Iodine is an important part of your normal biochemistry.  It is essential to manufacture the thyroid hormones thyroxin, also known as T4, and triiodothyronine, also known as T3.  T4 is one tyrosine amino acid molecule with four iodine atoms attached to it… T4… and T3 has three iodine atoms attached to it…T3…

If your thyroid does not have adequate iodine stores to make hormones, it will enlarge and that can result in a goiter.  Many of us have seen pictures of people with goiters in areas where the soil and food are iodine deficient.

Iodine is not only used by your thyroid to make hormones but is also stored in the liver, kidneys, skin, hair, lungs, nails, prostate, uterus, adrenals, pancreas, breast tissue, and other parts of the body.  For example, fibrocystic breast disease has been associated with iodine deficiency.  So as you can see, this is not a supplement we want to be without.  Iodine is considered so important that it was used in bread making as a dough conditioner until about 20 years ago when the toxic bromine replaced iodine.  Bromine is from the same chemical family as iodine, it can displace iodine in the body and creates a deficit.  Fluoride and chlorine are the other two members of Iodine’s family tree.  As you know Fluoride is added to water and is used extensively by the dental profession to prevent cavities, and chlorine, well we all know what chlorine is.  Chloride however is an important nutrient for our health also, think salt.

So how do you determine whether you need iodine?  There are laboratory tests that show if you are iodine sufficient, it requires urine collection for 24 hours and then sending the sample to a lab for analysis.  That’s all well and good but there is a quicker and simpler way to get a clue as to whether or not you need iodine.  You can do this easily at home.  Go to the pharmacy and purchase a bottle of tincture of iodine, make sure you get the colored not the clear one.  Apply a 2-by-2-inch swab on the inside of your forearm.  If you are still able to see a faint outline of the iodine swab about 16-24 hours later, you may be iodine sufficient.  If on the other hand, the patch is completely gone way before the 16-24 hours are up then you may need iodine.

So how can you get in more iodine?  There are some wonderfully effective products that you can supplement yourself with from outstanding companies that have superior quality control and whose products I have full confidence in.

Another caveat, don’t assume that you are allergic to iodine simply because you are allergic to shellfish, have yourself tested.  Still unsure about iodine?  Get tested and find out.