Iodine Fact Sheet by Dr Jay H Mead MD

Sufficient iodine is essential to good health. Although the primary function of iodine is in the production to thyroid hormones by the thyroid gland, many other organs require iodine for optimal function (1). Iodine deficiency is the associated with reduced mental performance (2,3), fibrocystic breasts disease and breast cancer (4,5,6,7,8) and is a potent antioxidant (9).It is estimated that 15% of American women are below the World Health Organization's classification for iodine sufficiency and this is conservative estimate (10) and almost one third of the world's population lives in areas of iodine deficiency (11). The most recent trend in the US is a 50% reduction in urinary iodine excretion between the 1970 and 1990 (11).The RDA for iodine is 150 mcg/day, which pales in comparison with the daily average intake of 13.8mg/day for the mainland Japanese population. The mainland Japanese consume on the average 89 times the US RDA and have reduced rates of many chronic diseases (1). In fact, the optimal iodine consumption level has never been determined (11); yet, the incidence of breast cancer is much lower in the Japan (12).In 1829 Jean Lugol, a French physician, discovered a method to dissolve iodine in an aqueous solution. This is known as Lugol's solution and has been for a myriad of maladies for more than 150 years. The collective experience of clinicians over this period led to recommended daily amount of Lugol's equivalent to be 12.5-37.5 mgs, which so happens to be the recommended dosage to maintain whole body sufficiency using the recently developed iodine/iodide loading test (13).