Note from Kathleen: This is an excerpt from What Doctors Fail to Tell You About Iodine and Your Thyroid by Dr. Robert Thompson.
The thyroid is the body’s major thermostat and keeping it operating well keeps your metabolism running at the perfect pace.
Every single cell in your body depends on the thyroid gland for hormones that instruct it how to function.
This tiny butterfly-shaped gland at the base of your throat weighs less than an ounce and secretes less than a teaspoon of thyroid hormones in an entire year, but when things go wrong with your thyroid, they go wrong everywhere in your body.
The thyroid hormones regulate metabolism, the rate at which your body converts fuel (food) into the energy you need to power everything you do, the rate at which your body uses fats and carbohydrates, controls your body temperature, heart rate, the production of protein and your body’s ability to regulate the amount of calcium in your blood.
Too little, too much, just enough . . .
Too little thyroid hormone causes a disease called hypothyroidism, in simple terms, low thyroid function. In this most common of thyroid disorders, you are like a wind-up toy that is slowly winding down.
Too much thyroid hormone and the hormones flood your system, causing you to be hyper and frenzied, a condition called hyperthyroidism.
Autoimmune thyroid diseases like Graves’ and Hashimoto’s are another story and can actually cause you to be both hypo- and hyperthyroid.
The thyroid balances your body through the production of thyroid hormones. The main ones are triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). These hormones are synthesized from the amino acid tyrosine and the mineral iodine.
The U.S. government estimates that 4.6% of the population over the age of 12 has clinically low thyroid function. Other sources suggest a much higher rate, as high as 10%, based on the concept that at least half of the people with low thyroid function are unaware of the condition or they are undiagnosed because of the painfully cumbersome process of getting a diagnosis and treatment.
Over a lifetime, 12% of the population will develop a diagnosable thyroid condition, says the American Thyroid Association (ATA). Women are far more susceptible to hypothyroidism, especially women over 60. The ATA estimates that women have 5 to 8 times more thyroid disease than men.
Iodine inadequacy is the primary cause of all types of thyroid disorders. You know from earlier chapters that rates of iodine deficiency have skyrocketed in the United States and around the world.
Without iodine, the thyroid gland cannot manufacture hormones, T3 and T4. Iodine is a major part of the chemical structure of both of these thyroid hormones.
A goiter (swelling of the thyroid area as a result of impaired thyroid activity) is a sign the thyroid is producing either too little or too much thyroid hormone. Goiters are not often seen today, believes Dr. David Brownstein, author of Overcoming Thyroid Disorders, because iodized salt gives us just enough iodine to prevent goiters, but nowhere near enough to take care of the rest of the body’s needs.
Symptoms of hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid)
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Treatment for hypothyroidism
Conventional medicine usually treats low thyroid function with a synthetic form of T4 called levothyroxine (Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothroid, Unithroid), the free-circulating thyroid hormone that must be converted to the T3 form before it becomes active. T4 is the storage form of thyroid hormone. This forces your body to work harder to get the hormone it needs. As an interesting side note: levothyroxine was the most prescribed drug in the U.S. in 2013, according to the research firm IMS Health.
Iodine supplementation may help you use the synthetic thyroid hormones better. Sometimes a doctor will prescribe liothyronine (Cytomel), a synthetic form of T3, if there is evidence the body’s ability to convert T4 is impaired. I look for at the FT3/RT3 ratio (normal is 10-14) to determine the level of T3 increase of T4 decrease needed to correct this ratio and to know for sure there is adequate T3 conversion.
Increasingly, doctors who prefer a more natural approach prescribe thyroid hormones made from pig thyroid glands. The most widely used brands are Nature-Throid and Westhroid, which contain the full spectrum of four thyroid hormones (T1–T4), more closely mimicking human thyroid function.
A diagnosis of hypothyroidism and any prescription treatment plan will almost inevitably require a comprehensive approach, some experimentation and retesting until the correct balance is achieved.
Iodine is essential for the treatment of hypothyroidism. Without iodine, all of the thyroid hormones in the world won’t help your thyroid create and convert the thyroid hormones you need or allow you to stay at the levels you need for health. If you’ve been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, look for an integrative practitioner to partner with and consider a supplement with potassium iodide, sodium iodide and molecular iodine. Some extra L-tyrosine will help, too. When looking specifically for a thyroid product, consider at least 15 mg of the three forms of iodine, combined with 200 mg of L-tyrosine in each capsule. The starting dose many integrative practitioners recommend is two capsules each morning.
A basal body temperature above 97.8, is the best and most accurate indicator of correct thyroid function.
If you are using iodine alone, you can find excellent iodine supplements with 12.5 mg total of these three iodine forms.
There has been extensive discussion of the safe levels of iodine intake. Consider this: The Japanese, with their diet high in iodine-rich seafood and sea vegetables, typically consume more than about 13 mg of iodine daily, 50 times what the typical American ingests, all without negative side effects. In fact, Japan has far lower national rates of breast cancer and hypothyroidism than are found in the Western world. Iodine dosages as high as 50 mg a day are frequently recommended for patients with hypothyroidism, cancer and other serious iodine deficiency conditions.
Lifestyle treatments for hypothyroidism
A variety of simple lifestyle adjustments can help rebalance thyroid hormones and help detoxify your body from Black Hat halogens.
Managing stress is essential to overall health. It’s especially important to people with thyroid disorders because stress can cause blood sugar imbalances, food intolerances (especially to gluten), digestive dysfunction, chronic infections and inflammation, all of which tell the adrenal glands to keep pumping out stress hormones. Those stress hormones have a profound effect on the ability of the thyroid to convert T4 into usable T3 and can, over time, create thyroid hormone resistance.
Lots of exercise is important for reversing the low-energy loop and making thyroid receptor sites more sensitive to thyroid hormones.
Saunas and soaks are great ways to help your body detoxify and remove the Black Hat halogens. Far-infrared saunas are excellent tools for detoxification. If you have a hot tub, please do not use bromine or chlorine as a disinfectant. There are more natural forms of disinfection like ozone purification systems and mineral cartridges that keep those Black Hat halogens out of your life. If you are taking a long, hot soak, add some Epsom salts to your bathwater for extra magnesium to help pull out toxins.
Filter your water and change your toothpaste to limit your exposure to toxic fluoride. Most municipal water systems and nearly all commercial toothpastes still contain fluorine, despite their well-documented iodine-blocking properties that impair thyroid function.
Adjust your diet to reduce foods called goitrogens. These are foods that suppress thyroid function by impairing the body’s ability to use iodine. While most of the foods on this list are healthy foods, they’re not helpful for people with thyroid disorders and should be consumed in moderation in their raw state.
Top 11 Goitrogenic Foods
| Bok choy | Kohlrabi |
| Broccoli | Mustard and mustard greens |
| Brussels sprouts s | Radishe |
| Cabbage | Rutabagas |
| Cauliflower | Soy (anything) |
| Kale | Turnips |
Foods with Smaller Amounts of Goitrogens
| Bamboo shoots | Radishes |
| Millet | Spinach |
| Peaches | Strawberries |
| Peanuts | Sweet potatoes |
| Pears | Wheat and other gluten-containing Grains |
| Pine nuts |
Thyroid and lack of iodine
So, how did your thyroid and millions of other thyroids worldwide get so far out of whack?
Take a guess.
If you answered, “Iodine deficiency,” you get a gold star. You already know that the government recommended iodine intake is woefully inadequate to promote a healthy thyroid and to keep your entire body in optimal health.
You also know that our dramatic increase in exposure to toxic halogens (the Black Hat halogens chlorine, fluorine and bromine) blocks the body’s ability to use the little iodine we get.
So we have an epidemic of hypothyroidism and other thyroid disorders (Graves’ and Hashimoto’s disease, thyroid cancer), all of which have iodine deficiency as an underlying cause.
Iodine supplements offer the most powerful means of rebalancing thyroid hormones and neutralizing toxic halogens.
Thyroid, iodine and the struggle for weight control
Science proves the following:
- Hormones, especially thyroid and insulin, control our body weight.
- Insufficient thyroid hormone production can cause numerous health problems, not the least of which are food cravings and weight gain.
- Insufficient iodine intake is the largest contributor to hypothyroidism.
So you don’t have to be a research scientist to figure out that inadequate iodine stores in your body translate to excess weight.
“The healthy functioning of the thyroid is essential to maintaining metabolism and preventing the accumulation of body fat,” writes Burton Goldberg in Alternative Medicine.
An underactive thyroid and a thyroid resistant gland slows metabolism, causing dramatically fewer calories to be burned, leaving you tired, irritable and sluggish, and less likely to exercise.
In addition, in Asian Health Secrets, author Letha Hadady theorizes that an underactive thyroid also promotes excess weight and cellulite by causing water retention.
Iodine supplementation also increases weight loss in the case of low thyroid function by addressing the thyroid insufficiency and raising the BMR (basal metabolic rate), effectively burning more calories.
Finally, we’ve known for at least 20 years that overweight women are more susceptible to breast cancer. And we know that iodine shortfalls increase the risk of breast cancer. (More about that in Chapter 4.) Early research from the University of Virginia linked iodine insufficiency, a high fat diet and breast cancer as far back as 1979. Later researchers have confirmed that excess estrogen attached to fat cells are the probable cause of the increased risk of breast cancer in overweight women.
By now, you’ve probably noticed that much of the research on iodine and thyroid and many other health problems is what we might call peripheral (on the side, if you will) or tangential (at an angle, not direct). You’re probably wondering why there isn’t more direct research on iodine, an inexpensive and highly effective means of treating and preventing many serious health problems, including obesity.
The answer is simple: There’s no money in it. Trials on human subjects cost millions of dollars. Iodine is a plentiful and inexpensive mineral that is not patentable, since it is a substance occurring in nature. Translation: The big pharmaceutical companies can’t make millions and billions of dollars on it like they can on prescription drugs, so they don’t bother studying it.
It’s their loss and your gain, since Big Pharma won’t be able to charge you $100 or more per prescription or whatever nonsense it dishes out with so many prescription drugs.
But there is some research:
- A 2013 Russian study showed that overweight adults aged 30 to 65 were given a jam laced with iodine and chromium and no other dietary restrictions. Members of the group lost 5% of their body weight and reduced their waist size, blood pressure and triglyceride levels significantly more than a control group that was given standard diet advice to restrict calories and fat.
- A 2011 Turkish study showed that the urinary iodine status of obese women was directly related to body mass index and levels of leptin, a hormone found in fat cells that tells your brain you are starving and should eat more. The bottom line: with sufficient iodine intake, weight drops and there are fewer fat cells that keep telling your brain you are starving.
Food cravings
Sugar, salt and fatty food cravings are all signs of thyroid insufficiency insulin resistance and mineral deficiency. By now you know that thyroid insufficiency means you’re not getting enough iodine. Think of these cravings as your body’s cry for help. Your body’s lowered metabolism means that those extra calories, and particularly the sugar that converts to fat cells, will result in weight gain.
Carb cravings are very common among people with hypothyroidism and insulin resistance. Scientists haven’t figured out exactly why this happens, but it may have something to do with the anxiety, depression and fatigue that often accompany low thyroid function and the brain’s response that sparks the desire for carbs that stimulate the release of the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin.
Leptin comes into play big time in the food cravings and weight gain cycle. This hormone tells you when you have had enough to eat and also triggers a fat-conserving starvation response when it thinks you haven’t had enough. This is especially true for yo-yo dieters, whose leptin mechanisms get confused, they battle cravings and their bodies refuse to let go of excess fat.
Leptin’s ability to tell you when you have had enough food has also been connected to the accumulation of toxic chemicals in your body, most notably chlorine, fluorine and bromine. Where have we heard of those before? Those are the Black Hat halogens that block your body’s ability to use iodine, in this case, triggering food cravings, overeating, slow metabolism, weight gain and even type 2 diabetes. What a vicious circle!
How do you conduct the test? What is baseline to know if your BBT is high or low? Is there natural treatment for someone interested in treatment? How do i get the treatment? What is the risk?