Benefits of Iodine for Health

To Mark - Have you retaken the iodine loading test/bromide test again since starting iodine supplementation to determine that your system still has too much bromide and not enough iodine?

Also, Maggie, are you following the full iodine protocol? You should be taking Vitamin C, magnesium, selenium and unrefined sea salt (should be grey or pink in color). If you are having detox you can try taking 1/2 tsp. Of unrefined salt in 1/2 cup warm water and then follow with a full glass of water. You can repeat this every 30-45 minutes until urination. Before I started iodine I took lots of liver support. That might help you with detox issues.

Maggie, maybe it's better to back off on the Lugol's to a drop LESS for a few days and see if symptoms go away. Then add a drop every few days or even weeks, what's the rush? Slower seems safer to me.

Cramping, muscle pain is likely mineral deficiency, like magnessium, potassium, B vit..... It is so important when taking iodine, I. E. Lugol's, that you follow the rest of the protocol (supplements). Iodine is awesome for your body, but in order for detox(cleaning out) and saturation to work, your pathways have to be nourished as well. All these things work together. There is lots of info on this site about iodine therapies. Also, David Brownstein, a Dr., has many books about using Iodine to treat disease, and again the kicker to having much success, the support supplements so your body works harmoniously for a less symptomatic healing. be well.

Tincture of iodine is not to be taken internally, if that is what you are saying. I prefer to use Iodoral tablets so there is no taste, though they are a little more expensive.

You shouldn't take vitamin c and iodine at the same time. I add my iodine to milk (can't taste it), or to my chlorophyll solution.

Debbie, do you mean not take Vitamin C and iodine at the same time or not to take one at all if you are taking the other?

Hi Francisca, I read that you should take them but not at the same time... an hour or two apart should be okay.

Hi Susan... Lugol's has been shown through research to alleviate and correct hypothyroid in dosages between 12.5 mgs and 50 mgs (2 and 8 drops 5% Lugols respectively). If you use the 12.5mg dose, it will take a year before full body iodine sufficiency is attained. If you take the 50 mg dose -- full body iodine sufficiency will be attained in about 3 months. I am not talking just about thyroid sufficiency here -- I'm talking about the whole body's need for iodine.

See this link:

http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james37.htm

Nascent iodine, to keep it simple, is the electrochemical form of elemental iodine and is the same as Atomidine -- what Edgar Cayce recommended. Certain people have iodine sensitivities and lugols iodine can have harsh effects on the stomach in certain people due to the iodine content. But Nascent Iodine tends to be much kinder and is also a highly bioavailable and tasteless form of iodine/iodide solution. It is, however, more expensive.

See this link for dosages and use of Nascent Iodine:

http://iodine.imva.info/index.php/iodine-dosages/

Also it would be advisable to take Magnesium Gluconate(250 mgs twice a day), Vitamin C(1000 mgs 3 times a day), Selenium(200 mcg twice a day) and zinc(25-50 mgs once a week).

The Selenium and Magnesium aid in certain thyroid enzyme processes to convert and store the iodine in the thyroid and to convert the T4 to the more active T3 thyroid hormone form respectively. Vitamin C has been proven to improve and increase iodine/iodide transport and absorbtion in both the intestines and into the cells and organs. These absorbtion problems are usually caused by excess bromine in the body which is chelated and removed by the Vit C. Zinc helps to improve the immune system and also helps to increase the rate and efficiency of metabolism in the body.

See this link for the most current and up to date research on iodine supplemetation by the Iodine Project:

http://www.optimox.com/pics/Iodine/opt_Research_I.shtml

The need for daily Iodine:

http://www.iodine4health.com/overviews/uses/panam_uses.htm

Bill, If I stop taking iodized salt, what si the right amount to takr of Lugols? 3 drops a day as the bottle says? I don't want any complication of taking too much and getting the thyroid overactive. I think a friend did that and got anxious and racing heart. But from what I'm reading here, it seems 2 drops would take a year then I don't have much to worry about? What are the symptoms of too much and how can one alleviate them? Any antidote? Also does painting on the foot help much to get it into the body? I will consider this nascent if Lugol's uspets the stomach too much. Thank you!

Hi Sasha... Up until the Second WW years, and for over a hundred years before this period, lugols iodine was used for a huge number of chronic problems and diseases. Doses of 300 mgs - 2000 mgs or about 50 drops to 300 drops were administered by doctors on a daily basis for chronic forms of emphysema, asthma and bronchitis (iodine has a tendency to accumulate in both the lungs and breasts and its effect is highly protective). Iodine is well known to be anti-pathogenic, anti-mutagenic and anti-cancer as well. And larger dose lugols was a successful treatment because, amongst all its other wonderful healing properties, iodine acts as a safe antihistamine, germ killer, blood purifier etc etc.

I took about 16 drops of lugols (100 mgs) per day for a while just to see what effect this would have on me. It had very little effect on me and so I concluded that because of its safe and long history of use in larger dosages by the medical profession in the past, those that do have problems with iodine now must have other problems with excreting the iodine from the body. This problem is not caused by the iodine -- this is because of other medical problems within that individual.

Foot painting with iodine would probably be useful just to maintain the small thyroid iodine maintenance levels in a fairly healthy body, but would not be sufficient to satisfy the whole body's need for iodine/iodide or enough to help cure such as hypothyroid conditions. The body also needs approximately a 100 times more iodine than the thyroid does -- so you cannot guarantee that even small amounts such as 2 drops will ALL go to the thyroid -- because the body, excluding the thyroid's requirement, needs iodine too in much larger amounts. This is why you must take larger amounts of lugols to get quicker and more satisfactory results.

The absorbtion of iodine by foot-painting, from the research, seems to be very small -- only about 12% of the iodine applied to the skin is ever absorbed into the body. Here is the article and research: http://thyroid.about.com/library/derry/bl2a.htm

Sasha,

I know this is not your question but I would replace the iodized table salt with unrefined Sea Salt. Refined salt has lost the other trace minerals and has added anti caking agents that you do not want to take, like Aluminum. Get unrefined sea salt like Celtic or unrefined mined salt Like Real Salt. The Iodine content is low in iodized salt and for the reasons I stated is not a good idea. Get your iodine from kelp (or other sea weed), seafood or supplements like Lugols. You can buy ground and dried sea weed and sprinkle it on food like salt. It has a salty flavor but will not impact BP as much and is a food source of iodine. Available in most health food stores.

As another option, if your stomach is an issue, you can take Lugols sublingually. Place some under your tongue and hold it for a few minutes. I don't know how much you will absorbed but it will be better than 12% as reported in foot painting.

Dear Bill from San Fernando,

How much pumkin seeds I have to eat in order to get 25-50 mgs in my body ? You recommend taking zinc once a week along with the iodine. Zinc(25-50 mgs once a week).

This is super info everyone! I'm going to try the iodine more fearlessly within the constraints of what is recommended here. I am going to try to get more seaweed into my diet. I'll look for some made in US East coast, not sure how all the radiation in Japan will affect things. I bought unrefined sea salt from a coop but it was pure white. I don't think it was truly unrefined but so tricky these days with ignorant or plain out false labeling in the states. Thank you Bill and Jc. I was told there was a link of Bill's typical supplement day, I am going to search through and find that here.

Does anyone know the link for Bill's routine use of supplements? I remember seeing it somewhere here. I found an older one here but I know there was an updated post with chanca. There are so many supplements here and I want to narrow them down but not miss any important ones. If someone can post a link of Bill's updated post on how he uses the supplements, please post it here. I've searched pages and pages but can't find it. Thank you very much!

Http://www.earthclinic.com/cures/fungus2.html

Hi Sasha... My own health routine is quite variable, however I always make sure that I take certain supplements on a regular basis. I tend to use natural more bioavailable ingredients rather than synthetic nutrients, which also tend to be more expensive anyway. And I avoid multi-vitamin tablets because they cannot be gauranteed to be dissolved properly in the intestines and be absorbed into the body, they also contain synthetic nutrients as well as additives and the nutrient amounts contained in the multi-vit pill are usually very inadequate. I therefore regard multi-vits as useless.

Everybody has their own emphasis in regard to their own health regimen. My own emphasis is that, unless you eat food that is entirely organic and grown on healthy soils and you can afford to do this, then you must continually defend yourself against the bad effects of chemically processed foods. Therefore, I never stop defending my body from the effects of modern food now. I live in the Philippines and in the semi-provinces which is fairly primitive. Most of my shopping is done at the big primitive markets here. I eat no canned or processed food. But I have seen many Syngenta and Monsanto test farms in my rural area and I am not fooled, so the food where I live cannot be regarded as organic or pure or safe if you like -- therefore I defend against this and continually use a defensive and preventative approach. Most of the European and American retirees here of my age suffer from heart disease, diabetes or liver disease. This tells me a whole lot about their food diets and their bad habits. I therefore conclude that bad nutritional habits are the hardest thing in the world to change because we so love to eat sweet, acid things, we enjoy big steaks and beer etc. People look to convenience as a way out, popping a bucket full of medical pills daily to cure all their problems whilst still continuing their bad habits!! This is so crazy. I see this everywhere in the Philippines.

I always alkalize as per Ted's remedies -- I use the lemon/lime remedy on most days -- and also use the sodium bicarb and water remedy for the blood.

As my nutrient baseline I use dessicated liver tablets every day. It's not perfect but liver contains all the necessary vitamins, amino acids and minerals. William Kelly and Max Gerson used organic raw liver, but there were still problems with parasites in the raw liver.

I also take organic debittered Brewers Yeast for the CoQ10, the selenium, B vitamins etc. I sometimes vary this by eating 2-4 brazil nuts(raw, unsalted) on a daily basis. Brazil nuts also contain Selenium as well as high amounts of other amino acids such as glutamine, tryptopan and cysteine.

All my cooking is done in virgin coconut oil -- very cheap in the Philippines.

I also take fulvic/humic acid in concentrated ascorbate drops for all my mineral needs. 5-10 drops a day. Fulvic acid also removes pesticides and drug poisons from the body. There are many other numerous benefits to fulvic/humic acid as well as described on this site.

Then I addtionally take nutrients that are always lacking in our diets such as iodine as Lugols Iodine(2-4 drops a day at least as maintenance), Magnesium and Vitamin C(as ascorbate -- no calcium -- 3000 mgs a day -- more if ill). I take the magnesium as Mag Chloride or Mag Malate or Mag Citrate(250 mgs 2 X a day). I take the iodine about once every two days now because my iodine levels are now correct.

The above is my nutrient baseline if you like. Most people, as I see it, will need these nutrients because of the drugs, poisons in our own food, water supply and environment and because of nutrients they lack and the rest below is really my own regimen for my own individual needs.

Other nutrients that I take not on a regular basis are Chanca Piedra ("StoneBreaker") and heart vine (tinospora cordifolia) in a combined home-made decoction (taken on a once-a-month basis for a week only) to get rid of excess calcium, removes aches and pains, anti-inflamatory, highly protective of the liver and kidneys, removes gallstones and kidney stones, strongly anti-viral and can cure Hepatitis B in less than a month. I also drink green tea and eat raw cilantro in salads which, as Ted has advised, helps remove heavy metals and I also regularly take 10% Sodium Thiosulfate(8 drops a day in a glass of water) to remove heavy metals and to remove chlorine from my body. I also take Borax in water regularly to remove the fluorine fom my body and as a mycoplasma preventative.

Another alternative liver-protective protocol I sometimes use is Dr Foster's Triple Anti-oxidant Therapy which consists of taking Selenium (200 mcg twice a day), Alpha Lipoic Acid(300 mgs twice a day) and Milk Thistle (1000 mgs twice a day) on a daily basis. This also promotes Glutatione production in the body -- a protective super anti-oxidant -- and is very beneficial to the kidneys, liver and intestines.

As you have probably noticed, I also tend to favour and emphasize protection of the liver, kidneys and intestines in my own regimen in order to help create a healthier body terrain. This helps to purify the blood in order to deliver nutrients and remove waste to and from the cells and organs respectively in the correct way. And by doing this, the immune system, the excretory system, endocrine system, body organs and many other body parameters are also correctly maintained in a healthier state. This therefore makes all my body defenses stronger against illness and pathogens.

I also eat in a particular way. I hesitate to call it a diet -- this infers that one day you will come off the diet. This way of eating is really an elimination diet which is defined elsewhere on earthclinic but is no less important to your health.

All in all I have to admit that my nutrient regimen, apart from my nutrient baseline, is not a rigid thing. It has become intuitive to me, so that my health regimen is governed more by an awareness of how I'm feeling right now rather than that I must religiously take a certain nutrient routinely forever. To be honest about it, I think this is the best approach but I know this can be confusing to people. But there is rarely such thing as the magic bullet cure-all. The real trick is to educate yourself, validate all information assiduously, trust your own judgement and take responsibilty for your own health. And this is really all about educating yourself and taking your own health very seriously. Despite all that has been said about the hopelessness of allopathic medicies -- it helps to remember this one truth -- that the medical profession is not a performance related or results orientated profession. To illustrate, here are a few quotes from doctors:

"I find medicine is the best of all trades because whether you do any good or not you still get your money." (Moliere: "A Physician in Spite of Himself, " 1664)

"If we doctors threw all our medicines into the sea, it would be that much better for our Patients and that much worse for the Fishes." Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendel Holmes, MD

The above really represents my own regular protocols. But I also keep Lysine, aspirin, methylene blue, hydrogen peroxide etc in emergency reserve in case of sudden illness or further problems.

Thank you Bill this is a selfless priceless wealth of info! This in a way can sum up the entire website for general health and would make a great sticky for everyone to find easily. Other than, many of the supplements I need to order (and some from abroad) I hope there is no irradiating of my mail, Thank you!

Yikes Bill and Sasha! Thats a lot of things 2 take in your daily routine!

1 Can they all be taken at the same time in the morning or night?

2 You get vitamin D from the sun & omega 3 from fresh fish & u take zinc when sick?

3 What about vitamin A? B? B3? B12? E? Chlorophyll?

4 You don't take molasses bc you're a guy? Molasses helps the woman's problem and grey hair. What helps you keep your hair color? If it isn't cull color maybe consider adding the molasses.

Can't wait to read your answers! Good stuff here! Thanks!!!

This is for "Bill from San Fernando, Philippines" - How do we deal if supplements are irradiated?"

Read this - "If you want vitamins and nutritional supplements that are free of pesticides and have not been irradiated or fumigated, you must test every incoming batch today, as pesticides, irradiation, and fumigation are all widespread. If the company goes outside the United States to source ingredients, you need to know that up to 70% of raw materials coming into the United States today for vitamins and nutritional supplements are irradiated, creating toxic radiation byproducts. " Are we doomed if we can't grow organic products in good quality soils? -WORRIED

Dessicated Liver has A, B's, C, D, E and is said to be superior to Chlorophyll (body can break down the proteins meat source better than plant source). It has lots of minerals and amino acids. Bill takes the DL with meals. Alkalizing is done on an empty stomach. Bill will have to let you know if its ok to mix the other things with the alkalizing.

https://www.earthclinic.com/supplements/desiccated-liver.html

Hi Wendy... The simple answer to your question about dealing with irradiated herbs is that you can't really deal with it because there is now a European-wide law -- Codex Alimentaruis -- that says that all herbal, mineral and vitamin alternative and nutritional health products in Europe are to be managed completely by the the allopathic medical fraternity in terms of their safety, dosages etc. But make no mistake, this is just an excuse for the big pharmaceuticals to wipe-out their main alternative medicine competition in Europe by discreetly adding unhelpful additives, irradiating, thus ruining herb quality and minimizing the RDA to useless and ineffective dosages. America will probably follow suit soon.

Here's another trick Codex is playing that you should also be aware of -- I bought some European Magnesium Malate recently all packaged nicely in capsule form. Capsules should contain pure loose powder and when I squeeze tested the capsule -- it was indeed powder -- and each capsule contained 400 mgs of Magnesium and 200 mgs of Malic Acid. However, the capsule itself was very large -- at least 1000 mgs. So what was the other unknown 400 mgs? Then I read the additives on the label: Stearic Acid. This substance is only ever used to help form tablets. So did my capsule also contain 400 mgs of Stearic Acid which I don't want?

The only real alternative you have is to either buy your herbs from sources outside Europe on the internet from gauranteed organic herbal distributors like Raintree Nutrition which might be quite expensive or to simply grow them yourself if you can.

In the Philippines I'm very lucky, I grow and prepare all sorts of herbs in the simplest ways and I know they are natural and organic because I grow them in my own small garden. And I've always found my own herbs to be very effective and useful. I tend not to use dried store bought herbs very much now.

Hi Bill, I hope you are well..... Great that you can grow your own herbs, I try to do that as well but I am a beginner! How do you do to dry them? I haven't tried yet because I am afraid of doing it badly and therefore get fungus and other stuff which wouldn't be very good for the health. We are going to move to the countryside in a while and we intend to have a nice vegetable /herb garden there. But even here, countryside surrounded by the developed world we already manage to grow a few things.

On a different level here is a question I posted a little while ago but which I don't think you saw: I am now getting into the Anti-Candida diet in order to try to cure my dry eyes and mouth (especially during the night, it is a nightmare and I don't have Sjogren's). You seem to feel that molasses is not a problem but it is sugar..... I would like to take it to try to contain my grey hair but if it is not good in the fight against Candida I won't do it. Right now my priority are my eyes and my mouth! The problem with the diet is that there are so many different opinions. Could you maybe send me a link to your diet advice? I am basing myself in a book called Beat Candida through diet.

It's very easy to grow herbs. I have some in the kitchen window and the rest in a little garden patch. It's approaching harvest time for the outdoor herbs. You can dry them by hanging upside down in a cool space or use a food dehydrator.

I would like to grow some indoor cilantro. I have no outdoor land (urban apartment, here). For the heavy metal detox effects plus it is very popular in the Tex Mex cooking here. Does cilantro grow easily and quickly? Would love to hear from anyone who has experience with this please.

For Bill of San Fernando, Philippines. Is there Lugols solution, Fulvic/Humic acid in ascorbate drops, disscated liver that I can buy in the Philippines. What do you call the herbs in Tagalog that you planted. I go home to the Philippines every year for 4 months. Just wondering if I should buy these things here. Thank you.

Hi Lorna... The herbs that I use that grow in the Philippines are:

English names____________________Tagalog names

Chanca Piedra(Phylanthus niruri).......Sampa-sampalukan

Heart Vine(Tinospora cordifolia)........Makabuhay

Tumeric root.................................. Luyang dilaw

Neem leaves(Azadirachta indica).......Nim

Bashful Mimosa(Mimosa pudica)....... Makahiya

These are some of my favourite herbs that I use in the Philippines. And what's more they are all free -- they grow profusely everywhere in the Philippine lowlands. I use Chanca piedra, Heart Vine, Tumeric and Neem leaves usually about once every month to detox the blood. These herbs are hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, hypotensive, mildly diuretic, detoxing, anti-viral, ant-bacterial, ant-fungal and essentially they act to help protect the intestines, liver and kidneys. When this is assured then you will have pure and healthy blood. My way is always preventative -- continually protect and detox the nutritional and excretory pathways in the body and this will contribute greatly towards your own health. Then all you have to worry about is correct diet -- but that's a whole different story!!

You can also find many of these herbs near the old church at Quiapao Market in Quezon City. These herbs are also very easy to grow in your garden.

Hi Lorna... I forgot to answer your other questions.

You can buy Quantumin Plus Fulvic/Humic drops in the Philippines. This is fairly cheap -- I can buy the 35 ml bottle for about 400 pesos now from a private seller in Maharlika Market in Baguio -- and this costs considerably less than similar drops made in America.

These Quantumin drops consist of a Fulvic/Humic/Zeolite mix in alkaline solution which also contains all the major electrolyte minerals for the body. Unfortunately Quantumin is only sold in the Philippines and is normally sold from small private enterprises and not from the malls. So just get a friend in the Philippines to find a franchise seller in your area before you come to the Philippines.

Dessicated liver can be easily bought at Healthy Options store outlets in all the major SM Malls like Megamall or Asia Mall in Manila. Dessicated Liver is also widely sold at muscle weight training shops in America and is fairly cheap.

I get mine from a fish store that sells products for salt water aquariums. Can't find it at a pharmacy.

Hi Missm... A 5% Aqueous Solution of Iodine(ASI) simply means a solution of iodine and iodide in water and may be regarded as equivalent to 5% Lugols Iodine. The reason for this difference is that ASI is the British naming equivalent or standard for Lugol's Iodine and obviously Australia, being part of the British Commonwelth, has adopted the same naming standards as UK. Don't ask me why the British do this(I'm a Brit) as it leads to alot of confusion. When I bought my own current stock of lugol's iodine in Thailand, this was also called an Aqueous Solution of Iodine. Notably, on my own Thai bottles of aqueous iodine, there is no reference at all to iodine being a poison.

As regards putting POISON on a bottle of ASI or Lugol's bought in Australia, I am somewhat amused by this. If you check the Material Safety Data Sheet(MSDS) for Lugol's Iodine then you will see that the oral LD50(Lethal Median Dose) is 14000 mgs/kgm for a rat. The MSDS and LD50(oral, rat) for ordinary table salt is 3000 mgs/kgm. This simply means that ordinary table salt is over 4 times more toxic than lugol's iodine. The MSDS is the biochemist's bible on toxicity and handling for any drug or chemical.

As far as I am concerned, Lugol's Iodine is very body friendly. As an experiment, I took between 50 mgs and 100 mgs of lugols orally(that's 400 to 800 times more than the RDA for iodine) for a couple of weeks just to see what would happen. I had no terrible effects. If you have healthy kidneys then there will not be any ill effects from doing this.

Here is an article on the reasons why people fear iodine -- referred to as Iodophobia in this article. This research article explains why people have so much fear about taking Lugol's iodine orally. It's all about propaganda from the drugs companies because lugol's iodine was "too cheap, useful and successful" and intererred with their drugs sales. So they simply created fear of iodine or iodophobia to eliminate the iodine competition.

Here is the most current research on Lugol's Iodine and correct dosages by The Iodine Project. The current RDA for iodine is about 125 MICROgrams per day. The Iodine Project recommends a maintenance dose of at least 12.5 MILLIgrams per day(2 drops of 5% lugol's iodine) -- which is 100 times more than the RDA. Women generally need higher doses of iodine than men because women's iodine requirements for their breasts and sexual organs are far greater.

Hey Bev, Interesting enough that I just read your post and that you found the iodine at an aquarium shop. I was in a pet store last week buying anti algae med and low and behold there was a bottle of iodine sitting there on the shelf! Didn't have time to look at it closely but I did wonder if it was equiv to the Lugol's brand. Is what you have equiv?

Bill, Thank you so very very much for your information - you are a legend :)

I was going to ask further questions but it seems that you have answered them in your reply.

Thank you Bill and earthclinic, Keep up the great work

Hi Bill - The Lugol's Solution (5%) I have here in Canada also has a POISON label, plus the skull and crossbones and what to do for an antidote. When I bought it at London Drugs, the pharmacist told me not to ingest it. Yeah, right... I take two drops daily in juice or water. Thanks for the explanation!

Hey Andy; Anything marine fish can live in should be a good Iodine.

Hi Missm,

You should be able to get Lugol's from a compounding chemist, I know there is one up here in the Newcastle area that sells it.

Hi Bill from San Fernando, Philippines - thanks for all of the information you posted, I loved reading it :)

Hello, I purchased a bottle of Lugol's Solution Aqueous Iodine Oral Solution. It is made by in West Africa. It does not state the percentage but it gives the following information.

50ml = Total Quantity.
Total iodine per ml = 130mg
Dose: 0.1 to 0.3 ml three times daily.
Directions: the recommended dose should be diluted well with 150ml water or milk.

Can someone please advise me on what the percentage is and if the dose above is correct. Thank you for a great site and all the wonderful advice.

Carl

Hi Carl... The Iodine that you have is quite a high strength form.

1 ml contains 130 mgs

Therefore 1000ml(or 1 litre) will contain 130 X 1000 mgs or 130, 000 mgs = 130 grams

So 1 litre of your iodine solution contains 130 grams of iodine.

Iodine % Strength Calculation:

130/1000 X 100 = 13%

So your bottle is 13% lugols iodine strength.

Therefore the dosage per drop(from a dropper) of your lugols solution will be approximately equal to 16.25 mgs per drop of solution. See this link for strength to drop conversions.

As an example -- to achieve a 50 mgs daily dose of your iodine, you would only need approx 3 drops of your solution per day(3 X 16. 25 = 48. 75 mgs). I would simply take one drop of your lugols in a glass of water, spread out at different times, 3 times a day.

If the above single drop strength is too strong or harsh for you, then just dilute your iodine solution with an equal volume or amount of distilled water as the iodine solution and this will halve the strength to approx 6.5 % strength which is equivalent to about 8 mgs of iodine per drop which would certainly be less harsh and more manageable for you.

Hi Bill, thank you very much for the feed back. I should have waited a bit. I used the dropper supplied and filled it to the 0.3 ml which is in fact quite a few drops. I used it yesterday three times. I will follow your advise and go to the one drop three times a day.

I am amased at the disinformation that has been around for so long. http://www.optimox.com/pics/Iodine/IOD-04/IOD_04.html I can see a law suit coming the same as what happened to the tobacco companies maybe?

I have a 7 year old daughter and a 4 year old boy. I can not honestly say that there is any thing wrong with them behaviourly or other wise. I would like to supplement them with iodine though as a preventive. Can you please advise a dosage. Our daughter has ocasional tonsil stones. I asked her yesterday to gargle with a two drop solution in about 100ml drinking water. This morning two pieces came out. She garled again and a large piece came out. She is a very happy little one now. Maybe the Iodine kills of the bacteria that makes the stones stick (Holding on)to the tonsils?

Thanks again and any advise will be highly valued.

Peace to all. Carl

Hi Carl... Your children should be able to supplement iodine safely. Apart from iodine's many beneficial and protective effects, there is also a large body of research evidence which shows and efectively proves that children who supplement daily doses of iodine are able to improve their IQ and intelligence. See these links:

http://tvnz.co.nz/health-news/iodine-deficiency-stunts-intelligence-2973967

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15734706

Some more research to help you:

http://iodine.imva.info/index.php/iodine-dosages/

For children, one of the best forms of iodine to supplement is Nascent Iodine because it is tasteless and so easy to take. Nascent Iodine is also very safe and will not cause stomach upsets at larger dose becsause it is just in the triiodide form. This form is the most body-friendly and is the most bioavailable form for the body. Lugol's contains potassium iodide, molecular iodine and the triiodide form. The molecular iodine content is what can cause nausea and other stomach problems for some people at higher dosage. And although triiodide is highly useful it is not as useful as the lugol's form because, for instance, nascent iodine will not be able to chelate and remove heavy metals from the body like lugol's iodine can and this is because lugols contains all three forms of iodine -- potassium iodide, molecular iodine and triiodide whereas nascent iodine only contains the triiodide form.

Normally a maintanence dose for lugol's iodine of 12. 5 mgs is given for an adult weighing 150 lbs. So if you child weighs say 40 lbs then the dosage for the child should be 40/150 X 12. 5 = 3. 33 mgs per day.

Dr Guy Abraham from the Iodine Project has spent much effort in completely disproving the iodophobia caused by the Wolf-Chaikoff Report(1948), which so wrongly concluded that supplementing daily with more than 2 mgs of iodine was bad for the thyroid and therefore poisonous to humans. The W-C Report was a particularly poor piece of biased research done on rats. This research, that all modern doctors ultimately believe to be true and proven, was never ever confirmed on human subjects. This is also a very good example of what I call "steered" or "spoiler" research.

Much of Dr Abraham's effort has been spent just confirming lugol iodine's long and wide historic use in medicine, at higher dosages, before WW2. The doctor's of this pre-war period even said that if they didn't know what was wrong with their patient, they would just recommend higher dose iodine and, whatever it did, it would do something good. Dr Abraham's and his team also demographically researched iodine wrt diet and disease -- and they found that the Japanese, who are an extremely healthy population, ate large amounts of kelp and seaweed which contains high amounts of iodine. This is the reason why the Japanese have such low rates of lung, prostate, breast and uterine cancer.

The post WW2 period was when the drugs companies eventually came into their own and, I believe, was the time when they started to switch from using natural cure methods -- such as iodine or natural thyroid to resolve medical problems -- to only producing and using their synthetic drugs that had to have a product patent. The only possible acceptable motive for the drugs companies switching direction in this way can only be for greater profit reasons. This is also further illustrated in modern times by how much control and power the drugs companies have gained over the law itself -- a very good example here is Codex Alimentarius. CA enabled the drugs companies to gain complete control over the laws and standards for producing herbs and nutrients used for nutritional and alternative medical purposes. So not only will herbs, minerals and vitamins now be produced chemically with unneccesary fillers and additves but they will also be sold at higher prices and at insignificant and ineffective RDA dosages as well. This law is truly a game changer for our health because it effectively banishes the alternative medicine opposition at one stroke such that the field has now become completely clear for the drugs companies to do whatever they like in making us believe that they are the only medical experts for our ailments.

In America, the drugs companies have remarkable power over the law now. A certain US Texas Governor, who also ran for the Republican nomination, passed a state law recently making it compulsory and mandatory for all teenager girls in Texas to have gardasil vaccinations against HPV. The awful offence here is that all personal choice has been completely ignored, eliminated and removed and simple, corrupt dictatorship has been allowed to creep in -- via the vast and corrupting state government influence from the drugs cartels. So, if this sort of dictatorship is allowed now then it is only a easy short hop until the federal government further gives less and less medical choice to its citizens.

As far as I am able to ascertain, the recent poor response to the H1N1 outbreak and Obamacare are further examples of this spreading medical dictatorship, which is so safely protected by American law as well as International law now. But these responses and government policies, which really rely on easy but corrupt dictatorship with no choices whatsoever, have done very little to improve the life of American citizens and only ever seem to work to further increase the power and the vast profits of the drugs companies.

Hi Carl... It really doesn't surprise me at all that iodine gargling by your young daughter dislodged the tonsil stones. These tonsil stones will be infested with bacteria and perhaps even yeast or fungus. Iodine kills most pathogens in about 30 seconds. Perhaps more important -- iodine also acts to dislodge and prevent attachement of pathogens to host cell sites (like tonsils). Iodine is also useful for dislodging biofilms containing large colonies of pathogens. Another little known characteristic of supplementing iodine in higher dose is that it acts as a safe anti-histamine -- preventing both pain and inflammation in the body. And I've just read another piece of interesting research that confirms that supplementing smaller amounts of iodine with food helps to prevent food sensitivity reactions and allergic reaction because when the iodine coats the offending allergy-causing protein, it prevents or greatly reduces the allergic histamine-producing reaction.

I am still continuously surprised and astonished at iodine's potential health benefits and I am convinced that there is still much to be discovered on the benefits of iodine.

I took my first dose of Lugol's Iodine 2% this morning. 4 drops is a glass of water while eating breakfast. Immediate head rush, nausea and dizziness. It's been over an hour now and it's still going on along with diarrhea. Is this normal? I've read many of the posts and I don't see anyone else having this happen. Your feedback would be so appreciated.

My opinion differs from others' on this point. Following Fukushema in Japan, I dilligently and extensively searched for how to protect my family from radiation, and to guard the thymus gland with iodine/ iodide. I began taking the iodine internally, but had read that it was not good to take internally, as could stop up the flow of urine. Well, quite soon, this happened, that I could not pee. So I stopped! I then began to do it only through my skin, the largest organ of the body. I do this every day, as described in another post, about five drops per day rubbed into my leg, where the body only absorbs what it truly needs of this neccesary nutrient. This has caused me no problems at all, however, one should be certain of not having an iodine allergy, first. If you have used iodized salt in the past-- standard "Mortons iodized salt" of years gone by-- one should be fine. Hope that helps!

P.S. (If you get strong reactions with anything you are trying yourself, listen to your body, and your own "knowing. " Likely, you are starting too fast, generally, and ought to back down, or possibly ought to question what you are doing, alltogether. Always, better to be safe than sorry. Practice what the medical field so often does not, that being, "First do no harm. " You are party to "The Great Physician. " Listen. ) --T.

Maddy, always start something new SMALL, start with ONE drop first.

Try adding 3-4 drops to coffee or tea, or even juice or soup. You wont get the "salty" taste, in fact you will barely taste it if at all. I put it in my tea all the time, and have no problems. In water? blech :)

Lugols because it contains Iodine and Iodide..... SSKI is just Iodide no iodine. Many people do not get very good results with just one form of iodine. The iodide is almost idiot proof and that is why so many go with that but if you follow the directions for Lugols from various sources it is hard to go wrong! Too few people understand basic chemistry or physiology of the body ie chemistry of the body.... SO they make contradictory statements and get things all mixed up. Their are a few people with Hishymoto's(sp) Disease that can not tolerate Iodine at all but seem to do ok with Iodide. It is stupid to make fearful statements based on a small subset that represents. 000000001% of the earths population..... THey do this with sodium intake as well.... SOmething like 1 out of 1000 people with hypertension have sodium sensitive hypertension so why make the other 999 people give up salt if it is not going to improve their condition or hurt them? I know most salt is processedin amanner not good for us but that is another issue and not the salts falt. Healthy forms of sodium are very good for you. My point is their are a lot of half truths floating around the medical field and internet. I actually ignore anyone that starts out a post with Caution or Warning because they are fear mongers and I have no time for fear. No decision should ever be based or made from a point of fear!