Iodine, thyroid, and breast cancer??

deni63,

I've never heard of nausea with Iodoral but have heard of stomach upset in people taking either Lugol's solution or compound pharmacy versions of iodine that don't have the enteric coatings.

I believe Iodoral was invented precisely to avoid stomach upset. It's supposed to be dissolved in the small intestine.  Still, you never know. Why don't you stop for 48 hours and restart with 1/4 tab. Did you buy your Iodoral from a known source?

Please don't tell me you bought it on Ebay  I've heard of places selling counterfeits.

Oh, I hope you feel better. Nausea is the worst. I'd rather have a toothache than nausea.

xo

deni, so sorry to hear your having nausea.  ugh, nausea is just so nasty. 

You're starting out with a very low dose.  It doesn't seem likely to me that such a low dose would cause nausea, but people on the iodine list have reported nausea as a detox symptom.  Headaches tend to be more commonly reported. 

The main area where you might want to increase awareness is detoxing.  Iodine is a halide, and so are floride, chlorine and bromine.  They compete for the same receptors.  As iodine levels rise, the other halides, which are toxic, get displaced and can cause ill feelings as they move toward the exit.  So if you're constipated, you might want to switch gears and get things moving along better and then go back to iodine.  

Yes, it can start right away.  And then it can go on for a long time.  Toxins can get into muscles and tissues and camp out.  When our detoxing efforts coax the toxins out of their resting places, people usually have some kind of reaction.  Detoxing is a process, not an event. 

Bromine is frequently in the flour of bakery products.  Pepperidge Farm does not used brominated flour.  If you buy organic flour, that will not have bromine either.  If you drink any citrus flavor beverages, look for brominated vegetable oil on the list of ingredients.  Lemony gatorade drinks have it and mt dew is the worst in the soda world for brominated vegetable oil. 

It's hard to say what's causing your nausea.  For a while I tried tweaking my supplements one at time 4 weeks apart.  I gave up on that and reckoned I'd rather remove one thing at a time if I get a bad reaction.  You could try skipping iodoral for a few days and see how you feel.  

Deni-I thought the same thing. I had been eating clean for over a year before I started iodoral. I had done a liver cleanse, had a colonoscopy, so I thought I was really detoxed.  I was feeling great. After 2 days on iodoral, I felt like I had been hit with a ton of bricks. I was soooooo tired and my head was throbbing. Obviously, I still had a lot of this stuff in me. I did the salt loading only once, peeed it all out, and I was back to normal. Remember it took years to get this stuff built up in us. Rome wasn't built in a day.

vivre ~  Just wanted to tell you that splitting the Iodoral tablet and having both halves during the day has worked beautifully.  The sleeplessness was gone within a day.  I did have a mild headache for about 3 days, but it seems like this is normal.   Deanna

Anom,

Who soon prior to surgury would you stop taking calcium? And you would take the magnesium right up until the day prior to surgery? Just checking. Thanks for the info on mannesium and hospitals and surgery, I had not heard that!!

I just ordered my second "Iodine loading" test yesterday from FFP labs. ($80.00). I have been on the Iodoral supplement (50) for over 3 months now. I want to get it tested before I "go off it" 2 weeks prior to surgery. They are wanting me to stop all supplements except multi, C, and Calcium!! I am not stopping probiotic or stool softeners, or I will pay dearly in the constipation department!!! (TMI !!!!)

Spring.

Terri,

I switched to nature-throid (from synthroid) you may want to check that out. This is dessecrate thyroid vs synthetic (my take) and I think better.  I take DIM Iodoral and am also hypothyroid. The Iodoral can change your tyroid hormone levels, and I'm still adjusting to the switch to NatureThroid and taking the iodine.  I'd suggest working with your doctor (I use my GP for this), an occasional check, etc. That's what I am doing.!!

Spring.

anomdenet: So much to learn! I'm really nervous about trying something new but I realize that some Dr's just follow the book and there are alternatives. How much iodine do you suggest I start out with? if I take the nature-throid like Spring, do I still need to take iodine?

Terri

Terri,

Personally, I would start with one tablet of Iodoral and see if you get any detox. Then increase it. Drs. Flechas and Brownstein would probably start you with four tablets. At some point, you should probably get the Iodine Loadting Test and phone consult with Dr. Flechas. breastcancerchoices reimbursed at lot of us for the test because we registered our test results for the study.

Spring,

Osteopenia is a metabolic disorder, not a calcium deficiency. The objective is to ABSORB your dietary calcium the way you did 15 years ago. Adding more calcium isn't going to help your absorption, it will just play havoc with your mineral balance/ cardiac rhythms. D3 alone should help with osteopenia because you will absorb more calcium. Progesterone helps even more.

Also, Dr. Abraham has said the single worst obstacle to iodine absorption is calcium supplementation. I suspect this is because calcium makes you excrete magnesium which is vital to iodine absorption.

How are you feeling in anticipation of surgery? Remind us of the exact date just before and we'll send you a mass healing vibe {{{{8}}}}

xox

Spring, did you order something in addition to the loading test?  It should be $42.  I was also charged $2.50 for the 50 mg of iodine.  I wasn't told about that in advance, but it was a lucky accident.  I'd been taking iodoral for 5 months by the time I took the loading test.  Somehow I had determined that 5 tablets of 12.5 mg each added up to 50 mg.  When I opened the package to find 4 tablets, I finally realized my math skills are nearly nonexistent anymore.  Talk about brain fog. For 5 months I took 62+ mg/day thinking it was 50 mg.  

Anyway, the sample you collect can also be tested for heavy metals and bromide.  You could ask about getting that done also.  It would be good information to have.  

Terri, welcome to the thread.  There's a lot to learn about iodine, and there's a lot of conflicting information out there.   Go to breastcancerchoices.org to ramp up your learning curve.  They're also providers of iodoral at the best price, plus their sales support their research project.  You can read the experiences of others at the yahoo group for iodine.  There's lots of people taking 50 mg/day, but you can start out with just one 12.5 mg tablet per day to see how it goes.  

Vivre, I saw some mention of this on the Yahoo Iodine Group. The US government wouldn't dare try this. The grass roots iodine movement would take to the streets. Two years ago, the DEA cut down on the amout of Lugol's iodine you can buy because meth dealers were using it for something. But the EU seems to be under the impression that iodine is toxic even tho it has been widely used in published medicine since 1830. I gather Europe doesn't have an iodine educators? Doesn't it drive you nuts when patients in the street know more about the medicines than the law makers?

Double ouch on the cost of the test!  I had already inquired about subsequent tests being reimburseable, and the answer on that was no.  I didn't realize the $42 was a discounted rate.  Dang, I wish a wealthy benefactor would adopt the iodine project.  I would think followup test data would be vitally important, esp since some of us are having absorption difficulties. 

I am a newbie to the alternative forums.  I am digesting all of this as fast as I can, but is it recommended that I test for iodine deficiency prior to taking the supplement?  You know, for the past few years I have been exclusively using a salt from France called "Baleine", which I buy at Bristol Farms.  On the container it clearly states, "this salt does not supply iodide, a necessary nutrient."  My DH pointed this out to me last month, so I went out and bought an iodized version.  Holy cow! I doubt I get much iodine from foods - I rarely eat yogurt, only get milk products essentially vis a vis milk in my coffee and I have miniscule egg protein intake - I have gastroinestinal allergies to whole eggs. Lab tests recently showed thyroid levels are normal, however,  I am lethargic and have little energy.  As you can see in my siggy, I am Vit D deficient [will be retested late next month.] Could I just start on the Iodoral without getting tested, or is this risky?  Sorry for the long diatribe...

Deborah

althea:  Thank you....I just went online to look at my thyroid values from last May and my TSH was 0.81  [norm: 0.4 - 4.00]  so I see it is certainly borderline low but not far from 1.0 - if that is where "optimum" seems to be.  So I think I will supplement now and then work on testing. 

Deanna:  I know...I did not think about it until my DH pointed it out...but he was not being a purist from a health standpoint - he just thought I was buying DESIGNER salt all these years and was trying to make a point about my "fancy" salt - inferring it was inferior by his "and look - it does not even have IODINE!"  Heck, I just liked the look of the canister.....