Iodine Quick Reference

Page edition: 2024-07-14
Note: Although this article is public, not all links within it are.

NOTE:
This is a two-part sticky article. Iodine supplementation
must be considered within the context of what is known about
Part 2: 🦋thyroid status. Testing is strongly recommended.

Contents

⟲ Context

Iodine (element ) is one of the small number of core program supplements. Due to several modern issues, iodine intake is deficient for many people. Your level, on starting the program, is highly likely to be sub-optimal. Challenges include:

• low salt mania resulting in reduced intake of iodized salt;
• inland crops, and industrial-scale crops providing less iodine;
• seafood consumption often reduced vs. historical levels;
• iodine out-competed by non-native halogen compound exposure;
• other endocrine disruptors in diet altering thyroid needs, and
• diets no longer include game thyroid glands.⇱ Return to ToC

⟲ General Information

The need for iodine has been part of the program, going back at least a decade, and is extensively discussed in the books and program materials (page numbers shown for U.S. print editions):
📖 Wheat Belly Total Health (2014): pages 110, 179
📖 Undoctored (2017) pages 166, 278
📖 Wheat Belly Revised & Expanded (2019) page 248
📖 Super Gut (2022) page 163
🖵🗏 Iodine and Thyroid Optimization (members)
🅑 WBB: The Return of Goiters (members)
🅑 WBB: Iodine deficiency: The forgotten public health crisis (members)
🅑 WBB: Do not become iodine toxic (members)
🅑🖵 WBB: What’s the best source of iodine? (public)
🅑🖵 WBB: What’s the story with iodine? (public)
🖵🗏: An Epidemic of Thyroid Disease (members)
🖵: A Brief History of Iodine (members)
🖵🗏: Video Forum: Megadose Iodine? (members)
🖵🗏: Track Oral Temperature on Iodine (members)⇱ Return to ToC

⟲ Program Iodine Target

Program target is based on a suggested daily intake, ideally confirmed by complete testing of thyroid status:
  300 to 350 micrograms (µg, mcg) per day (for adults)
  (per Return of Goiters, 2022-10-25, linked above)
The daily portion is micrograms (µg, mcg) of elemental iodine, and not the total weight of the iodine compounds consumed, nor that of the total dosing unit. For comparison, the U.S. RDA for adult males is presently 150µg, which is enough to prevent goiter, but has nothing necessarily to do with being optimal.

The program target usually requires an iodine ⇩supplement, in one or more forms, from a very small selection of compounds.

Iodine is needed even you have no thyroid. It is not just for supporting production of thyroid hormones.⇱ Return to ToC

⟲ Cautions

⚠ Do not supplement iodine at all with an active hyperthyroid condition, or with a reactive autoimmune thyroid condition (such as Hashimoto’s or Graves). For further information on this issue, see:
🖵🗏: Should I Take Iodine with Hashimoto’s Disease? (members)

⚠ Micrograms; not milligrams. Beware of megadose iodine supplements providing daily doses stated in mg, if not actual full grams.

☠ Never consume tincture of iodine. It is a topical antiseptic and is frankly toxic if consumed orally.⇱ Return to ToC

⟲ Supplement considerations

⟲ Supplement form

Before considering a supplement, have a rough idea of how much iodine you get from foods. If you eat a lot of wild-caught seafood (i.e. daily), you might not actually need to supplement. Unfortunately, many otherwise-useful sources of nutritional breakdowns entirely neglect to report iodine content.

⚠ The majority of iodine supplements on the market are megadose, and need to be avoided (or highly diluted). Iodoral® and Lugol’s are the most common of these, but even brands you’d expect to be modest dose (such as Mercola, 1500µg) can exceed suggested optimal. Radio-protective potassium iodide tablets are likewise too high in iodine for use as a supplement.

The supplement formulation suggested is:
Kelp capsules:
“i.e., dried seaweed, essentially mimicking the natural means of intake that also provides iodine in all its varied forms (iodide, sodium iodate, potassium iodide, potassium iodate, iodinated proteins, etc.)”
Keep the container well sealed to prevent out-gassing of the iodine. Refrigeration might be helpful. Mind the expiration date at time of purchase.

Capsules, tablets, or drops that are specifically for use as iodine supplements might be suitable for use until a kelp product can be located, but mind the total dose of elemental iodine. Most products on the market are either just RDA, or are far too high in iodine.

Low dose potassium iodide drops can be very useful in challenging a receding autoimmune thyroid condition. Look for a product that is 50 µg elemental iodine per drop (or less).

Supplement forms that are definitely suboptimal include the megadose products warned about above, plus:

• Nori:
  Due to the way this these sheets are formulated, packaged, stored, displayed, and the ways in which they are consumed at home, and rate at which they are consumed, the iodine is usually long gone before you eat it. A 2024 report by ConsumerLab found major problems with lead, cadmium, and arsenic in all tested products.
• Iodized salt:
  In modern life, these salts are used too slowly to provide even RDA dosing. The iodine evaporates before the container is even partially used. Further, if you’re using an ⎆ancient mined salt, or modern sea salt, these are typically not fortified with iodine.
• Seafood:
  Eating enough seafood to obtain program target for iodine is tricky. Even with authentic wild-caught (higher food chain) fish, that could easily present a toxin exposure risk (mercury being only one such). Too much market fish today is farmed, if not GMO, and the iodine content is anyone’s guess. Eating enough wild bait-fish has other issues, particularly when canned.⇱ Return to ToC

⟲ Intake timing

There is no specific advice on time of day to take iodine.

If taking selenium, the iodine can be taken with it.

Take any iodine supplements at a different time than any probiotics or live-culture fermented foods, due to the modest antibiotic effect of iodine at program intake levels.⇱ Return to ToC

⟲ Portion adjustment

Where no autoimmune or hyperthyroid conditions are suspected, consuming the program target amount of iodine can commence with the program. Where a reactivity is being challenged, adjust no more sharply than 50 µg per every 4 weeks.⇱ Return to ToC

⟲ Supplement suggestions

What iodine supplement to use hinges on how much you are already obtaining from other sources, such as a multivitamin, seafood and coastal crops. A multivitamin is likely to be providing RDA (150µg). For that, only another 150 or 200µg needs to be provided.

The ConsumerLab testing service has only tested iodine supplements as kelp (and as the radioprotective KI compounds, which are not suited to our purposes). Some of the kelp products were rejected due to containing 177%-207% of listed iodine, which is a material problem.

The ⎆Solgar 200µg tablet is worth considering. In a full-portion product, the ⎆NOW Foods 325µg product looks interesting, but hasn’t been independently verified. To preserve potency, keep containers tightly sealed between portions,stored in a cool dry location.⇱ Return to ToC

⟲ Testing considerations

Specifically testing for iodine is not presently recommended in the program, both because the available tests aren’t terribly useful, and because the main health effect of it is thyroid status, for which various useful tests are available. They are covered in the 🦋Thyroid Optimization Quick Reference article.

Although an initial thyroid panel is always useful (especially the antibody tests), wait two to three months before checking for an initial response to iodine deficiency.

When making later adjustments to iodine intake, wait 4 weeks for re-test of thyroid status.⇱ Return to ToC