Pregnant Women Should Take Iodide Supplement, According To Major Doctors Group

BI - Reuters ^ | 5-26-2014 | Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters

[blam]

By Andrew M. Seaman
May 26, 2014, 12:41

Pregnant women should take an iodide-containing supplement to protect the brain development of their babies, according to the leading U.S. group of pediatricians.

Iodine, which the body can get from iodide, is needed to make the thyroid hormones that are required for children’s brain development before and after birth.

“Women who are childbearing age need to pay attention to this topic as well, because about half of the pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned,” Dr. Jerome Paulson said. “Women in the early part of the pregnancy may not realize they’re pregnant.”

Paulson is the chairperson of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Environmental Health, which authored the policy statement. He is also a pediatrician at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

The recommendations were published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday.

People typically get the iodine they need from table salt, which in the U.S. is fortified with iodide. Eating processed foods exposes Americans to salt that is not iodized, however.

The Council writes that past research has suggested about one-third of pregnant women in the U.S. are marginally iodine deficient. Also, only about 15 percent of women take a supplement containing an adequate amount of iodide.

The American Thyroid Association and the National Academy of Sciences suggest pregnant and breastfeeding women get 290 micrograms of iodide per day.

Women may need to take a supplement with 150 micrograms of iodide to reach that recommended level, but most prenatal and lactation vitamins contain less, according to the Council.

“Breastfeeding mothers should take a supplement that includes at least 150 micrograms of iodide and use iodized table salt,” the Council writes.

Additionally, the Council says women may need to be tested for iodine deficiency - fish

(snip)

[blam]

A little vitamin D wouldn't hurt either:

The Antibiotic Vitamin

[spacejunkie2001]

Actually, they should take a mixture of iodine and iodide in the form of Iodoral or Lugol’s

[Vendome]

Eating processed foods exposes Americans to salt that is not iodized, however.

The Council writes that past research has suggested about one-third of pregnant women in the U.S. are marginally iodine deficient. Also, only about 15 percent of women take a supplement containing an adequate amount of iodide.

They are “exposed” to salt that is deficient in iodide and iodine?

LOL!!!

Gee, Leslie, that’s just awful.

[spacejunkie2001]

processed foods actually have alot of sodium, not salt. Good salt has all of the trace minerals but very little iodine. Table salt has been stripped of all minerals then they add bleach, anti caking and just enough iodine to ward off goiters.

Ideally, we should consume unrefined salt and 50 mg/day of iodine (along with selenium, mag and vitamin C)

[Vinnie]

I’ve gotten away from cooking w/ 100% kosher salt because I realized we weren’t getting iodine from it.
Now using table salt about 50-60% of the time.

[Organic Panic]

Color me skeptical. I don’t believe any of these studies. It wouldn’t surprise me if that, surprise surprise, the doctors group is selling some iodine suppliments on infowars.

[goodwithagun]

For you Agnes.

My thyroid and mastitis issues went away after taking an iodine supplement.

[DoughtyOne]

Iodized table salt...

[blam]

Why Iodine Is Added To Salt

Daven Hiskey
June 11, 2012

Iodine in a gaseous state. The fact that it is purple in this state is how it got its name, from the Greek for violet (iodes)

Today I found out why iodine is added to salt.

Iodine first began being added to salt commercially in the United States in 1924 by the Morton Salt Company at the request of the government. This was done as a response to the fact that there were certain regions in the U.S., such as around the Great Lakes and in the Pacific Northwest, where people weren’t getting enough iodine in their diets due to it not being prevalent in the soil in those regions. Among other problems, this caused many people to develop goiters (swelling of the thyroid gland, also sometimes spelled “goitre”).

About 90% of people who develop a goiter do so because of a lack of iodine in their diets, so the simple solution was to add iodine to something pretty much everyone consumes fairly regularly, namely salt. This practiced was not thought up by the U.S., but was copied from the Swiss who were adding iodine to salt at this time for the same reason.

(snip)

[SeaHawkFan]

The lady that cuts my hair suggested taking 2-3 drops of clear iodine per day to help with my somewhat thinning hair. Can get it at most nutrition stores.

It really makes a difference. I’m a 61 year-old man and always had pretty thick hair which stated thinning a bit 2-3 years ago. Started with the iodine 2-3 months ago and hair stylist said she can see a noticeable improvement already.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks blam...

I wasn’t aware of the initial reasoning. I did figure there was some sore of public need involved, and I suppose that might lead one to think of a governmental suggestion or request.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Plus folic acid --- prevents neural tube defect in preborn infants. But the mother has to start taking it before the pregnancy starts, i.e. her own blood level has to be up to a certain point, before she can convey enough, early enough, to the baby. The neural tube defect is caused by folic acid deficiency in the first few weeks of life usually before the woman knows she's pregnant.

[blam]

Here's probably more than you wanted to know (LOL):

Bonus Facts

* Iodine deficiency, besides being a leading cause of goiters in the world, is also currently the number one easily preventable cause of mental retardation in the world, due to the fact that, despite iodized salt being fairly prevalent, there are still about two billion people in the world today that are iodine deficient.

* Iodine was discovered by accident by the son of a saltpeter manufacturer, Bernard Courtois, in 1811. This was thanks partially to the Napoleonic Wars which resulted in saltpeter, for gunpowder, being in high demand (the Napoleonic Wars also helped give us canned food and cheap and easily made pencils, read more at the links). In the process of producing saltpeter, sodium carbonate was needed. In order to get the sodium carbonate, the saltpeter manufacturers would isolate it from seaweed by burning the seaweed and washing the ash with water. The waste from this process was then destroyed with sulfuric acid. At one point, Courtois accidentally added too much sulfuric acid to the waste and he observed a purple vapor, which crystallized on cold surfaces. He then gave samples of this substance to others to study in more detail as he suspected he’d discovered a new element. One person he gave the substance to was chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, who subsequently announced at the Imperial Institute of France that Coutois’ discovery was either a new element or was some compound of oxygen. Another scientist, Humphry Davy, also studied the substance and determined that it was indeed a new element.

* During the Cold War, it was a common practice for people to have iodine pills on hand in case of a nuclear strike. Among many other problems we’d all have during a nuclear war is the issue of radioactive iodine accumulating in our thyroids. In order to combat this accumulation, the idea was to take an iodine pill and give your thyroid so much iodine that it wouldn’t be able to absorb the radioactive iodine.

* The first confirmed people to figure out how to cure most goiters were the Chinese during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). During that time, they treated people with goiters by grinding up the thyroids of sheep and pigs to form a powder which was then consumed in a pill or in powdered form. These animal thyroids are very iodine rich, so this cure worked quite well, though they didn’t realize why at the time.

* The Pharmacopoeia of the Heavenly Husbandman also implies that as early as the 1st century BC the Chinese cured goiters with sargassum (a type of seaweed), which also contains significant quantities of iodine. Whether this dating is accurate or not, at least as far as recorded history goes, it appears that the Chinese were the first to come up with an effective cure for a goiter.

* Seafood typically contains relatively large amounts of iodine, so if you eat much seafood, you’re very likely getting more than enough iodine, without consuming salt laced with it.

* According to a study done at the University of Texas about 47% of major salt manufacturers no longer put enough iodine in their salt to meet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recommended levels. This problem is further exacerbated when salt is exposed to air or in humid regions. This will gradually lower the iodine content in the salt over time.

* Salt is typically iodized by spraying it with potassium iodate at a rate of 60 ml per one ton of salt (which comes to a little over $1 of potassium iodate per ton of salt).

* Salt with iodine added makes for a poor choice for curing, as the iodine in large enough quantities will add a certain amount of bitterness to the cured food.

* While pure salt doesn’t technically expire, when iodine is added, it does, having a shelf life of about five years on average, according to Morton Salt Company.

* Calcium silicate is typically added to table salt as an anti-caking agent, to keep the salt flowing smoothly, rather than clumped together as it absorbs moisture. Around .5% of the contents of a typical table salt container is calcium silicate.

* Iodine was originally named “iode” by Gay-Lussac from the Greek word for violet (iodes), due to the purple vapor observed which formed the crystals.

[USCG SimTech]

Actually, they should take a mixture of iodine and iodide in the form of Iodoral or Lugol’s

Potassium Iodide is cheap. I happen to buy 32.5 milligram tablets from Vitacost.com. I take 1/4 tablet twice a week. Monday and Thursday. 240 tablets for about $25. 480 weeks for $25!

Too much iodine is not a good thing. Pay attention to micrograms vs. milligrams. RDA is 150 micrograms. 1050 micrograms per week is RDA. I take 1050 in my daily multivitamin, AND the 1262 micrograms in the potassium iodide each week. Plenty.

77.7% of potassium iodide is iodine.

32.5 milligram tablets contain 2525.3 micrograms of iodide.

1/4 tablet contains 631 micrograms of iodine.

[Vendome]

That’s what’s great about sushi: I can get all of that from the kelp.

Yummm....

Think that’ll be dinner.

[Black Agnes]

Interesting.

[Black Agnes]

You’re very welcome. It helped an issue or two of mine as well. I take 25mg of Iodoral/day now and have none of those ‘issues’ anymore.

[spacejunkie2001]

“too much iodine” is subjective. Average dosage in Japan is 50 mg/day. I take 100mg/day. Many people I know take mor than that. You will excrete all excess iodine in the urine. You need much higher doses than the US RDA.

[Myrddin]

I take 2 x 12.5 mg Ioderal and 200 mcg selenium after reading through Brownstein’s Iodine book. My wife was put on increasing doses of Synthroid as her lab tests returned a 7.3 for thyroid where normal range is .25 to 2.5. She added 3 x 12.5 mg Ioderal plus 200 mcg selenium daily. The thyroid lab test returned a value of 1.09 after 6 months. Other labs improved too. Pocatello was hit with high I-131 on March 20, 2011 after the initial Fukusima earthquake March 11, 2011. I was concerned about the thyroid lab results. Lots of thyroid cancer in Pocatello.