Just Ask Terry

Terry is happy to provide his opinion on diet and nutrition, supplements and lifestyle choices. This information is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to replace the advice of your physician and is not to be considered medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Should you have any concerns please contact your physician directly.

Q. Hello Terry, “I am very interested in using iodine, and I think the best one out there is the combination you recommend that includes the potassium, sodium, and molecule forms. However, I am a little concerned about the dose. I read that one should use 30 to 50 mg a day for 3 months and then go down to 12.5 mg thereafter, but the RDI is only a fraction of that. In some places on the internet, they say that using over 1 or 2 mg a day is bad for you. What would your reply be to this?” —Sandi H., Little Rock AR A. Dear Sandi, I am glad you are interested in supplementing with iodine, because it is one of the healthiest supplements you can add to your health plan. And I understand your questions, because there are a lot of baseless fears on using iodine. You may not know that, before the introduction of synthetic drugs, iodine was one of the most beneficial and universal medicines used by physicians around the world. Iodine was effective for everything: to heal wounds and disease, destroy germs, and to prevent cancer. Once the most commonly used medicine in the world, iodine was pushed aside in favor of new pharmaceutical drugs. And you are right–there are websites that discuss “iodine acute toxicity,” which can be alarming. But what they don’t mention is that it takes several grams of iodine to produce acute toxicity, and this is a very rare occurrence. In his book Iodine: Why you need it, Why you can’t live without it, Dr. David Brownstein notes that the current recommended intakes of iodine are far too low, and we need more of this beneficial mineral if we are to live long, healthy lives. According to the Council for Responsible Nutrition, “Except for rare instances of hypersensitivity, humans are remarkably tolerant to high intakes of iodine.” The CRN mentions that this is further validated by other resources. Lastly, people in the coastal regions of Japan often have an ongoing intake of 50,000 to 80,000 mcg per day with no apparent ill effects, except a scarcity of breast cancer and virtually non-existent fibrocystic breast disease. Many doctors conclude that in the US, where many individuals consume up to 200 times less iodine in the diet, higher doses of iodine are often necessary to achieve health and detoxification benefits. Healthy regards! Terry . . . Naturally