Blog

Many people are suffering from obesity they just can’t get a solution for. Or some just can’t get rid of those last fats on the waist for that nice beach and nothing seems to help. Are you having the same issues? What is wrong with you? Are you maybe another human species, that is related to the hippos? See a documented case about a Hippo sapiens here. One thing you might have never thought of is to take iodine for weight loss.

 

 

What Iodine does

 

Iodine is necessary for your thyroid, so your thyroid can produce thyroid hormones. These hormones which have iodine bound in them are necessary for your body cells to function properly and increase their metabolism.

Especially the health of female breast and ovary cells is affected, which ensure a balanced hormone production of estrogen and progesterone. A good balance of those two hormones leads overall to a better energy usage of carbohydrates and fats. So your body starts not to store energy in form of fats, but use it and burns excess fats stored in your connective tissue. This helps you to lose weight and get rid of cellulite.

Male prostate cells are affected by the thyroid hormones as well. If those are insufficient, it can lead to prostate cancer.

Your thyroid uses iodine to produce mainly thyroxine (T4) and partly (~10%) triiodothyronine (T3). Most of your cells can only use T3 hormones. So the T4 needs to be transformed into T3. This happens mainly in the liver and partly in the intestines and in low amounts in the kidneys, brain and muscles.

So to have enough T3 you have to have a healthy liver and healthy intestines with a good bacterial flora or your T3 will be too low. If you make a lab test and have good amounts of T4 but too low amounts of T3, you will know why now. So keep your liver clean and stay away from unnecessary substances like alcohol, cigarettes and candies. Several medications can harm your organs as well and could be the cause for low T3. And of course constant release of cortisol due to e.g. chronic stress will decrease any thyroid hormone production.

Nine out of ten women are found to be at least six times more deficient in iodine than men. For some reason they seem to be less efficient in transforming the T4 into T3. I wonder how that could be possible and thinking logically about it, I assume it might be related to all the cosmetics, contraceptive pills and other pharmaceutical drugs woman are using, men don’t use at all (…most).

Those substances can increase your estrogen levels in your body, and too much estrogen does block the thyroid receptors from working properly.

 

 

Common believes

 

The official (RDA) average amount of recommended iodine supplementation is 150 mcg (0.15 mg). This is enough to keep your thyroids working and from enlarging (hypothyroidism). The question though is, if it is enough to keep other organs in the body to work efficiently.

The unofficial belief is that we need about 12.5 mg of iodine like the Japanese take in naturally with their high intake of seaweed. Japanese are taken as an example because they suffered very rarely from thyroid issues and from breast, ovary or prostate cancer.

These two recommendations are like someone is telling you, you should climb a hill and another one is saying you should climb the Mount Everest.

So how much iodine do you need?
After putting hours of research for such a seemingly easy question, I came across this:

So as you can see from this video, the belief of many that we should take around 12.5 mg of iodine because that is what the Japanese take daily, is a false belief. A study made in 2011 because of this dispute figured that the Japanese consume between 1-3 mg of iodine a day through seaweed.

So like Dr. Haskell explained, you should go with a dosage of not higher than 3 mg Lugol’s Iodine. One drop of a 2% Solution daily will do. There will be doctors that say that you can or should take 12.5 mg or 30 mg or even higher amounts, what might be reasonable for short term, if you already suffer from a disease.

There are two different iodine supplements on the market. Some might say you should take the newer produced Nascent Iodine which is made in the laboratory into a single atomic form of iodine. The other one is Lugol’s Iodine and is around for over 150 years. It has a double atom combination of iodine and potassium iodide.

Iodine in nature binds with another atom like iodide. If iodine is bind to a second iodine atom and you would take such a solution, you would leave this green planet. Science has made it possible to make iodine not to bind to another atom but stay as a single atom which is called Nascent Iodine and is claimed to have no overdosing effect. This should aid the thyroid to produce its hormones faster by skipping the splitting process inside it. Whether that is good or not is not judged by me. I personally would stick with Lugol’s.

The best way to go, is having some before- and after- and more after check ups for T4 and T3 to be sure it works for YOU and not for someone else. Everyone is different and lives in a different environment and is differently intoxicated and deficient in other nutrients that influence the iodine absorption and thyroid function.

 

 

The Thyroid Enemies

 

Like every good story, this one has its foes as well. The villains are Mr. Fluoride, Ms. Chlorine and Bromine aka Mr. Americaz. The problem with those chumps is, that they have the same structure like iodine (halogens). So your Thyroid receptors will be blocked with those and their function inhibited.

Chlorine is found in every country with water treatment. Fluoride is not used in every country for tap water, but often used in toothpaste instead. And Bromine that is only permitted in the US as food additive, is used mainly in soft drinks, flour products and processed foods but sometimes also for swimming pools instead of Chlorine.

If you live in the US and have a very healthy lifestyle, you would have no big problem avoiding Bromine. For Fluoride and Chlorine, it would be better to have a water purification systems. Especially for your shower because  Chlorine and Fluoride are gases under normal temperatures and are easily absorbed by your lungs into your bodies system when you shower.

Depending on your water supplier you could have Chloramine instead of Chlorine in your water, what needs another filtration system than the Chlorine. So careful with that.

Avoiding those bullies is the first step and taking Lugol’s Iodine the second to clean up your Thyroid.

 

 

The Thyroid Allies

 

You will need to have good amounts of Selenium, Zinc and Iron in your diet to increase the transformation of the T4 into T3. And like mentioned in the video, Selenium helps to protect your body from overdosing iodine supplements.

Selenium doesn’t need to be supplemented or taken by polluted seaweeds. Your best source for it are Brazil Nuts. Only 10 g of Brazil Nuts contain already the recommended 200 mg of Selenium. So make sure to have them when supplementing with iodine and don’t worry about overdosing with Selenium from Brazil Nuts.

Actually you should always have them in your diet. Your Body can manage nutrients from foods better and make the decision of how much it needs while storing or getting rid of the rest. So there is no big risk of overdosing and you can have some more to be sure you have enough Selenium to support your Thyroids.

A good diet with all necessary nutrients like all B Vitamins is of course also important, as well as enough Vitamin D.

 

 

Iodine from Nature

 

If the Japanese can do it, you can do it. The highest source for iodine can be found in seaweed growing in the sea. The problem with seaweed for you though is, that it is the cleaner of water. And humans are dumping a lot of waste into the sea you are not updated in the news about daily like other “important” topics. So it is questionable how good it is to consume seaweed nowadays.

It might be maybe enough to take usual organic foods grown on iodine rich soil, if we would live in a natural environment. But we do live in a human altered environment Mr. Americaz could sing you a song about. So relying on nature might be not enough for you.

 

 

Application of Lugol’s Solution

 

An easy way of using Lugol’s Iodine, is to apply it on your skin. Put it on an easy absorbed place on your skin like your inner forearm. Don’t try to wash the stain away but check how much time it needs to be fully absorbed and gone. If gone before 6 hours, then you might be deficient.

Another sign for iodine deficiency in women are tender breast during the menstruation cycle. To have more accurate indicators if you are deficient, you should go and see a specialized doctor.

You can take Lugol’s orally by putting it into a cup of water as well.

Try to incorporate iodine into your life, if your diet hasn’t enough and don’t forget that it is not only useful to lose your fat, but also to protect you from diseases like breast-, ovary- and prostate cancer. Pregnant and breastfeeding woman should especially take iodine to make sure that your child has a good brain development.

The benefits of the potassium iodide in Lugol’s Iodine is, that iodide can take radioactive iodine out of your body and thus protect you from radioactivity. So you might want to have a bottle in case Homer Simpson pressed the wrong button.

 

Side Effects

 

Taking Lugol’s Iodine can cause detoxing reaction of heavy metals. You might not feel so well for the first weeks taking it and should drink enough water and give your body enough of other nutrients to aid the detox. If the detoxing effect seems too strong, then you should consult a doctor.

 

 

See ya around

Alex