tank of iodine to begin with. Adequate iodine intake should occur BEFORE pregnancy. I hope you are taking note and continue to take inventory of you and your family members’ sources of iodine. Eventually, after I summarize why in the heck we need iodine, I will do a more detailed post on iodine content of foods. You can see some basic summaries of this in my previous iodine posts.

I would like to tell you that your doctor, especially your obstetrician, is up on this. And maybe they are. But I have a sinking feeling most are not. If getting pregnant is possible for you, it is best to start thinking about iodine intake today.

Sorry for the long post. Hope those interested found some tidbits to ponder.

~~Terri

Citations:

1. Kathleen L. Caldwell, Yi Pan, Mary E. Mortensen, Amir Makhmudov, Lori Merrill, and John Moye. Iodine Status in Pregnant Women in the National Children’s Study and in U.S. Women (15–44 Years), National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005–2010. Thyroid. Volume 23, Number 8, 2013. (Link to full text)

2. John S Parks, Michelle Linn, et al. The Impact of Transient Hypothyroidism on the Increasing Rate of Congenital Hypothyroidism in the United States. PEDIATRICS Vol. 125 No. Supplement 2 May 1, 2010. pp. S54 -S63. (Link to full text)

3. Dillon, J. C. and Milliez, J. (2000), Reproductive failure in women living in iodine deficient areas of West Africa. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 107: 631–636. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-0528.2000.tb13305.x. (Link to full text)

4. Cresswell Eastman and Michael Zimmerman. Chapter 20: The Iodine Deficiency Disorders. Thyroid Disease Manager. Online. Updated February 12, 2014. (Link to online text.)

5. F Delange. Editorial: Iodine deficiency as a cause of brain damage. Postgrad Med J 2001;77:217-220 doi:10.1136/pmj.77.906.217 (Link to full text)

6. John Dunn and Francoise Delange. Damaged Reproduction: The Most Important Consequence of Iodine Deficiency. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2001 86:6, 2360-2363. (Link to full text)

7. DeLong GR, Stanbury JB, Fierro-Benitez R. Neurological signs in congenital iodine-deficiency disorder (endemic cretinism). Dev Med Child Neurol. 1985 Jun;27(3):317-24. (Link to abstract)

8. Alida Melse-Boonstra, Ian Mackenzie. Iodine deficiency, thyroid function and hearing deficit: a review. Nutrition Research Reviews. 2013 Dec;26(2):110-7. doi: 10.1017/S0954422413000061. Epub 2013 Jun 12. (Link to abstract)

9. NBC News Online. Link: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/pregnant-women-need-iodine-supplement-doctors-say-n113326

10. Richard S. Olney, MD, MPHa, Scott D. Grosse, PhDa, Robert F. Vogt Jr, PhDb. Prevalence of Congenital Hypothyroidism—Current Trends and Future Directions: Workshop Summary. PEDIATRICS Vol. 125 No. Supplement 2 May 1, 2010
pp. S31 -S36 . (doi: 10.1542/peds.2009-1975C) (Link to full text)

11. Kara Connelly, MD, Bruce Boston, MD, Elizabeth Pearce, MD, David Sesser, David Snyder, MD, Lewis Braverman, MD, Sam Pino, Stephen LaFranchi, MD. Congenital Hypothyroidism Caused by Excess Prenatal Maternal Iodine Ingestion. The Journal of Pediatrics.
Volume 161, Issue 4 , Pages 760-762, October 2012. (Link to full text)

12. Angela M. Leung, M.D., Elizabeth N. Pearce, M.D., Lewis E. Braverman, M.D. CORRESPONDENCE: Iodine Content of Prenatal Multivitamins in the United States. N Engl J Med 2009; 360:939-940February 26, 2009DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc0807851. (Link to full text)

13. Public Health Committee of the American Thyroid Association, Becker DV, Braverman LE, Delange F, Dunn JT, Franklyn JA, Hollowell JG, Lamm SH, Mitchell ML, Pearce E, Robbins J, Rovet JF. Iodine supplementation for pregnancy and lactation-United States and Canada: recommendations of the American Thyroid Association. Thyroid. 2006 Oct;16(10):949-51.

14. Elizabeth N. Pearce. Iodine in Pregnancy: Is Salt Iodization Enough? J Clin Endocrinol Metab. Jul 2008; 93(7): 2466–2468. doi: 10.1210/jc.2008-1009. PMCID: PMC2453047 (Link to full text)

Great overview of hypothyroidism in pregnancy adn a section on iodine:

Click to access The%20Regulation%20of%20Thyroid%20Function%20in%20Pregnancy.pdf

Iodine Post 3: Preconception and conceptual fertility, male and female

1 Reply

See also Iodine Post 1 and Iodine Post 2.

Females: Pre-conception, conception and iodine

Bottom Line: I could find nothing concrete that convinced me that intake of iodine beyond commonly recommended doses improved the occurrence of conception, the regularity of periods, ovulation patterns, or menstruation abnormalities per se. However, without enough iodine, we are brought back to the fact that hypothyroidism can develop, and hypothyroidism can cause these fertility alterations. So females DO need to be getting enough iodine from somewhere and/or eliminating environmental factors that can affect iodine’s use in the body (a later post).

I easily found research supporting hypothyroidism (low thyroid function with symptoms and clear-cut lab abnormalities) and subclinical hypothyroidism’s (lab values not clear cut and patient not all-out symptomatic) roles in issues leading to conception, with both disorders affecting levels of sex hormones, ovulation patterns, menstrual patterns, and the ability to conceive even with the occurrence of ovulation.

In the International Journal of Applied and Basic Medical Research (2012), of 394 infertile women, 23.9% were found to be hypothyroid (TSH > 4.2 μIU/ml). After treatment with thyroid hormone (thyroxine) for hypothyroidism, 76.6% of infertile women conceived within 6 weeks to 1 year. Recommendations in the article boiled down to this: “Thyroid evaluation should be done in any woman who wants to get pregnant with [a] family history of thyroid problem or irregular menstrual cycle or had more than two miscarriages or is unable to conceive after 1 year of unprotected intercourse. The comprehensive thyroid evaluation should include T₃ , T₄ , thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), and thyroid autoimmune testing such as thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibodies, thyroglobin/antithyroglobin antibodies, and thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin (TSI). Thyroid autoimmune testing may or may not be included in the basic fertility workup because the presence of thyroid antibodies doubles the risk of recurrent miscarriages in women with otherwise normal thyroid function.” (1)
From Human Reproduction, 2003, a follow–up study on infertility found that never achieving a TSH <2.5 with thyroid replacement medication resulted in lower conception rates. (2) I find this interesting because lots of women with a TSH in the normal range (0.5-5) are told their “thyroids are fine,” and yet this study indicates optimal fertility occurs with a TSH< 2.5! So if 2.5 is optimum, I know a lot of women aren’t at this level.

Well, we’ve digressed to hypothyroidism rather than iodine! Hypothyroidism can be caused by iodine deficiency because iodine is essential for making thyroid hormone, but we are taught as medical doctors that hypothyroidism in the United States and developing countries is not due to iodine deficiency–although how we would know for absolute I can’t say. I NEVER once ordered or saw tests ordered for iodine levels. So I wonder about the iodine status in the patients in these and other studies. Could they have had lower levels of iodine contributing to their hypothyroidism? We have to have suspicion of iodine deficiency to diagnose it, and if we miss it, we’ve stuck a patient on thyroid hormone replacement probably for life.

From The American Thyroid Association website (phrases bolded by me):

“As iodine levels fall, hypothyroidism may develop, since iodine is essential for making thyroid hormone. While this is uncommon in the United States, iodine deficiency is the most common cause of hypothyroidism worldwide… How is iodine deficiency treated? There are no tests to confirm if you have enough iodine in your body. When iodine deficiency is seen in an entire population, it is best managed by ensuring that common foods that people eat contain sufficient levels of iodine. (3)”

I think this is a little backwards. We check for iodine deficiency as a population, knowing that some of the population will fall outside the realm of sufficiency, and then we have the balls to look people in the eye as individuals and say, “Your hypothyroidism is not caused by iodine deficiency.” I am not saying it is or it isn’t! I’m saying, based on my reading, WE DON’T KNOW! Neither are we educating doctors to have suspicion! On the other hand, many iodine-promoting websites tout iodine as a cure for things like infertility and menstrual abnormalities. I don’t think this is fair, either, since aside from its connection to hypothyroidism (which is not always due to low iodine), there isn’t much documentation to support this.

However, I did find some animal studies to look at regarding iodine and female fertility (I know animal studies shouldn’t be used as a substitute for human studies, but we don’t have those available.):

Increased fertility in sheep: One study looked at mating ewes and rams in an iodine deficient area. One group of ewes and rams received iodine injections, and the control group did not. The study showed that 100% of the treated ewes mated with treated rams were pregnant versus only 37% of the control ewes mated with control rams. (I don’t know the breakdown of events, perhaps the untreated ewes and rams conceived 100% of the time too, but the ewes had miscarriages later. Iodine sufficiency is shown to decrease miscarriages, which will be covered in the next post.) (4)
Increased fertility in horses: Reportedly, a Russian study (Kruzkova, 1968) indicated that mares which had shown anovulatory cycles responded to iodine supplementation. (5)
Decreased fertility in chickens: In chickens, increasing iodine actually DECREASED some of the fertility markers, such as egg production and follicle production without ovulation, and normal fertility returned after iodine supplementation removal. Normal egg production returned after removal of iodine. (6)

Overall, improved fertility prior to conception seems to be related to iodine’s relationship to the production of thyroid hormone. Both too much iodine and too little iodine may be a problem (although there are questions out there about if iodine is accompanied by certain co-factors will this alleviate the problems know to be associated with iodine repletion/supplementation) and affect fertility.

But what about men? What does iodine have to do with their virility?

We can again see, as in female fertility, that HYPOTHYROIDISM plays a strong role:

Thyroid hormone is important to help the Sertoli cells in the seminiferous tubules of the testes make sperm (spermatogenesis).
Hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism have been shown to affect the release of sex hormones from the pituitary in some studies (although not all studies).
If hypothyroid, males can have an increase of prolactin levels, affecting libido, hypogonadism, erectile dysfunction, gynecomastia, and galactorrhea.
Hypothyroidism also brings about decreases in testosterone and other male hormones.
Young males who have hypothyroidism during the congenital period and early childhood period present reproductive issues later in life. Please note: The fact that hypothyroidism during the congenital period affects the male offspring’s reproduction is very important to remember. What a mother eats (or doesn’t eat) during pregnancy has lasting consequences on the fetus.
Hypothyroidism, if prolonged, before puberty, can cause increased testicular size due to effects on the Leydig and Sertoli cells. These cells will increase in number but decrease in their maturity. There is a resultant drop in mature germ cells (sperm). (7)

Here again, these stated above results are for hypothyroidism–not iodine.

What about iodine deficiency and its supplementation’s effects on male fertility? In the Japanese Journal of Veterinary Research (2004) a statistical analysis explored whether the institution of iodine supplementation (such as in iodized salt in the 1920s in the US) could be responsible for the decline in sperm counts which affect developed nations such as the US. Through a complicated series of deductions and statistical analysis, these researchers felt that iodine supplementation WAS responsible for decreasing sperm counts. However, fascinatingly enough, it was noted that regions with perpetually high iodine intakes (Toulouse France on the Mediterranean Sea and Japan) have not experienced any decline in sperm counts. (8) [Please note that later in my reading, I saw that Toulouse, France had increasing occurrence of iodine deficiency in pregnant women. (9) ]

What questions does this raise? Are iodine saturated societies (such as Japan) protected from the decreasing sperm counts that seem to be seen elsewhere? In mild hypothyroidism from iodine deficiency, does the body then increase the cells which produce sperm to try to preserve reproduction, yet produce more immature sperm cells? Could there be something else besides iodine supplementation that decreases the sperm count? Clearly, there are a lot of factors introduced at the time which could decrease in sperm count.

Playing devil’s advocate in a weak fashion, the mentioned study concluded that sperm counts dropped significantly between 1965 and 1969 and attributes it to iodine supplementation. Another theory about the sperm fall revolves around hormone disruptors in the environment. What else was introduced and was all the rage about this time in America and Europe? Tupperware. Plastic. Potential hormone disruptor increasing estrogen-like effects in the body, and not just the BPA plastics, either. (10) So I will tuck this iodine and low sperm count thought away until perhaps more research comes along.

In animal studies: We can also take a look at an animal study specific to IODINE, rather than hypothyroidism. It has been found that administration of iodine to bulls improved the ejaculate volume and that in regions where iodine deficiency occurs, bulls’ fertility is affected due to decreased libido, ejaculate volume, sperm motility, and sperm cell concentration; supplementing iodine to these bulls improved the libido, ejaculate volume, sperm motility, and sperm cell concentration. (11)

So where are we left off? Hypothyroidism affects male fertility. Yes. Iodine supplementation we just don’t know about. A statistical analysis stretched and said iodine supplementation decreases sperm counts. An animal study showed benefits of iodine in bull fertility. What really happens in human males? I don’t feel there is enough out there for me to decide. If you speculate that iodine may improve the synthesis of thyroid hormone and perhaps help reverse hypothyroidism, then you can arrive at the conclusion that mild iodine deficiency in a male may decrease male fertility. There are other micronutrients (such as zinc and selenium) besides iodine that can affect sperm counts and male fertility, and perhaps these are all needed more as a person is iodine repleted to make sure there are no (or at least, less) adverse effects from the iodine supplementation. Don’t know. Wish I could deduce more.

Conclusion

So what did I decide about all those internet claims about improving male and female fertility with iodine? I think if iodine deficiency is causing a hypothyroid state, which may be overlooked by the medical community, then improving the thyroid function with iodine supplementation (and appropriate co-nutrients) could improve the chances to conceive. I don’t think I can safely assume and write more than that right now. In the next post, I will describe iodine effects in pregnancy. In the sense that iodine sufficiency helps cut down on miscarriages and stillbirths, it is true to say that iodine improves post-conceptual fertility. Pre-conceptual and conceptual fertility in males and females, I just haven’t decided.

Sources:

1. Verma I, Sood R, Juneja S, Kaur S. Prevalence of hypothyroidism in infertile women and evaluation of response of treatment for hypothyroidism on infertility. Int J App Basic Med Res 2012;2:17-9. (http://www.ijabmr.org/article.asp?issn=2229-516X;year=2012;volume=2;issue=1;spage=17;epage=19;aulast=Verma)

2. Thyroxine treatment modified in infertile women according to thyroxine‐releasing hormone testing: 5 year follow‐up of 283 women referred after exclusion of absolute causes of infertility. Raber W, Nowotny P, et al. Hum. Reprod. (2003) 18 (4): 707-714. (http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/18/4/707.long)

3. American Thyroid Association website: Iodine Deficiency. June 4, 2012. (http://www.thyroid.org/iodine-deficiency/)

4. Iodine supplementation restores fertility of sheep exposed to iodine deficiency. Ferri N, Ulisse S, et al. Journal of Endocrinological Investigation. November 2003, Volume 26, Issue 11, pp 1081-1087. (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03345254#page-1)

5. Iodine in the horse: too much or too little. ( http://www.4source.com/technical/iodine1.shtml) (Could not find the actual abstract or article referred to.)

6. Effects of Excess Dietary Iodine upon Pullets and Laying Hens. Arrington, Santa Cruz, et al. The Journal of Nutrition. February 1967. 325-330. (http://jn.nutrition.org/content/92/3/325.full.pdf)

7. Thyroid Hormones in Male Reproduction and Fertility. Rajender Singh, Alaa J Hamadaand Ashok Agarwal. The Open Reproductive Science Journal. 2011. 3; 98-104.(https://www.clevelandclinic.org/reproductiveresearchcenter/docs/agradoc414.pdf)

8. Iodine intake as a possible cause of discontinuous decline in sperm counts: Ar e-evaluation of historical and geographic variation in semen quality. Kentaro Q Sakamoto, Mayumi Ishizuka, Akio Kazusaka, Shoichi Fujita. Jpn. J. Vet. Res. 52( 2) : 85-94,2004. (http://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/10513/1/52(2)_85-94.pdf)

9. Clinical and Biological Consequences of Iodine Deficiency during Pregnancy. Glinoer D., Van Vliet G, Polak M (eds): Thyroid Gland Development and Function. Endocr Dev. Basel, Karger, 2007, vol 10, pp 62–85. (http://www.iccidd.org/cm_data/2007_Glinoer_Consequences_of_ID_during_Pregnancy.pdf)

10. Estrogenic chemicals often leach from BPA-free plastic products that are replacements fro BPA-containing polycarbonate products. Bittner G, Yang C, et al. Environmental Health 2014, 13:41.

(http://www.ehjournal.net/content/13/1/41)

11. The Effect Iodine Supplement on the Sexual Activity And Semen Characteristics of Friesian Bulls. Barakat T.M. Benha Vet. Med. J., Vol 15, No 2, Dec 2004. (http://www.fvtm.bu.edu.eg/fvtm/images/Animal_dept/pdf-Magazines/2-barakat2.pdf)

Iodine Post 2, More Iodine Introduction and Review to Lead Up to Iodine in Fertility

1 Reply

Today continues on in the long, arduous, controversial trek that is iodine. For this post, I had wanted to take a critical look at how iodine affects fertility, both male and female, and pregnancy. The post was too long, so I am splitting it into three parts.

More iodine introduction and review today because I want to stress again how iodine deficiency may be present despite the common medical community saying it isn’t in industrialized/developed countries.
Iodine and pre-conceptual/conceptual fertility tomorrow or so, as time allows me to get my citations in somewhat presentable documentation form.
Iodine and post-conceptual fertility/pregnancy the post or so after that. (Notice the “or so?” Moms always learn to be wishy-washy on timing of events, right?)

I spent a long time searching about fertility and iodine, and thus my absence in publishing blog posts lately. One article and question always leads to another and another. Despite looking high and low, I will make no great conclusions regarding iodine and fertility. Sorry. Hypothyroidism (low functioning thyroid gland) and hyperthyroidism (over-functioning thyroid gland) clearly do play a role in male and female fertility, but connecting the dots to iodine has not been performed much yet in research studies. However, we DO know that iodine deficiency is one cause of hypothyroidism.

My take, off the cuff, without sources and science, regarding iodine

Although we absolutely need iodine, our bodies seem to become adjusted to regulating our thyroids and bodily systems based on how much iodine we give them. Our bodies make do, down-regulating this pathway and up-regulating that pathway, until a critical iodine low point at which the system fails and you see the serious consequences of overt hypothyroidism and offspring with severe deficits, such as mental retardation. Before that severe iodine deficiency crisis hits, there are varying degrees of “normal” a body can manage to function at in different people with the iodine amount provided–which probably aren’t really “completely normal” functioning states but good enough to sustain life and reproduction with little noticeable compromise.

To significantly replace iodine at this point, when a person is “low in iodine” but functioning “okay” (where the body has managed to find a nice “homeostasis” regarding iodine use), can do one of three things. It can:

1) Benefit the body without negative thyroid side effects (the goal and the most common outcome).
2) Bring about a hypothyroidism.
3) Bring about a hyperthyroidism.

If a person is already hypothyroid from low iodine intake, even if mildly so, hopefully iodine replacement will allow the body to start optimizing its iodine use for improved thyroid function and the functioning of other tissues that use iodine, such as the ovaries, breasts and prostate without any ill effects. In fact, most people do fall under the umbrella of tolerating iodine supplementation just fine and benefitting from it, but doctors worry a lot about iodine bringing about hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism in what were observably “normal” people. And this does happen. Cruise the internet for research studies and iodine supplementation anecdotes, and you’ll see good and bad outcomes. (To optimize replacement with the least amount of negative thyroid response, iodine supplementation needs to be taken along with some other important co-nutrients: selenium, vitamin C, and zinc. This is a topic for another post.) Iodine is a mixed, controversial medicine bag.

As an obvious reminder, don’t use anything in my posts as medical advice, only use it for introductory informational purposes. The internet is a not a doctor. And there can be huge risks from implementing what you find on internet health sites. Walk cautiously, and find a healthcare person you DO trust to talk things over with.

Let’s remind ourselves of why a person would be iodine deficient from the last Iodine Post and then eventually move on to what I could find regarding iodine on male and female pre-conceptual/conceptual fertility tomorrow…

Iodine deficiency erratically riddles the population of developed societies. Why? Who is at risk? Am I? Are you? Why do they say we are “iodine sufficient” if we are not?

Why would well-fed people be iodine deficient?

(I am omitting the discussion of goitrogenic foods and halides, which put people at risk for iodine deficiency disorders, despite adequate iodine intakes. I will discuss those in later posts. It is an important topic which needs its own post.)

Real food iodine sources primarily include dairy, eggs, ocean seafood, and seaweed. Iodine can be a dietary toughie to get because levels of iodine fluctuate greatly EVEN IN THESE REAL FOODS. I would like to contrast this with nutrients such as B vitamins and magnesium, which although they are diminished in our modern food sources, they are abundant in MANY, diverse food sources which people eat, especially real food advocates.

Milk iodine content will vary depending on if the grass cows eat has iodine (Are they grazing on coastal pastures or iodine-deficient Great Plains grass?), if cows are supplemented with iodine-containing feed, and if iodine containing washes are used prior to milking.
Egg iodine content will vary depending on if the chickens are fed iodine supplemented chicken feed or not.
Vegetables and plants have no need for iodine, although they will take it up from the soil, passing it graciously on to us. Most soils away from the ocean coasts are iodine deficient (iodine is most abundant in ocean water, which falls on the land in the form of the rain cycle, replenishing coastal soil and plants with iodine from the sea), so eating “locally grown” food from iodine deficient soils will provide less iodine content.
Meat iodine content will vary, again based on what animals are fed or where they are grazing.
Sea salt mostly has only trace amounts of iodine.
Bread products use bromine rather than iodine-type dough conditioners, like they used to. (Heck, homemade bread doesn’t use either!) I realize to some readers that bread is a processed food, but it is eaten by most people. And the replacement of iodine-based dough conditioners for bromine-based dough conditioners, which interfere with iodine utilization in the body, plays a significant role in iodine deficiency disorders and the decreasing amount of iodine intake in the United States.
Seafood and seaweed’s iodine content vary by the kind of seafood but is usually a lot more predictable than the foods listed above.

Who is at risk? Examples.

If you stop and think, you can easily identify why people would be iodine deficient:

Case 1: An American woman who is dairy-free, doesn’t like seafood, and who has switched over to non-iodized sea salt because she thinks it tastes better. She still eats bread, but her bread has no iodine, and in fact does use a bromine derivative for dough conditioning. Hopefully she eats eggs and lives on the coast.

Case 2: An American college student who eats only bagels, cereal bars, or Pop Tarts for breakfast, sandwiches with chips at Subway for lunch, and some freezer-kits for supper. All these processed foods may not provide enough iodine, since non-iodized salt is used. Hopefully, some iodine is sneaking in through the cheese and eggs used in the products chosen. But we don’t know.

Case 3: A family in Australia who eats strictly organic, without realizing that studies show that organic dairy has less iodine, organic bread in Australia has no iodine, and their fruits and vegetables are grown in an iodine depleted area. They worry about mercury and radiation in seafood, and one child has an egg intolerance/allergy, so they shy away from eggs. I’m not sure where this family gets enough iodine. Maybe they take a multivitamin.

Case 4: A 67-year-old man who has lactose intolerance, who shuns salt because of blood pressure issues, who only eats the egg whites (not high in iodine) due to cholesterol concerns, and whose wife doesn’t like fish at all.

Case 5: A vegan who eats no dairy, no eggs, no meats, and no seafood. She could eat seaweed but doesn’t like the taste. Iodine intake is not lookin’ good.

Why do they say we are “sufficient” if we are not?

(Emphasized phrases are bolded by me.)

From The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 2010:

The WHO [World Health Organization] prevalence data emphasise that iodine deficiency is not only a problem of developing countries; the highest prevalence of iodine deficiency is in Europe (52.0%), where the household coverage with iodised salt is the lowest (approximately 25%), and many of these countries have weak or nonexistent control programmes for iodine-deficiency disorders. (1)

and The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 2009:

IDD [iodine deficiency disorder] can occur in iodine replete-environments. A high index of suspicion is needed to recognize these cases. It is pertinent that the correct diagnosis be made to avoid unwarranted life-long thyroxine therapy in patients presenting with goiter and hypothyroidism, which is easily treatable with iodized salt. These cases underscore the need for considering iodine deficiency in the etiologic diagnosis of goiter and hypothyroidism, even in iodine sufficient regions. (2)

From my research, I am concluding that iodine deficiency is insidiously surfacing in individuals and small subpopulations (for example, pregnant women, vegans, or those with multiple food intolerances) in many developed countries, probably riddling whole populations like a shot-gun due to unique dietary patterns and habits of individuals and their families. How is it that the medical community, chomping on their brominated office donuts, sipping their Coffee-Mate tainted coffee, and brushing their teeth with fluoridated Crest, may be slow to recognize this? (Yes. This was me.) Well, when the scientific community prudently checks to see if an area is getting enough iodine, they look at levels as a POPULATION, not in individuals. To determine the iodine sufficiency of an area, “on-the-spot” urines are checked for iodine in a sample of hopefully “representative” people.

Spot checks of urine for iodine content are known to be erratic and insensitive, so they can’t be used to determine true iodine status of an individual, but when they are collected and pooled together an overall snapshot of the area (or population) in question can be gained. The median (That’s the number that occurs in “the middle” when all the result values are lined up from smallest to greatest–it is not the average/mean.) is then used to determine if the tested population is iodine sufficient.

The median value determined can still “hide” a significant amount of the population who may be deficient. What values are on the low side of the median? How low do they go? If most people in the community who are checked use iodized salt and drink milk, well, those folks are probably iodine sufficient and pooled results tell the researchers that “all is well.” However, if you and your family don’t drink milk and skip iodized salt, plus you all hate seafood, your low urinary iodine spot check will be lost on the low side of the median. You’ll be told your community or population is iodine sufficient, and you won’t change a thing you eat. Iodine deficiency affects us as individuals, but unfortunately, iodine evaluations are made based on populations. True, accurate testing in individuals is pretty intensive. It requires a 24-hour urine collection, and so just getting “eyeball” spot urine results and pooling them together makes the most sense for determining a society’s iodine status. (3)

Bottom Line

So as I did in the last post, I encourage you to take inventory of your family’s commonly eaten foods to see if you may be at risk for mild iodine deficiency despite your government and medical societies saying: “There is no concern of iodine deficiency in the United States (or Australia, France, etc.).” I’ll bring a wealth of information eventually on iodine to the blog, but it takes me time. Meanwhile, just explore your diets, and make sure you’re getting some foods which usually have decent sources of iodine.

Remember, food counts. It really matters. It matters for you and your family and their families to come. Let’s move on to iodine and fertility tomorrow-ish…

Terri

Sources:

1. Iodine deficiency in industrialized countries. Zimmerman M. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society: Conference on ‘Over-and undernutrition: challenges and approaches. 2010; 69: 133-143. (Full text link.)

2. Iodine Deficiency Disorders in the Iodine-Replete Environment. Nyenwe EA and Dagogo-Jack S. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences. Jan 2009; 337 (1): 37-40. (Full text link.)

3. Estimation of iodine intake from various urinary iodine measurements in population studies. Vejbjerg P, Knudsen N, et al. Thyroid. Nov 2009; 19(11):1281-6. (Abstract link.)

How Do You Eat That Vegetable? Kohlrabi.

2 Replies

Vegetable Series: When we changed our eating two years ago, I resolved to be afraid of no vegetable. Not knowing how to cut it or cook it was NOT going to keep it out of my cart. For a long time I’ve wanted to do a series of posts on all the different vegetables we have tried and what we do to the poor things. May you, too, vow to try any and all vegetables in your supermarket! Go get ’em, tiger.

So far we’ve hit artichokes, rutabagas, and jicama in “The Vegetable Series,” all vegetables I only learned to make AFTER our family’s big eating change. Today we’re going to add kohlrabi to the pot. Kohlrabi takes me back to my high school, big-hair days. I first (only) ate it at the house of one of my best friends, fresh garden-picked kohlrabi, sliced and eaten raw with a sprinkling of salt, with all her family gathered around the table. Fun times. Her mom was a cardiac nurse. No wonder they ate kohlrabi. But YOU don’t have to be a cardiac nurse or doctor to know the advantages of kohlrabi! Uh, uh.

Terry Wahls’, MD reversed her debilitating multiple sclerosis using a vegetable dense (also meats, fruits, and other food components) diet. One of her “rules” is that sulfur-rich vegetables must be eaten every day, about 3 cups worth. Kohlrabi counts as a sulfur-rich vegetable, which helps regenerate a necessary pathway for dealing with “toxins”, called the glutathione pathway. Sulfur-rich vegetables are also important for mitochondrial function, enzyme structure and function, and dealing with heavy metals.

Coal + Rob + Bee = Kohlrabi

Geesh. Learning to pronounce the names of some of these vegetables requires more effort than learning to eat them. So to start off, the vegetable called “kohlrabi” is pronounced to my ear like these three words combined: coal + rob + bee. Which is different from how I was pronouncing it before this post, a cross between what you get for Christmas if you’re naughty and a Jewish teacher of the Torah: coal + rabbi.

A wee kohlrabi plant in our garden. You can just see the bulb forming. Darn rabbits about ate all the leaves until we sprayed them with red pepper mixed in water and put out cute little flower wind-catchers.

Kohlrabi is a member of the same family as cabbage, Brussels, and cauliflower, the brassica (or cruciferous) family. In fact, its name is German for cabbage (kohl) and turnip (rabi). (1) (If you like languages, then think about “cole slaw.”) Although it looks like a root vegetable (such as beets or carrots), it grows as a bulb above the ground. I want to point out that cruciferous vegetables may interfere with thyroid hormone and iodine utility, however, some of my reading suggests that if you have enough co-nutrients, like selenium, this may not be a problem. So hopefully I’ll get a post out about this as I work through the iodine posts.

Good. Good. How do you eat them?

Without a doubt, my favorite way to eat kohlrabi is raw. It tastes like a radish without the spiciness and is every bit as crunchy. However, like many, many vegetables, you can steam it, roast it, grate it for a slaw, stir-fry it, or throw it in a soup. Fear should cause no restraint here.

How do you prepare them?

Chop off the greens. If the greens are still fresh looking, you can sauté or steam them as you would spinach or any other green you like. (If you’re not sure how to make greens, leave a question in the comments, and I can throw out some ideas.) If they are not fresh looking, and you want to use them anyhow, then wash them up and toss them in some broth you may be making. If you want, discard them. I’ve started composting this year, so my wilted greens go here. (I even Googled chemtrails a week or two ago. I am so lost. No going back now. Please can I have my aluminum deodorant back yet? 🙂 )

Deeply peel the bulb. Wash kohlrabi, and then start peeling. There is a fibrous outer layer that you want to completely remove. You can see the fibers running along the bulb, so it’s pretty apparent how deep to cut. I use a paring knife to peel them, rather than a potato peeler, and I hack off the ends because they’re hard to peel. Once it’s all peeled, slice it up and eat it with some salt. Or cook it up however you choose.

Kohlrabi keeps well unpeeled in the fridge, although the leaves do not. I’ve had mine in there before for a week or more (admittedly really a lot more). The leaves only last a couple of days or so.

Do your kids like it?

Yes. All three kids (girls aged 10, 8, and 5) liked kohlrabi raw. My husband, one daughter, and I all liked the kohlrabi roasted.

Recipes ideas and recipes from other sites:

Roasted kohlrabi: I have made roasted kohlrabi where I chopped the kohlrabi into small cubes, added chopped onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and olive oil to moisten, spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and roasted at 400 degrees Fahrenheit (204 degrees Celsius) until golden brown. It looked like roasted potatoes, but they were not a bit starchy and had a bit of the cabbage family bite. Three of us liked it (out of 5), but next time I would mix it with a starchier vegetable like sweet potato or butternut squash for depth of flavor and texture.

Mashed kohlrabi: Instead of mashing cauliflower or rutabaga, try mashed kohlrabi. Steam the kohlrabi until fork tender (boiling it may make the mash more soupy). Place in a small food processor or blender or mash by hand with oil of choice (bacon drippings, butter, or olive oil would be good choices depending on your preferences and tolerances), just a bit of oil at a time until you get the consistency you want. Add salt and pepper to flavor. If you’re fancy, add some roasted garlic. (I am not fancy, but I almost always make the effort to throw some garlic cloves tossed in olive oil to roast in the oven while I’m preparing a mash. I think the roasted garlic makes “mashes” of any kind taste that much better, especially if you don’t/cant’ use butter and milk.)

Kohlrabi soup: This uses dairy and flour, but these pesky ingredients can be easily substituted with coconut or almond milk and arrowroot powder for those with intolerances.

Asian Kohlrabi slaw: Sesame oil and rice wine vinegar are the only flags I see for some folks with intolerances here. If you tolerate those, this slaw looks perfect!

Kohlrabi curry: We make curry like this a lot, but I’ve never used kohlrabi. Next time I have some sitting around, I’ll not hesitate to throw it in the skillet.

Closing

If you’re proud that you or your family has tried a new vegetable, even if it’s not “exotic” or “out there,” leave a comment. I’d LOVE to hear about it! Broadening the taste buds certainly seems to help when it comes to “healthy eating.” And look around you. Listen to those around you. Perhaps even look at yourself. Humanity and society cannot afford to continue down the horrific nutritional path that is now common practice. Processed foods HAVE to go. Work on it. If you don’t try, it will NEVER happen. And trying isn’t just serving it once, and saying, “They didn’t like it. They won’t eat it.” That is NOT how you learned to ride a bike.

~Terri

Source:
1. (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/discovering-kohlrabi-its-a-vegetable/)

Related Posts:

Jicama

Artichokes

Rutabagas

Iodine, Post 1

23 Replies

Iodine All Boxed Up

As far as most of the medical community is concerned, iodine has been boxed up in its cylindrical Morton’s salt-box (with that cute umbrella girl on it) and shelved–as if there is nothing further to know or learn about it. Not so.

For iodine, I want you to be aware of three ideas:

1. Iodine deficiency is insidiously on the rise in developed countries and putting people, particularly women and children at HUGE risk. (Pregnant or pregnancy-eligible women need to take note.) Many US doctors are not aware yet of this re-emerging problem. We took care of “severe” iodine deficiency, and now years later, mild iodine deficiency is invisibly in our midst, wreaking its damage without our awareness.

2. It’s not just the thyroid that needs iodine, but brains, immune systems, prostates, and breasts, too. (Ahem, you got some of those, don’t you?) I know my knowledge-base had a huge gap here regarding iodine, and therefore, I assume other medical doctors (I’ve asked a few too) and people in general may be lacking information in this area as well.

3. There is a fear of iodine supplementation and excessive iodine intake because of the risk of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. There are different camps of thought. Who is right? Who does know yet? Debatable. Regardless, many people aren’t even getting the bare minimum amount.

Could I be iodine deficient?

A resounding, “Yes.” Iodine deficiency was believed to be a resolved health issue in the US, but as I research, I see an insidious re-emergence of iodine deficiency in places such as the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. And I also see a lack of knowledge in standard health-care providers about the re-emerging deficiency. In pharmacy school and medical school we were taught that iodine deficiency was remedied in the United States by the implementation of iodizing salt back in the 1920s. Job accomplished! No more goiters! No more cretins (infants who are severely affected by iodine deficiency)! Celebrate and no more worries, right? Not so fast…

Apparently, somewhere in the realm of 38% of the world’s population is still deficient in iodine. Thirty-eight percent seems awful high to me, especially considering the nefarious effects on unborn fetuses. Looking at a few developed countries, the United States, Australia (New Zealand included in one of the citations), and the United Kingdom, each has pockets of iodine deficient populations (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Increasingly, studies are showing iodine deficiency in modernized countries where iodine deficiency was presumed to be eradicated, yet I hear little hubbub about it, despite the potential gravity of the consequences! This bothers me. Apparently and quite sadly, iodine deficiency hasn’t yet made the consciousness of mainstream practicing medical doctors, like deficiencies of vitamin D and folate have. Why? I think because we rested on the laurels of “curing” severe iodine deficiency maladies. But laurels shrivel and decay, and the world changes and moves on. Changes in our food sources and practices greatly affect our iodine levels.

Why would a problem that we had “taken care of” be re-emerging?

Why is iodine deficiency re-emerging? As with almost all things, it’s due to multiple hits in our iodine intake. Take a look! Do any apply to you and your family?

1. Cutting down on salt use for health and also cutting down on other iodine-rich foods. People are following medical advice to cut down on salt, and therefore using less iodized salt. Also, egg yolks contain some iodine, but people have been told to cut down on those, too, due to cholesterol concerns. Seafood contains iodine, but we’re told to limit seafood due to mercury concerns.

2. We eat out lots more and we eat more processed foods–and iodized salt is not used in these foods. The commercial-grade salt used in processed foods and in restaurants is usually not iodized. I repeat: the salty foods you eat from a box or at a restaurant are (most likely) not iodized. So none of the salt in Ruffles potato chips or from McDonald’s French fries counts toward your necessary iodine intake.

3. Switching to sea salt and shunning iodized salt. Sea salt does not contain enough natural iodine to prevent iodine deficiency. It may have traces of iodine, but not nearly enough! Sea salt, unless specifically stated to be enhanced with iodine or seaweed, does not provide you with enough iodine. It is not a good source of iodine.

4. Iodine deprived soils. Some soils have always been low in iodine content (plants don’t need iodine to survive but they take it up if it’s in the soil), especially in areas away from the sea or under cover of mountain ranges. Some soils have become depleted of iodine with use and lack of iodine restoration. Plants grown in coastal areas should theoretically have more iodine in them, but lately there is a huge emphasis on eating locally so this could contribute to iodine deficiency, as well.

5. Changing from iodine based dough conditioners to bromine based dough conditioners. Iodine used to be used (specifically iodate) when making bread products. Now a form of bromine, bromate, is used, although its use is being discouraged. (6) Not only does this provide LESS iodine, but if you look at your periodic table, you’ll see that iodine and bromine are in the same group of the periodic table (halides). So bromine will actually compete with iodine in the body and “displace” iodine from necessary body reactions. I will try to explain this concept in more depth later because it is so intriguing. The same holds true for fluorine and iodine competition. (7)

6. The iodine amount in iodized salt is not uniform. The amount of iodine in a carton of iodized salt is not uniform. Sometimes the top of the carton of salt has less iodine than the bottom of the carton. Some brands do not contain as much iodine as others. The amount of iodine in a box may wane over time. These idiosyncrasies often have to do with the chemical properties of iodine which will allow it to “leach” out of the carton. (7)

7. Changing dairy-farming practices. Dairy is touted as a good source of iodine because the cows are frequently given iodine-supplemented feed and their teats are washed prior to milking with an iodine antiseptic to kill bacteria. However farming practices are changing and dairy cattle may or may not be receiving these interventions now. (When I bought milk and butter from the dairy farmer yesterday, I asked her about this. Her cattle are all grass-fed and she does not use an iodine-based cleanse for the teats. So I cannot imagine that the milk is rich in iodine that we personally buy, although it will be rich in vitamin K2 at the moment and butyric acid because it’s spring-grass eating time!)

8. Choosing organic milk over conventional milk. Organic milk usually has less iodine than conventional milk due to the cows being grass-fed. (9, 10)

Points to be eventually covered in Iodine Posts

Iodine is a big topic that I don’t want to undermine, so I will break it down into several posts. A few months ago, I thought iodine’s role was limited to prevention of goiter and keeping enough thyroid hormone around. That is all true, but there is so much more to iodine’s story, and some parts haven’t even been unraveled yet! Take home points that I will eventually cover in iodine posts, but probably not in this order. (If you are pregnant, able to be pregnant, or nursing, I urge you to start reading about iodine today, and don’t wait for my posts to roll out. Here is a simple article to get you started: Iodine Deficiency Common in Pregnancy, Docs Warn.):

Do I need iodine? Absolutely. Can’t live without it. Function poorly with too little of it. “But what’s it do? What’s it for?” That is a bit challenging to answer. Kind of like, “What’s the sun for?” Is it for the trees? The flowers? Your vitamin D production? Your food production? Light? Energy? What aspect of our lives does the sun not touch? What aspect of our health does iodine not touch? Whether it is through the effect of thyroid hormone, which is composed of iodine, or direct effects we’re just now learning about, the body needs iodine. So it’s your job to make sure you know where you can get it. I will go over where to get iodine in future posts and “what it does.”
Iodine deficiency is increasing for multiple reasons in developed countries, and I’ll bet money that you are affected by a couple or more of the reasons no matter what your health and food choices. No diet group is allowed to snicker here or stick their noses in the air. Many people are just not getting the iodine they need, and if they are, there’s a good chance that the body’s use of iodine is being interfered with by food and health choices they maybe haven’t even considered. I will go into food and environmental factors that may be interfering with your body’s use of iodine.
Our childbearing women and their offspring for sure are hit VERY hard by an iodine deficiency. Women, did your obstetrician prescribe you a prenatal vitamin with iodine in it? If not, did your obstetrician ask you if the prenatal vitamin you chose has iodine in it? I will go over why women of childbearing age, their fetuses, and their children NEED adequate iodine. SADLY, these populations seem to be the most iodine deprived!
Prostate, breast and immune health are starting to be linked to iodine. I will do my best to present some of this information. Much of it is newer, not well understood, and not well accepted.
Iodine is important in brain health! Low IQs, increased ADHD, and apathy have been linked to iodine deficiency. We have studies to support this, and I will present those for your perusal.
Iodized salt is not the devil. Iodine deficiency is a devil. I know so many of you treat processed, iodized salt like the plague. But there is a reason why The Morton Salt Company iodized their salt here in the States, and it helped immensely! I can’t underscore that enough. I guess I don’t really care if you shun iodized salt, I just want to make sure that no matter who or where you are, that you are aware of the body’s need for iodine and you take measures to get you and your family some good source of iodine. For many, the simple answer may just be adding iodized salt back into their diets. Others lean toward seaweed. Still others rely on supplements.
Do I need to take high doses of iodine? Not sure. That might fall into the “voodoo” realm. (Voodoo is my tongue-in-cheek word for food and health related things I see that I’m just not sure about. I used to call diet changes “voodoo.” I don’t anymore, but it took a lot of reading!) Tread cautiously. I will eventually talk about how some people use high doses of iodine and what the proposed benefits and risks of this are, particularly fibrocystic breast disease, prostate cancer, and a touch on the big topic of thyroid disease. The turf here is largely uncharted and uncertain.

Eat well to live well. Make sure you’re getting an iodine source. And lastly and importantly, my blog posts are never intended for use of diagnosis, evaluation, or treatment. Hopefully you’ll use them as stepping-stones to learn more about the topics I present and be able to have a conversation with your favorite healthcare provider.

~~Terri

1. Are Australian children iodine deficient? Results of the Australian National Iodine Nutrition Study. Li M¹, Eastman CJ, Waite KV, et al. Med J Aust. 2008 Jun 2;188(11):674. (Abstract link.)

2. The Prevalence and Severity of Iodine Deficiency in Australia. December 2007. Prepared for the Population Health Development Principal Committee of the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Committee. (Full text link.)

3. Iodine deficiency in the U.K.: an overlooked cause of impaired neurodevelopment? Bath SC1, Rayman MP. Proc Nutr Soc. 2013 May;72(2):226-35. doi: 10.1017/S0029665113001006. (Abstract link.)

4. Iodine in Pregnancy: Is Salt Iodization Enough? Elizabeth N. Pearce. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. Jul 2008; 93(7): 2466–2468. doi: 10.1210/jc.2008-1009 (Full text link.)

5. http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iodine-HealthProfessional/

6. http://www.newsweek.com/five-controversial-food-additives-83551

7. Iodine Nutrition: Iodine Content of Iodized Salt in the United States. Dasgupta PK, Liu Y, Dyke JV. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2008, 42, 1315–1323. (Link to full text.)

8. Iodine concentration of organic and conventional milk: implications for iodine intake. Bath SC1, Button S, Rayman MP. Br J Nutr. 2012 Apr;107(7):935-40. doi: 10.1017/S0007114511003059. Epub 2011 Jul 5. (Link to abstract.)

9. Essential trace and toxic element concentrations in organic and conventional milk in NW Spain. Rey-Crespo F1, Miranda M, López-Alonso M. Food Chem Toxicol. 2013 May;55:513-8. doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2013.01.040. Epub 2013 Feb 4. (Link to abstract.)

10. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130704094630.htm

Share this:

Like this:

PAPRIKA CHICKEN

Share this:

Like this:

1. Massive nutritional intervention (aka dietary overhaul):

2. Identification of food intolerances:

3. Experimented with probiotics:

4. Removed Mirena IUD:

5. Working on GI colon barrier:

6. Butyrate:

7. Other implemented changes that don’t work in isolation but help in a minor way:

Closing:

Share this:

Like this:

That is a personal problem. Not a medical problem.

My History

Achieving Success

Closing

Share this:

Like this:

Goal:

Why:

So what?

Plan:

Folate Delivery Dressing

Bottom Line:

Share this:

Like this:

Personal Anecdote

Not good. Statistics show that pregnant women’s iodine intake and levels are not sufficient and are continuing to decrease.

So what does low iodine mean for pregnant women and their babies? (Not good.)

When a mom is iodine deficient, iodine deficiency is passed on to the developing fetus who has NO way of getting iodine or thyroid hormone except through the mom. You are it, Mama.

There is a spectrum of how insufficient iodine levels affects the fetus.

If iodine deficiency is increasing in our pregnant women, wouldn’t congenital hypothyroidism in the newborn be increasing?

So why don’t we just put our pregnant women on iodine and crank her up good?

Conclusion:

Share this:

Like this:

Females: Pre-conception, conception and iodine

But what about men? What does iodine have to do with their virility?

Conclusion

Share this:

Like this:

My take, off the cuff, without sources and science, regarding iodine

Iodine deficiency erratically riddles the population of developed societies. Why? Who is at risk? Am I? Are you? Why do they say we are “iodine sufficient” if we are not?

Why would well-fed people be iodine deficient?

Who is at risk? Examples.

Why do they say we are “sufficient” if we are not?

Bottom Line

Share this:

Like this:

Coal + Rob + Bee = Kohlrabi

Good. Good. How do you eat them?

How do you prepare them?

Do your kids like it?

Recipes ideas and recipes from other sites:

Closing

Share this:

Like this:

Iodine All Boxed Up

Could I be iodine deficient?

Why would a problem that we had “taken care of” be re-emerging?

Points to be eventually covered in Iodine Posts

Share this:

Like this: