A very interesting supplement. Iodine is used primarily by the thyroid and in hormone creation and most of us don’t get nearly enough.
This is specifically helpful in preventing cancer and cysts throughout the body.
Specifically useful against prostate, pancreatic, breast and ovary cancers.
There seems to be a huge disconnect between the dosages recommended by Dr. David Brownstein (25mg - 50mg of Iodide per day) vs the USRDA of 160ug (0.16mg), with a maximum safe intake of 1.1mg (1100 ug) per day.
In addition Dr. David Brownstein claims the normal body content of Iodine is 1.5-2g (https://restorativemedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Brownstein_AIT-holistic.pdf) while another source says the total body content of Iodine is 15-20mg (100x lower than Brownstein’s estimate) and any supplement dosage of 2mg/day will trigger Hypothyroidism in half the receipients (due to an immune reaction?), unless they have been taking this level of iodine all their life : How Much Iodine Is Too Much?
Does anyone know how medical estimates of body Iodine content or optimal/safe dosage can differ this widely ?
I suspect Dr. David Brownstein’s estimates are off, since Japan has the lowest breast cancer rates in the world and also the highest dietary Iodine intake of around 3mg/day (mainly from seaweed) : So Dr. Brownstein is right that higher iodine intake lowers cancer risk, but his dosage recommendations are suspiciously high.
@tananth I do believe your assumptions on dosing may be correct. This video is my first exposure to this supplement so I’m relying on the influencer for accuracy.
I agree with @tananth and these reports provide a background on the subject.
Fibrocystic breast disease is almost unknown in Japanese women. See also this: Changes in Dietary Iodine Explains Increasing Incidence of Breast Cancer with Distant Involvement in Young Women
My wife and I have been taking equivalent ~0.5 mg elemental iodine / day as Lugol’s for a long time. This is not advice to start supplementing, as you probably should discuss with a doctor because like everything else, it can have adverse effects. My doctor knows I’m crazy and abides, constantly remarking on my borderline low reference range TSH with normal thyroid function tests whence I had to disclose the supplementation.
As an aside, I would avoid Japanese/Korean/Chinese seaweed as it absorbs radiation quite rapidly and the Fukushima reactor is still spilling high levels of radiation into the Pacific off the coast of Japan.
Doing one’s own diligence is always helpful, as an example, the Institute of Medicine made a serious mistake when advising on daily intake of Vitamin D, seriously underestimating appropriate intake by at least an order of magnitude 10X.
> A Statistical Error in the Estimation of the Recommended Dietary Allowance for Vitamin D
mg. I will edit it. Thanks!
Dang, sometimes the edit function here drops an edit. Not a complaint, as it very well may be my browser
a surprisingly large amount of iodine is removed when sweating. this is good to remember for people who exercise a lot.
” The mean losses of iodine, sodium, potassium, and calcium in sweat following a 1-hr game were 52 microg, 1,896 mg, 248 mg, and 20 mg, respectively; the ratios of sweat loss to urinary daily loss of the four electrolytes were 0.75, 0.2, 1.88, and 0.92, respectively. Urinary iodine was significantly (p < .02) lower than the normal level of 50 microg/gm creatinine in 38.5% of the soccer players, compared with 2% of the sedentary students. Forty-six percent of the players had Grade I goiter, compared with a mere 1% of the sedentary students (p < .01). The results of the study suggest that loss of iodine through profuse sweating may lead to iodine deficiency, and loss of electrolytes through sweating may have a dietary significance for heat-stressed individuals or for individuals who perform heavy workloads.”
David Brownstein’s iodine recommendations are controversial and not widely supported by the mainstream medical community. He advocates for higher iodine intake, but many experts caution that excessive iodine can lead to thyroid dysfunction, including hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, and cancer.
The Japanese have lower incidence of cancer, but there are a multitude of factors involved. Do what you want, but I am not going to megadose iodine because some guy on the internet has an unsupported theory.
I think you are correct and that a megadose would be a bad idea. Now, what about a small 0.5-3 mg dose? I’ll have to research it some more…
This is just an idea thrown out there for discussion. 
I just supplement with 0.1mg to keep myself from becoming deficient.
This is enlightening and makes sense! I occasionally snack on nori and need to check the source.
I think some supplementation could be reasonable. I would not question that many people are deficient, since not as much iodized salt, which is a primary iodine source in certain groups, is being consumed compared to previous generations. I have also, read that going from iodine deficiency to sudden higher intakes can cause goiters and thyroid growth. I think a slow titration would be advisable.
I have understood the intake of fluoride from drinking water (typically as hydrofluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6) or sodium fluorosilicate (Na2SiF6)) and to a lesser degree absorption from using fluoride toothpaste (as sodium fluoride (NaF)) gets preferentially absorbed by the thyroid over iodine, even when one has sufficient iodine available.
If true, this could contribute to deficiencies.
FYI…
Japan, does not fluoridate its drinking water.
The Japanese eat lots of fish as well as seaweed. Ocean fish have dietary available iodine.
Hawaii is the only U.S. state that bans fluoridation, while most other states leave it to individual water systems or localities.
I see a longevity doctor who has long recommended to me to take 12.5 mg. The specific brand is called Iodorol. When not supplementing, my iodine levels sink to the lower 1/3 of the “normal” range, which is deficient. I override him and take half (6.25mg) a few times a week, and that puts me well above the range, but he’s happy with it. Can look up the number if you’re interested. He recommends to all his patients to use it.
Great topic,
One interesting thing to consider, Iodine could be used as a sanitizer for restaurants and food producers and beverage producers. I did some home brewing using soda kegs, I was told that Iodine sanitizers used to be used but now they just use non rinse chemicals, who knows what they do to the microbiome. Maybe its time to bring back Iodine sanitizers for food producers.
Iodine sanitizers stain. Back in the distance past, before SPF, and sunscreens were available people mixed iodine and baby lotion for sun protection and the semblance of a tan.
Can you point to a non-staining iodine sanitizer?
I’ve been putting 1mg (1drop) of Lugols in my drinking water most days because I don’t use iodized salt and I live in the goiter belt. I haven’t noticed anything from it good or bad and my last thyroid labs were normal.
The one I used does stain.