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
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
