Thank you for putting out this very important information especially for women.
This is my story,
In my forties I was diagnosed with Graves dz. I found a “new” treatment at Mayo Clinic. When I got there I was told they don’t do that treatment. What? It’s on your website! My options were do nothing or drink the radioactive kool-aid. I chose to do nothing. I was not going to be dependent on a pill for life. As a biologist I knew iodine is what the thyroid needed. I began 130 mcg potassium iodide (KI) everyday. My tests were showing slight hyperthyroidism and I felt great! I avoid all x-rays. Dental, health, airport etc. I went on an online support group to share my success and was quickly thrown off the site. Doctors didn’t like that kinda success. That was 20 years ago. Very rarely do I feel symptoms and need to take a dose of KI.
How long can you safely use potassium iodine? I'm wondering since it says for short term use. I've been dealing with graves for 5 years now and taking methimazole.
I was also given the same rx for methimazole along with beta blockers. I refused any pharma. For proper thyroid metabolism iodine is the ticket. I used potassium iodide daily for many years. I also use iodized salt in food. Iodine will calm the hyper symptoms within 45 minutes. Since methimazole blocks thyroid hormones I would suggest asking your physician if taking both methimazole and iodine is a good idea.
"Women bear the higher cumulative exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals through personal care products — cosmetics, fragrances, hair treatments, skincare, nail products"
Interesting to study a cohort of 'campy' gay men -- who DO use many such products! Would their thyroids follow the "assigned" pathway for a male thyroid or a female thyroid ?
Thank you for this article. Whenever I hear someone yak about their socalled autoimmune disease, they seem almost proud of it, boasting that their body is "attacking itself" and proudly telling of whatever prescription drugs they are taking to "control" the condition. It makes my toes curl. Our bodies are not hardwired to attack themselves. There is no such thing.
Modern scientific medicine has much to answer for. But they won't have to. They will, eventually, quietly change their evil treatments and then act like they are a bunch of heroes, when all along they were irradiating, cutting, and poisoning.
I first came to understand so-called hyperthyroidism in Adelle Davis' book Let's Get Well, published in 1965.
The lithium that causes issues is the common form used in psychiatry, lithium carbonate, which also can cause kidney and liver issues.
Lithium is actually a beneficial trace mineral and here's some info on it. The lithium orotate form with 1mg per day (I take a 5mg tablet every 5 days) is safe and has huge benefits to cognition, especially in the hippocampus.
I would like to see an article on Cushing's and Addison's Diseases as I bet they are related with nutritional imbalances being a big cause. Many thyroid supplements carry three elements: iodine, selenium and zinc plus some botanicals. What bothers me is that all three elements follow the bell shaped curve where too much is also detrimental. This is how people end up with supplement graveyards and end up being financially strapped: cycles of expensive tests to adjust the ratios of the four elements.
Why can't this terrain space come up with nutritional recommendations with bioactive supplements where too much is well defined, so you can find your sweet spot? The problem is the mechanics of the HPA axis is poorly understood even by doctors and I bet by terrain practioners as well precisely because their education is not pattern based. Chinese Medicine calls the Triple Heater meridian the 'thyroid' meridian for a reason. But very little information is in the DIY space about this meridian, so most people are forced to go the Western route and that leads to depleted bank accounts and supplement graveyards.
If you want people to decouple from the medical system of siloed experts, how about unsiloing the terrain space? It is easy to criticize the health care system but hard to fix because all information out there is based upon reductionist criteria and not pattern matching. And that is why people keep following the insurance model! They can't afford not to.
"Chinese Medicine calls the Triple Heater meridian the 'thyroid' meridian for a reason. But very little information is in the DIY space about this meridian"
In recent decades I notice that doctors of "Traditional" [it's not actually traditional] Chinese Medicine" are so quick to recommend damaging western medical treatments - as in go get yourself cut/burned/poisoned - then come to us for 20 acupuncture treatments at $60 a pop to deal with the "side" effects. SMH. It's become a real industry with them, as if they are all colluding.
By the way, I remember reading a book by Adelle Davis where she says that iodine taken in the form of kelp is actually more helpful than a chemical supplement. FWIW. It does seem to make sense, though, as seaweed does have a lot of other minerals.
Adding Potassium Bromate to bread caused thyroid dysfunction, that seems certain. But does a lack of iodine truly cause thyroid dysfunction and other maladies? While every cell in some people's bodies contain trace iodine, is that contamination as opposed to essential nutrient absorption? Before bakers began adding Potassium Iodate to bread, how did people get iodine? Can consumption of synthetic man-made chemicals such as Potassium Iodate promote positive health outcomes over the long-term? Too many unanswered questions surrounding iodine.
I'm with you all the way and appreciate your links/suggestions but oh my, CDS and DMSO are NOT fraudulent. Just a tiny example is that all three of my dogs have been bitten by rattlesnakes, one of them twice. HUGE swelling of the faces, etc. CDS administered orally in milk soon afterwards, and they're all alive and very healthy. As for DMSO, just a couple of days ago I banged my shin terribly; a very painful knot an inch in diameter ensued. Tiny bit of DMSO dabbed on it fixed it like magic. No more knot, only the slightest pain, and only for minutes.
Check Janie Bowman's "Stop the Thyroid Madness" site -- more SOLID info than you can read in a year!! She used to also run a massive 'social' type site (same name: we called it STTM) where hundreds and hundreds of sufferers (of hypo and hyper) described and discussed their symptoms,. what their usually COMPLETLY ignorant 'ortho-docs' would suggest and do -- and how it usually NEVER worked! And hundreds described GOOD docs, what they did, how it worked, how they adjust it and so on... and thus there became a list of GOOD docs thyroid folks have found helped. AND many good (or suffering themselves) dos and nurses would come discuss and describe...
Yes, you DO have to educate yourself seriously! I describe most ortho-docs and the way-fewer ones who've learned the truths: most (ortho-)docs know ONLY what Pharma sells them this way:
The docs WE depend on, the ones who WILL prescribe something OTHER than T4-only, who KNOW what's going on... used to be ortho-docs... Then they -- or someone in their family -- gets diagnosed hypo (more often than hyper), and so they prescribe EXACTLY what the ortho-docs SAID (had been taught!) would work. And when the someone the ortho-doc loves keeps complaining that the 'treatment' wasn't treating any-damned thing... the doc often sets off on a dig into REALITY (it's easy to blow off a patient you see every 6mos -- it's REALLY hard when she's IN YOUR HOUSE!) -- and discover how BLIND they had been made!
I also tell folks suffering the tortures of the damned -- even WHILE doing exactly as their ortho-doc told them: "I'm not providing a complete medical description: but you need to understand in layman's terms WHY you have to do the work of self-education, and then find a doc who knows! When you've been given T4-only: *IF* your body can adequately convert T4 ("storage form") INTO T3 ("active form"), then you're being treated, sort-of. However, if your body CANNOT do that *necessary* conversion, then you ARE NOT BEING TREATED -- so no wonder you still feel like hell! And, no wonder your ortho-doc blames you!"
I self-treated: ending up buying T3-only manufactured in Germany from a Mexican pharmacy. Earlier, I found a non-ortho doc...who was listed at Janie's site as a good thyroid doc... I baffled him by coming in with 'my' proposed schedule: "I want you to write me a scrip for T3 only. I want to begin at this dosage and, as needed, raise it up over time to no higher than this. Will you do that?" He reviewed my proposed scheduling and wrote the scrip.
THEN, I handed him my next piece of paper: "I also want you to write a scrip for hydrocortisone, NOT at a treatment level" (that's a real steroid, nothing to fool with! And you can tell someone is on treatment dosing because that dosing can cause "moon-face" among other less-than-pleasant results...) "but at physiological level (teeny tiny dosing to start)." He reviewed my suggested dosing and wrote a scrip. (Bit of warning: when I referred someone on Janie's social about him; she went and he did the USUAL tests (very expensive) ) and then put her on T4-only!! Apparently (and legitimately from his point) he could have ONE patient doing all this non-regulation stuff... but if he started treating OTHERS -- his Med Board would pull his license! We've seen that HUNDREDS of times over the SARS bioweaoon years!!
Bit o' not-so-trivia: after a year+ ON the still-small-but raised over a year+ dosing, I was feeling better enough that I thought I'd try stopping the steroid. Here's another SELF-education bit of info I needed! Many folks reported than IF you begin to titrate down (that is, to SLOWLY lower your steroid dosing in small steps) AND your symptoms begin to come back... you're NOT DONE YET. Slowly raise your dosing back to where it was/where you were functioning, and wait longer before trying to titrate down. It took me THREE YEARS of physiological steroid dosing before I was able to titrate down to zero.
You'll also learn over on Janie's site about iodine, and its uses and dosing and so on. Sorry -- this is a deeply fraught medical / biological problem -- and there IS no set-it-and-forget-it for thyroid! (Such as ortho-docs claim with T4-only!! THEY are not sick, THEY have energy and feel okay. THEY can climb stairs twice in a day without needing a nap!!) )
Thyroid is NOTHING to shoot at blindly. It's ALSO nothing to just rely on an ortho-doc who insists s/he "IS treating you... Just keep doing what you're told and SOME DAY you'll feel better!" (And, eventually firing you as a non-compliant patient!)
I had a small goiter by age 38... MD told me it was a "wait and see" condition. I waited, and I saw: I got a hot tub, put the recommended bromine into it, and soon had a very LARGE goiter... that was nearly 30 years ago. I tried nascent iodine but it made no difference. Maybe I got duped by the claims that nascent was somehow magical. It wasn't too long before I found out about the cause: heard about how bromine is a halide and replaces iodine, causing thyroid disease. I guess I'm not an expert, because experts are still scratching their heads about what could POSSIBLY be the problem. And by the way, I've seen a list someone compiled where they looked up just about any disease you can name, and about EVERY. SINGLE. ONE, there was a phrase to the effect, "Doctors don't know the cause..."
But at any rate, just now I g00gled whether bromine is still used in pools/ hot tubs. Answer:
"Yes, bromine is still widely used and remains a popular, effective sanitizer for hot tubs, spas, and swimming pools."
Thank you for putting out this very important information especially for women.
This is my story,
In my forties I was diagnosed with Graves dz. I found a “new” treatment at Mayo Clinic. When I got there I was told they don’t do that treatment. What? It’s on your website! My options were do nothing or drink the radioactive kool-aid. I chose to do nothing. I was not going to be dependent on a pill for life. As a biologist I knew iodine is what the thyroid needed. I began 130 mcg potassium iodide (KI) everyday. My tests were showing slight hyperthyroidism and I felt great! I avoid all x-rays. Dental, health, airport etc. I went on an online support group to share my success and was quickly thrown off the site. Doctors didn’t like that kinda success. That was 20 years ago. Very rarely do I feel symptoms and need to take a dose of KI.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Very helpful for me. So glad you did not literally drink the kool-aid.
You’re welcome. Glad to know it was helpful. Thank you.
Congratulations on having such a good understanding of your own condition and refusing to get with the standard-issue (horrible) program.
Thank you. Much appreciated!
How long can you safely use potassium iodine? I'm wondering since it says for short term use. I've been dealing with graves for 5 years now and taking methimazole.
I was also given the same rx for methimazole along with beta blockers. I refused any pharma. For proper thyroid metabolism iodine is the ticket. I used potassium iodide daily for many years. I also use iodized salt in food. Iodine will calm the hyper symptoms within 45 minutes. Since methimazole blocks thyroid hormones I would suggest asking your physician if taking both methimazole and iodine is a good idea.
So, do you still take 130 mcg, or did you reduce that over time?
If I have symptoms I take a dose. I cannot remember the last time I took it.
Initially I took it for a couple of years daily. Testing it periodically by not taking it to see if symptoms came back.
"Women bear the higher cumulative exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals through personal care products — cosmetics, fragrances, hair treatments, skincare, nail products"
Interesting to study a cohort of 'campy' gay men -- who DO use many such products! Would their thyroids follow the "assigned" pathway for a male thyroid or a female thyroid ?
These regular excursions into medical incompetence...even malpractice...are one way of being forewarned if contemplating a visit to the USA...
I really appreciate the 'explain it to a 6 year old' part.
Thank you for this article. Whenever I hear someone yak about their socalled autoimmune disease, they seem almost proud of it, boasting that their body is "attacking itself" and proudly telling of whatever prescription drugs they are taking to "control" the condition. It makes my toes curl. Our bodies are not hardwired to attack themselves. There is no such thing.
Modern scientific medicine has much to answer for. But they won't have to. They will, eventually, quietly change their evil treatments and then act like they are a bunch of heroes, when all along they were irradiating, cutting, and poisoning.
I first came to understand so-called hyperthyroidism in Adelle Davis' book Let's Get Well, published in 1965.
The lithium that causes issues is the common form used in psychiatry, lithium carbonate, which also can cause kidney and liver issues.
Lithium is actually a beneficial trace mineral and here's some info on it. The lithium orotate form with 1mg per day (I take a 5mg tablet every 5 days) is safe and has huge benefits to cognition, especially in the hippocampus.
https://michaelnehls.substack.com/p/essential-lithium-could-save-billions
https://michaelnehls.substack.com/p/lithium-the-essential-trace-element
I would like to see an article on Cushing's and Addison's Diseases as I bet they are related with nutritional imbalances being a big cause. Many thyroid supplements carry three elements: iodine, selenium and zinc plus some botanicals. What bothers me is that all three elements follow the bell shaped curve where too much is also detrimental. This is how people end up with supplement graveyards and end up being financially strapped: cycles of expensive tests to adjust the ratios of the four elements.
Why can't this terrain space come up with nutritional recommendations with bioactive supplements where too much is well defined, so you can find your sweet spot? The problem is the mechanics of the HPA axis is poorly understood even by doctors and I bet by terrain practioners as well precisely because their education is not pattern based. Chinese Medicine calls the Triple Heater meridian the 'thyroid' meridian for a reason. But very little information is in the DIY space about this meridian, so most people are forced to go the Western route and that leads to depleted bank accounts and supplement graveyards.
If you want people to decouple from the medical system of siloed experts, how about unsiloing the terrain space? It is easy to criticize the health care system but hard to fix because all information out there is based upon reductionist criteria and not pattern matching. And that is why people keep following the insurance model! They can't afford not to.
"Chinese Medicine calls the Triple Heater meridian the 'thyroid' meridian for a reason. But very little information is in the DIY space about this meridian"
In recent decades I notice that doctors of "Traditional" [it's not actually traditional] Chinese Medicine" are so quick to recommend damaging western medical treatments - as in go get yourself cut/burned/poisoned - then come to us for 20 acupuncture treatments at $60 a pop to deal with the "side" effects. SMH. It's become a real industry with them, as if they are all colluding.
By the way, I remember reading a book by Adelle Davis where she says that iodine taken in the form of kelp is actually more helpful than a chemical supplement. FWIW. It does seem to make sense, though, as seaweed does have a lot of other minerals.
Adding Potassium Bromate to bread caused thyroid dysfunction, that seems certain. But does a lack of iodine truly cause thyroid dysfunction and other maladies? While every cell in some people's bodies contain trace iodine, is that contamination as opposed to essential nutrient absorption? Before bakers began adding Potassium Iodate to bread, how did people get iodine? Can consumption of synthetic man-made chemicals such as Potassium Iodate promote positive health outcomes over the long-term? Too many unanswered questions surrounding iodine.
I find it hard to figure this one out. I have been taking higher doses for a year now and I feel better. Also my hair is much better. I find David Brownstein's book on iodine very convincing, but you write it comes with risk. I read this article:https://www.regenerativenutrition.com/assets/.pdf%20downloads/iodine%20-%20the%20universal%20&%20holistic%20super%20mineral%20by%20gabriel%20cousens.pdf
And it states that people more than a century ago took very high doses with no problems. How are we to figure out who is right and who isn't.
It's impossible for regular people. Especially if you don't have access to alternative medicine.
The regenerative nutrition link is a great synopsis- I guess everyone has to decide for themselves, but for me, I like iodine.
yeah me too. But I am not eager to suddenly develop thyroid issues 5 years from now. But I do Like to have my energy and my hair back :)
Great article. Have you done a deep dive on Hashimoto's? I have been diagnosed with it.
I personally like Lugol’s Iodine. For thyroid and Especially for women and breast health.
Dear Unbekoming, please see how this Medicine Girl article comports with this article. Here is the link: https://medicinegirl.substack.com/p/iodine-kills-the-thyroid
Anna, what is an example of what is important and unquestioned?
I'm with you all the way and appreciate your links/suggestions but oh my, CDS and DMSO are NOT fraudulent. Just a tiny example is that all three of my dogs have been bitten by rattlesnakes, one of them twice. HUGE swelling of the faces, etc. CDS administered orally in milk soon afterwards, and they're all alive and very healthy. As for DMSO, just a couple of days ago I banged my shin terribly; a very painful knot an inch in diameter ensued. Tiny bit of DMSO dabbed on it fixed it like magic. No more knot, only the slightest pain, and only for minutes.
Yes… speaking of controlled opposition! (And it’s allopathy that has severe iodine phobia, just sayin…)
Can taking Lugol’s iodine help ?
Check Janie Bowman's "Stop the Thyroid Madness" site -- more SOLID info than you can read in a year!! She used to also run a massive 'social' type site (same name: we called it STTM) where hundreds and hundreds of sufferers (of hypo and hyper) described and discussed their symptoms,. what their usually COMPLETLY ignorant 'ortho-docs' would suggest and do -- and how it usually NEVER worked! And hundreds described GOOD docs, what they did, how it worked, how they adjust it and so on... and thus there became a list of GOOD docs thyroid folks have found helped. AND many good (or suffering themselves) dos and nurses would come discuss and describe...
Yes, you DO have to educate yourself seriously! I describe most ortho-docs and the way-fewer ones who've learned the truths: most (ortho-)docs know ONLY what Pharma sells them this way:
The docs WE depend on, the ones who WILL prescribe something OTHER than T4-only, who KNOW what's going on... used to be ortho-docs... Then they -- or someone in their family -- gets diagnosed hypo (more often than hyper), and so they prescribe EXACTLY what the ortho-docs SAID (had been taught!) would work. And when the someone the ortho-doc loves keeps complaining that the 'treatment' wasn't treating any-damned thing... the doc often sets off on a dig into REALITY (it's easy to blow off a patient you see every 6mos -- it's REALLY hard when she's IN YOUR HOUSE!) -- and discover how BLIND they had been made!
I also tell folks suffering the tortures of the damned -- even WHILE doing exactly as their ortho-doc told them: "I'm not providing a complete medical description: but you need to understand in layman's terms WHY you have to do the work of self-education, and then find a doc who knows! When you've been given T4-only: *IF* your body can adequately convert T4 ("storage form") INTO T3 ("active form"), then you're being treated, sort-of. However, if your body CANNOT do that *necessary* conversion, then you ARE NOT BEING TREATED -- so no wonder you still feel like hell! And, no wonder your ortho-doc blames you!"
I self-treated: ending up buying T3-only manufactured in Germany from a Mexican pharmacy. Earlier, I found a non-ortho doc...who was listed at Janie's site as a good thyroid doc... I baffled him by coming in with 'my' proposed schedule: "I want you to write me a scrip for T3 only. I want to begin at this dosage and, as needed, raise it up over time to no higher than this. Will you do that?" He reviewed my proposed scheduling and wrote the scrip.
THEN, I handed him my next piece of paper: "I also want you to write a scrip for hydrocortisone, NOT at a treatment level" (that's a real steroid, nothing to fool with! And you can tell someone is on treatment dosing because that dosing can cause "moon-face" among other less-than-pleasant results...) "but at physiological level (teeny tiny dosing to start)." He reviewed my suggested dosing and wrote a scrip. (Bit of warning: when I referred someone on Janie's social about him; she went and he did the USUAL tests (very expensive) ) and then put her on T4-only!! Apparently (and legitimately from his point) he could have ONE patient doing all this non-regulation stuff... but if he started treating OTHERS -- his Med Board would pull his license! We've seen that HUNDREDS of times over the SARS bioweaoon years!!
Bit o' not-so-trivia: after a year+ ON the still-small-but raised over a year+ dosing, I was feeling better enough that I thought I'd try stopping the steroid. Here's another SELF-education bit of info I needed! Many folks reported than IF you begin to titrate down (that is, to SLOWLY lower your steroid dosing in small steps) AND your symptoms begin to come back... you're NOT DONE YET. Slowly raise your dosing back to where it was/where you were functioning, and wait longer before trying to titrate down. It took me THREE YEARS of physiological steroid dosing before I was able to titrate down to zero.
You'll also learn over on Janie's site about iodine, and its uses and dosing and so on. Sorry -- this is a deeply fraught medical / biological problem -- and there IS no set-it-and-forget-it for thyroid! (Such as ortho-docs claim with T4-only!! THEY are not sick, THEY have energy and feel okay. THEY can climb stairs twice in a day without needing a nap!!) )
Thyroid is NOTHING to shoot at blindly. It's ALSO nothing to just rely on an ortho-doc who insists s/he "IS treating you... Just keep doing what you're told and SOME DAY you'll feel better!" (And, eventually firing you as a non-compliant patient!)
I love Lugols. Renegade Medicine by Nadine Artemis has some great protocols in it- both topically and internally.
I had a small goiter by age 38... MD told me it was a "wait and see" condition. I waited, and I saw: I got a hot tub, put the recommended bromine into it, and soon had a very LARGE goiter... that was nearly 30 years ago. I tried nascent iodine but it made no difference. Maybe I got duped by the claims that nascent was somehow magical. It wasn't too long before I found out about the cause: heard about how bromine is a halide and replaces iodine, causing thyroid disease. I guess I'm not an expert, because experts are still scratching their heads about what could POSSIBLY be the problem. And by the way, I've seen a list someone compiled where they looked up just about any disease you can name, and about EVERY. SINGLE. ONE, there was a phrase to the effect, "Doctors don't know the cause..."
But at any rate, just now I g00gled whether bromine is still used in pools/ hot tubs. Answer:
"Yes, bromine is still widely used and remains a popular, effective sanitizer for hot tubs, spas, and swimming pools."
Soaker beware.