November 9009
from
IodineIMVA Website
After testing over 500 patients,
I found that 94.7%
of my patients are deficient in inorganic iodine.
Dr. David Brownstein
There are several reference points we
can use to plot out iodine dosages for a variety of disorders that
beg for the use of iodine for successful treatment.
In this chapter I will present different
views and practices from present as well as from the long past when
iodine was vastly more popular as a medicine than it is today. For
whatever irrational reason, doctors and patients fear iodine thus en
mass do not use to its fullest potential.
Humans tolerate large doses of iodine but the
ultra high doses that were used many decades ago are not required to
get the most out of iodine therapy. Just a little goes a long way,
as the governmental iodized salt programs showed but this dosage
level was only affective for
Goitre and its avoidance.
It actually takes very little iodine to
prevent this disease but no one ever said that was the only purpose
and need for iodine in the body. Today people are more deficient
then ever before because our need for iodine has increased in direct
proportion to our toxic burdens especially of other competing
halogens.
So effective is iodine that aerosols can be effective in sterilizing
a room at levels not even detectable by humans.
But Dr. David Derry of Canada
says that,
“Dietary iodine found in iodized
salt is below the amounts needed to fill mucus defense roles. To
protect themselves, people wishing to boost their defense
against infections should supplement their diets with iodine.”
“Extremely high doses of iodine can have serious side effects,
but only a small fraction of such extreme doses are necessary to
kill influenza viruses,” continues Derry who tells us, “In 1945,
a breakthrough occurred when J.D. Stone and Sir McFarland Burnet
(who later went on to win a Nobel Prize for his Clonal Selection
Theory) exposed mice to lethal effects of influenza viral mists.
The lethal disease was prevented by putting iodine solution on
mice snouts just prior to placing them in chambers containing
influenza viruses.”
Dr. Derry is one of several MDs that I
refer to as the Iodine Doctors.
Dr. David Brownstein said,
“After testing individuals and
finding low iodine levels, I began to use smaller milligram
amounts of iodine/iodide (6.25mg/day). Upon retesting these
individuals 1-2 months later, little progress was made. I
therefore began using higher milligram doses (6.25-50mg) to
increase the serum levels of iodine.
It was only with these higher doses
that I began to see clinical improvement as well as positive
changes in the laboratory tests. Why would people need the
larger doses of iodine? Why have iodine levels fallen 50% in the
last 30 years? As I pondered these questions, I came to the
conclusion that the toxicity of modern life must be impacting
iodine levels. It is well known that the toxic halides, fluoride
and bromide, having a similar structure as iodine, can
competitively inhibit iodine absorption and binding in the body.
Because of the elevated levels of
toxic halides in the environment and in the food supply, iodine
levels have not only fallen but larger amounts of iodine are
necessary to correct iodine deficiency as well as to promote a
detoxifying effect of heavy metals.”
I have suggested that people put iodine
into a nebulizer for aerosol treatment for transdermal
effect into the lung tissues in the case of lung cancer, emphysema,
asthma and tuberculosis.
I make the recommendation to do the same
with magnesium chloride, sodium bicarbonate and glutathione. It
seems obvious that iodine would make the ideal first line of defense
in influenza prevention and without doubt in the treatment of both
swine flu and regular influenza. Iodine, teamed up with these other
primary and very necessary substances, offers an exceptionally
strong defense and treatment against viral infection.
It certainly is better than the
antiviral
Tamiflu, which only reduces
symptoms by only one day. It is really not hard to beat that.
Some physicians I know are also using chlorine dioxide as an agent
for treatment either
transdermally or
intravenously applied but I
would never use it for the prevention of anything. Though I have
heard some success stories about
chlorine dioxide I do not use it
myself nor for my children. I always will reach for the iodine
first for all the things that chlorine dioxide proponents
advocate, for the iodine is much safer for oral usage, especially
when used in the right form.
The body needs iodine anyway as a
fundamental nutritional item but when even heavier guns are needed
instead of reaching for a pharmaceutical one can think of chlorine
dioxide.
A function of iodine in the
human body relates to clear thinking.
The mind simply works better when the body is supplied
the iodine it needs and studies
do show that
iodine deficiency leads to
decline in IQ.
Despite its being critical to normal
neurocognitive development, a new study finds that only 51% of US
prenatal multivitamin brands contain any iodine, and in a number of
randomly selected brands, the actual dose of iodine contained in the
supplements did not match values on the labeling.[1]
It is easy to understand a synthetic
pharmaceutical being phased out but to have iodine, an essential
nutritional element that doubles as a super effective full spectrum
anti-pathogen, ignored for what it can do is not reasonable.
Dr. Michael B. Schachter says,
“The treatment dose when a person is
iodine insufficient is generally between 12.5 mg and 50 mg
daily. Preliminary research indicates that if a person is iodine
insufficient, it takes about 3 months to become iodine
sufficient while ingesting a dosage of 50 mg of iodine and a
year to become iodine sufficient while ingesting a dosage of
12.5 mg of iodine daily. However, the patient needs to be
monitored closely with awareness of possible side effects and
detoxification reactions.”
This is quite a bit of iodine and if his
statements can be substantiated then most people are using dosages
which are much too low.
In fact if we put our attention on the full iodine story, which
collides with the fluoride, mercury and bromide story we conclude
that we can only err on the side of too low of a dose. Patients
should push their dosages higher and higher until they get the
desired result but I recommend doing this slowly unless there is
little time as is the case in emergency situations or very late
stage cancer.
When using the Nascent Iodine one
can dose pulse every two hours orally taking each individual dose up
to as many as 20 drops and even at this level we are no where near
points of iodine toxicity and tolerance.
I have given my own three year old up to
fifteen drops in a dose when she was confronted with fever and
infection.
Lugol's Iodine
What Formula Do You Use?
from
AltCancer Website
We are frequently asked what formula we us in making our
Lugol's: 2% or 3% or 5%.
To make the original version, we use what amounts to a
3% (2.91%) formula (iodine and iodine compound). The
formula is simple: 80 gm. of potassium iodine (KI) is
added to 4,000 ml of distilled water (roughly 4,000 gm).
After fully
dissolving, 40 gm. of iodine crystal is added. After the
iodine crystal fully dissolves (which takes several
hours), the product is packaged and stored.
To make the newer 7% Lugol's version, using the same
4,000 ml. of distilled water, the amounts of iodine use
are 200 gm. of KI, and 100 gm. of iodine crystal. For
15% Lugol's, to 4,000 ml. of distilled water we dissolve
480 gm. of KI and 240 gm. of iodine crystal.
Lugol's Iodine has an optimal shelf-life of
approximately one year.
Many web sites
encourage you to "stock up," which does not take into
account this fact. You should purchase just what you
need, and annually rotate out older product. |
When treating life threatening diseases
we do not have months to fool around with low dosages.
We need to zoom up iodine levels
quickly. And we need to get it concentrated to certain tissues or
organs. Just to give you an idea of how high iodine dosages have
been taken to we have to revisit the 1930s when iodine was still a
universal medicine, present in the US Pharmacopeia and was used at
much higher dosages than anyone even dreams of using today.
The usual dose for treatment was 300 mgs (46 drops of full strength
Lugol’s) to 1 gm (1000 mg, 154 drops). It is very important to
realize that today’s Lugol’s is not universally the same as it was
because of new federal legal requirements about concentration
levels.
The best company offers Lugol’s at
varying concentration levels. (2.2, 3 and 7 percent) Nascent is a 2
percent solution.
Preoperative before thyroidectomy
Lugol solution 5-10 gtt
three times daily,
or 2-6 gtt twice or three times daily given 10-21 days prior to surgery has been used.
MedlinePlus
Dr. Schachter wrote,
”Dr. Abraham started this Iodine
Project around 1998 when he became aware of the many benefits of
treating patients with iodine using doses far beyond the 2 mg a
day, which most physicians consider to be potentially toxic. He
noted that starting in the 1820s, the French physician Jean
Lugol used these higher doses to treat a wide variety of
conditions.
Dr. Lugol combined elemental iodine
(5 %) and potassium iodide (10%) with 85 % water. Since iodine
kills infectious agents, Dr. Lugol successfully treated many
infectious conditions with this solution, which became known as
Lugol’s solution, and which is still available today.
Prior to World War II, many American
and European physicians used Lugol’s solution to treat thyroid
conditions, using doses higher than 2 mg daily without apparent
significant adverse effects.”
When you look at mainstream
recommendations all the above information seems strange but this is
because dosage and RDA are set obscenely low.
Note instead of talking in milligrams
(mg) the
RDA is in micrograms (mcg) which is
a scale exactly 1000
times less. Meaning it takes 1000 mcg to equal 1 mg and it takes
1000 mg to equal a gram.
-
Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA):
-
50mcg daily for infants 0-12
months
-
90mcg daily for 1-8 years
-
120mcg daily for 9-13 years
-
150mcg daily for 14-18 years
-
Adequate Intake (AI) for infants:
-
Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL):
-
200mcg/day for ages 1-3 years
-
300mcg/day for 4-8 years
-
600mcg/day for 9-13 years
-
900mcg/day for 14-18 years
(including pregnancy and lactation)
-
Radiation emergencies:
Potassium iodide (KI) should be taken just
prior to, or as soon as possible after exposure.
-
for infants,
babies, and children, KI is administered for exposure of 5
centigrays (cGy) or more
-
for birth through 1 month, 16mg can be
administered
-
for 1 month through 3 years, 32mg can be administered
-
for 3-12 years, 65mg can be administered
-
for adolescents ages 12-18
years, 65mg can be administered (or up to 120mg if the adolescent is
approaching adult size)
The highest dosage I have heard any doctor using today is 100 mg and
that is quite a bit when you take iodine in a form where you can
taste and appreciate what you are taking into your body.
My favorite
iodine (Nascent) is ideal for oral and aerosol applications into
both nebulizers and vaporizers though I believe Lugol’s, which is
harsher on the stomach and has a very bitter taste, is better for
transdermal application to the skin not only because it is less
expensive but because you can get it at higher concentration.
Nascent Iodine
What is Nascent Iodine?
from
MagneticClay Website
Nascent Iodine is a consumable iodine in its atomic form
rather than its molecular form. It is an iodine atom
that has an incomplete number of electrons. It is
paramagnetic.
What does that
mean?
Well, it means that
the iodine atoms can hold an electromagnetic charge.
While this all might sound a little like a flashback to
chemistry class, the most important thing to understand
is that Nascent Iodine has a huge energy release when
consumed.
This “charged”
state is held by the atom until diluted in water and
consumed, whereby it gradually loses energy over a 2-3
hour time span. During this time, Nascent Iodine is
recognized by the body as the same iodine that is
produced by the thyroid and is absorbed effortlessly by
the body |
Nascent Iodine, though more expensive
actually tastes and feels good while going down and is gentle enough
to give to children, who do not seem to complain about its taste.
Having it on hand for ones children is
important for when they need it you can get them to take it but that
is not so certain with Lugol’s. Nascent iodine contains
approximately 400 mcg per drop so 10 drops is 4 mg and 100 drops is
only 40 so it’s safe to take much higher dosages than is suggested
on the bottle. One hundred drops a day is a strong dose, but when
treating life threatening diseases it would not be unheard of to use
upward of 200 drops a day in divided doses. It is very important to
remember though that one should not shoot straight up to these
dosage levels.
One should start at low dosages and
monitor for detox reactions, which will be less if sodium
bicarbonate and other substances are used in conjunction.
For alcohol-sensitive people there
is
Nanocollidal iodine.
Recovered alcoholics are extremely sensitive with
the tiniest amount of any alcohol a problem.
Dr. Abrahams recommends taking 50 mg of
Iodine/Iodide as Lugol’s solution (8 drops) daily for 3 months as a
loading dose.
Lugol’s solution is available online at
varying concentrations. Then his recommendation is that dose should
be gradually reduced to the 12.5 mg (2 drops) maintenance dosage
under the supervision of a knowledgeable health care professional.
Dr Abrahams feels that 14 to 15 mg. of iodine/iodide daily is the
upper maximum of safety for long term use.
This is close to Dr. James Howenstine’s
(another prominent iodine advocate) recommended dose of 12.5 mg
daily.
In 1953 Dr. Orian Truss discovered the devastating effects of
antibiotics in an Alabama (USA) hospital. During a hospital round
Truss was intrigued by a gaunt, apparently elderly man who was
obviously dying. However, he was only in his forties and in hospital
for four months. No specialist had been able to make a diagnosis.
Out of curiosity Truss asked the patient
when be was last completely well. The man answered that he was well
until six months before when he had cut his finger He had received
antibiotics for this. Shortly afterwards he developed diarrhea and
his health deteriorated. Truss had seen before how antibiotics cause
diarrhea.
It was known that
Candida was
opportunistic and thrived in debilitated patients, but now Truss
wondered if it might not be the other way round, that Candida
actually caused the debilitated condition.
Truss had read that potassium iodide solution could be used to treat
Candida infestation of the blood. So he put the patient on six to
eight drops of Lugol’s solution four times a day and soon the
patient was again completely well. Soon afterwards he had a female
patient with a stuffy nose, a throbbing headache, vaginitis and
severe depression. To his amazement all her problems immediately
cleared with Candida treatment.
When I was coming to closure on this chapter I happened to talk to
Dr. Brownstein. We were in total agreement about dosages.
Our consensus extended to the
proposition that the sicker the patient the more iodine they would
need with most average patients needing 25 to 50 mgs with 12 mg
being a good maintenance dose though of course this varies with the
quality of ones diet and with ones location. Living near the beach
has its health advantages but in no case should one depend on
iodized salt for their needs.
Dr. Brownstein said he was using 200 to 300 mg with his prostate and
breast cancer patients with those who have metastases needing the
highest dosages. He also uses both Lugol’s and Nascent reserving the
Nascent for his more sensitive patients.
The there are the tablet form of varying
dosage, which are used by more than several of the iodine doctors I
know.
Iodine is needed in microgram
amounts for the thyroid,
mg amounts for breast and other tissues, and can
be used therapeutically in gram amounts.[2]
Dr. David Miller
Only Half of US Prenatal
Multivitamins Contain Iodine
Doses Often at Odds With Label
by Susan Jeffrey
February 25, 2009
from
MedScape Website
Despite its being critical to normal
neurocognitive development, a new study finds that only 51% of US
prenatal multivitamin brands contain any iodine, and in a number of
randomly selected brands, the actual dose of iodine contained in the
supplements did not match values on the labeling.
The new report appears as correspondence in the February 26 issue of
the New England Journal of Medicine.
Iodine Content
Not Mandated
Normal thyroid function in fetuses and breast-fed infants is crucial
for normal neurocognitive development and depends on sufficient
dietary intake of iodine, the researchers, with corresponding author
Elizabeth N Pearce, MD, from Boston University Medical Center, in
Massachusetts, write.
Iodine deficiency affects more than 2.2 billion persons, or 38% of
the world's population, and is the leading cause of preventable
mental retardation.
In the United States, National Health
and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data suggest that iodine
intake among women of child-bearing age has decreased by more than
half, and a subset may have mild iodine deficiency.
"Even mild iodine deficiency may
have adverse effects on the cognitive function of children," the
authors write.
The Institute of Medicine recommends a
daily iodine intake of 220 µg during pregnancy and 290 µg during
lactation. For the World Health Organization, those recommended
values are 250 µg for both pregnant and lactating women.
The American Thyroid Association has recommended that women receive
prenatal vitamins containing 150 µg of iodine daily for both
pregnant and lactating women, the authors write.
"However, the iodine content of
prenatal multivitamins is not mandated in the United States."
Using the Internet, they identified 223
brands of prenatal multivitamins currently marketed in the United
States, 127 prescription and 96 nonprescription brands. Only 114
contained iodine: 87 of the nonprescription and 27 of the
prescription brands.
Of these, 101, or 89%, contained 150 µg or more of iodine per daily
dose, at least according to their labels.
However, that was not what
the researchers found when they actually measured iodine content.
"The measured iodine content of
multivitamins with kelp as the iodine source was extremely
variable and often did not match labeled values," Dr. Pearce
said in a statement issued by the American Thyroid Association.
"Prenatal multivitamins containing potassium iodine were a more
reliable source."
The mean level of measured iodine per
daily dose in 35 brands containing potassium iodide as the iodine
source was 119.0 + 13.6 µg.
"Potassium iodide contains 76%
iodide," they note. "Thus, the measured iodine content was
approximately equivalent to 76% of the total potassium-iodide
content."
Conversely, the measured iodine levels
in 25 brands using kelp as the iodine source ranged from 33 µg to
610 µg per daily dose.
There were 13 brands that contained levels
that were discordant by 50% or more with the values on the label; 10
of these had levels that were lower by 50% or more.
"Manufacturers of prenatal
multivitamins in the United States should be encouraged to use
only potassium iodide, to maintain consistency in labeling, and
to ensure that these vitamins contain 150 µg of supplemental
daily iodine by including at least 197 µg of potassium iodide
per daily dose, as recommended by the American Thyroid
Association," the authors conclude.
Iodine Metabolism
by Donald W. Miller
February 21, 2007
from
Iodine4Health Website
RadioLiberty.com February 21, 2007
In this 54 minute radio program, Dr
Miller talks about many aspects of iodine metabolism and research.
Here are a few of the issues he
discusses:
-
Iodine in Medicine Today
Dr Miller says he has used
iodine in heart surgery for the last 35 years. It is used to
prepare the patient's skin and remains the best antiseptic
for preventing wound infections after surgery. It kills 90%
of bacteria on the skin within 90 seconds. Most doctors
today view iodine as an antiseptic and know that the thyroid
gland needs it to make thyroid hormones. That is a limited
view.
-
American vs. Japanese Iodine Consumption
The Japanese consume 100 times
more iodine than Americans. 95% of the iodine they consume
comes from seaweed, which includes kelp, brown algae, nori
sheets, red algae, chlorella, green algae. In a 1964 study,
the Japanese ate 4.5 grams of seaweed per day, equal to 13.8
mg of iodine per day. In a 2001 study, the consumption of
seaweed had increased to 14.6 grams per day, equal to 43.8
mg of iodine per day. The Japanese are very healthy. Clear
evidence that large amounts of iodine cannot be very bad for
a population.
-
Fish and Iodine
Eating fish won't give you
iodine in mg amounts. To get 13.8 mg iodine, you would have
to eat 10-20 pounds of fish per day.
-
Iodine in mcg, mg, and gram amounts
Iodine is needed in microgram
amounts for the thyroid, mg amounts for breast and other
tissues, and can be used therapeutically in gram amounts.
-
Resistance to mg amounts of iodine from
thyroidologists
Two primary reasons for
resistance to iodine in mg amounts:
-
Wolfe-Chaikoff Effect.
Temporary depression of thyroid hormone synthesis when
you take large doses of iodine. But, this effect is not
of clinical significance.
-
TSH can go up. But, in the
few people where TSH goes up, there are no clinical
symptoms of hypothyroidism.
-
Iodine Deficiency, Fibrocystic Breast
Disease, and Breast Cancer
Iodine deficiency predisposes to
Fibrocystic Breast Disease (FBD). FBD predisposes to breast
cancer.
A 1920s autopsy study found that 3% of women had fibrocystic
changes. Now, 90% of women have FBD. Six million women have
severe pain that lasts more than six days during the
menstrual cycle.
In 1970s Russian studies showed iodine cured FBD in 70% of
patients. In 1993, randomized, double blind,
placebo-controlled trial in Seattle and Canada with 5 mg
molecular iodine cured FBD in 70% of women.
-
Evidence for iodine and breast cancer
link
-
Fibrocystic Breast Disease and
Breast Cancer are iodine-deficiency disorders, just like
goiter
and
cretinism.
-
Other places in body that use iodine
-
The salivary glands, stomach,
and cervix absorb high amounts of iodine and then secrete
iodide into the mouth, lining of stomach and vagina, which
helps prevent infection.
-
Skin, arteries, and bone like iodine. Iodine uptake can be
seen in total body scintiscans with RAI.
-
The thymus gland has an iodine pump. Iodine strengthens the
immune system.
-
Lugol's and Iodoral
Both contain 5% iodine and 10%
iodide. Two drops Lugol's = one Iodoral tablet = 12.5 mg
iodine. 12.5 mg Lugol's costs about 4c. One Iodoral tablet
costs about 25c.
-
Iodism and Bromide
"Iodism" has been traditionally
attributed to excess iodine and consisted of such symptoms
as brassy taste and acne. These symptoms are actually due to
bromide detox, which occurs when consuming iodide. Iodine
removes both
fluoride and
bromide from the body.
-
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is important in
preventing cancer of the breast, colon, ovaries, and
prostate.
-
Evidence-Based Medicine
Need to return to evidence-based
medicine with respect to iodine. "Consensus" view is that
iodine should not exceed 300 mcg per day, but this view is
without good evidence. Studies that show that iodine in mg
amounts can cure FBD are ignored. Iodine in mg amounts is
important for health.
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