My Medical Mystery Solved: Iodine Deficiency

[Katee]

• Lynne Farrow
• Published: June 13, 2017

Iodine deficiency wrecked my life.

How did this happen?

No, I didn’t live in a Third World Country where iodine deficiency is the leading cause of mental retardation. I grew up in New Jersey eating plenty of seafood and vegetables sprinkled with iodized salt. Still, for years I endured daily headaches and bouts of brain fog so bad that I lost my driver’s license for speeding through stop signs without being aware. I slept so much my family called me Rip Van Winkle. Eventually I could no longer drag myself to work even with caffeine and Darvocet, a prescription painkiller.

Read the rest here: https://www.honeycolony.com/article/iodine-deficiency-epidemic

[Katee]

I was researching the idea of lack of iodine possibly being related, or part of a bigger picture, dealing with the seizures I fight. In consult with a professional, he told me that the RDA is much, much too low for many people.

I had been trying, for years, actually decades, to tell the doctors that I suspected many of the issues I fight were thyroid-related. They told me it wasn’t likely. They would run a TSH, and tell me everything was fine. Treat me either as a hypochondriac or a mental patient.

When I was a child I was overdosed with fluoride. My baby teeth turned black, but no one was honest of the cause. At sixteen I had a fluoride treatment, was violently sick the rest of the day, and within a couple of weeks had stopped sleeping normally.

What I know now is that fluoride and bromine and chlorine tend to replace iodine in thyroid hormones. Often the numbers will return “normal,” but our bodies can’t properly utilize the hormone. Also, because thyroid is part of the endocrine system, it impacts in other ways. I’ve always been large-breasted, but in my 30s my chest grew to huge size. After I was pushing on the thyroid issue. I’ve since learned that super-enlarged breasts are one indication of thyroid problems.

Then I ran across a site giving the “optimal numbers” for thyroid hormones versus the RDA’s very broad and inadequate numbers. I had run (myself) an extensive thyroid panel, and yes, my numbers are far from optimal. Whether or not this will help me with seizures (and it will only be a piece of the puzzle, not the whole), I thought this article worth the time.

[Pattypans]

Katee, first of all, how very nice to 'see' you again! It's been a long time.

I'm so sorry for the fluoride exposure you had and how much continued harm it seems to have done. The doctors' attitudes towards you and your health challenges are shameful. I'm glad you're finding hopefully helpful clues and hope you find solid answers soon.

Do you know anything about boron? I have absolutely no idea if it would be good or bad for you, but it's said to detoxify (even get rid of candida). I started taking it (making a solution out of pure borax and water in a certain proportion, which is said to be more bioavailable than supplements) several years ago and it was the only thing that helped some severe (arthritis probably) pains in my neck, shoulder, and arm that had me at wits' end because I couldn't sleep for longer than a few hours at a time, and even then, only in one exact position.

It's not easy to find the information about boron. If you're interested, I'll try to find a link for you. I posted it here at the time, I think.