Thyroid Cancer & Iodine
Medical ignorance is epidemic and nowhere is this more evident than in how contemporary medicine views and treats thyroid cancer. Overtreatment of thyroid cancer with radioactive iodine is rampant even though there is substantial uncertainty about the indications for radioactive iodine for thyroid cancer. Radioactive iodine absorbed by the thyroid can injure the gland.
There was a large increase in the proportion of thyroid cancer patients receiving radioactive iodine between 1990 and 2008 even though radioactive iodine is a cause of thyroid cancer. Between 1990 and 2008, the percentage of patients treated with radioactive iodine climbed from 40 to 56 percent, and hospitals varied widely in their use of iodine. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, there are more than 40,000 new cases of thyroid cancer every year in the U.S.—a number that’s been climbing steadily.
The downsides of radioactive iodine are clear: the therapy saps patients’ energy and ups their risk of developing new cancers down the road, and it costs thousands of dollars. “There are a lot of patients who are receiving radioactive iodine for what is considered low-risk tumors,” said Dr. David J. Sher, a cancer expert at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “These patients generally have a superb prognosis without radioactive iodine.”
How senseless can oncologists get?
Pretty senseless! The first thing you see on many different medical sites is the following medical ignorance—“The Cause of Thyroid Cancer is Unknown.” This is really not true but they say it is true to hide decades of deliberate movement away from the vital importance of iodine, not only for thyroid health but for general health as well. Because non-radioactive iodine acts to block radioactive iodine from being taken into the thyroid gland, it can help protect the thyroid gland from injury.
Nobody in contemporary medicine wants to step out and just say it as it is—that iodine deficiency causes thyroid cancer. Some sites to their credit do say that certain risk factors for thyroid cancer include:
- A history of thyroid disease (iodine deficiency)
- Exposure to radiation, especially in childhood
- An inherited abnormal gene or a bowel condition called FAP
- Having low iodine levels
- Goiter (iodine deficiency)
The iodine deficiency we get is partly a result of toxicity
from fluoride
and bromine. Bread has ten times more
bromine in it than it used to
and the sources of fluorine
are nearly ubiquitous today. So who does not
need iodine?
I find that nearly everyone needs more than they are getting.
Dr. Garry F. Gordon
As far back as the early 1920s, L. Goldemberg showed that fluoride was displacing iodine, rendering the community hypothyroid from iodine deficiency. The thyroid-stimulating hormone output from the pituitary gland is inhibited by fluoride, thus reducing output of thyroid hormones. Fluoride competes for the receptor sites on the thyroid gland and so do mercury and bromide. This contamination might also invite an autoimmune response. Western medical science has allowed itself to be totally corrupted by its pharmaceutical masters and cannot even bring itself to acknowledge fluoride and bromide as thyroid disrupters and causes of certain thyroid cancers.
Iodine Deficiencies
People who have low iodine levels are more likely to get thyroid cancer than those who do not. Low iodine levels also cause goiter (an enlarged thyroid) and this increases the chance of developing thyroid cancer. If there are low levels of iodine in the soil where you live, there may be low levels in your drinking water and any local milk, meat or vegetables you buy. Smoking can also lower iodine levels. Pregnancy increases the body’s demands for iodine.
If certain people had their way they would now take iodine out of salt, which is the only way the masses of humanity have access to supplemental iodine even though the dosages provided are far too low to protect the thyroid from the onslaught of chemical and heavy metal contamination. It is just because of the vast contamination affecting everyone that the thyroid needs to be protected with increased levels of iodine.
Doctors who would leave the population exposed to worsening iodine deficiencies are playing a cruel game. Iodine is extremely important since the cells need it to regulate their metabolism. Without it, people are known to suffer from swollen glands in the throat, thyroid diseases, increased fluoride toxicity, decreased fertility rates, increased infant mortality rates, and (with severe deficiency) mental retardation. It has been theorized that iodine deficiency is one causal factor of ADHD in babies of iodine-deficient mothers.
Iodine deficiency slows all the systems of the body: The digestive system becomes sluggish, nails grow more slowly, skin and hair become dry and dull, tendon reflexes stiffen, sensitivity to cold increases, and the pulse slows. Iodine helps form who we are to such an extent that a deficiency can lead to a dulling of the personality, deterioration of attention and memory, and an increase in irritability due to fatigue and extreme apathy. “The group we are most concerned about is pregnant women, who need more iodine anyway,” says Dr. Robert Utiger, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “There is the possibility of irreversible damage to the fetus if the mother is deficient,” Utiger adds.
When faced with a radioactive cloud, as is everyone in the northern hemisphere thanks to Fukushima, it is absolutely imperative that we take iodine, whatever iodine you can get your hands on. If the only iodine available is topical iodine that is not suitable for oral use then you should paint your body and your children’s bodies with it. Few people have ready access to the Nascent iodine so will not enjoy its ease of application in repeated measured dosages that are more gentle to the system, thus yielding fewer side effects. Because Nascent is in the atomic form (I¹), it is absorbed faster and that can also be advantageous in emergency situations when fighting infections with it. Its only downside is the expense of having to use so much of it, so for those who cannot afford it and cannot get their hands on it, I recommend Lugol’s, which has been around and used heavily for 150 years.
Dr. Brownstein writes, “If there is enough inorganic, non-radioactive iodine in our bodies, the radioactive fallout has nowhere to bind in our bodies. It will pass through us, leaving our bodies unharmed. It is important to ensure that we have adequate iodine levels before this fallout hits.”
Dr. Michael B. Schachter says, “The treatment dose when a person is iodine insufficient is generally between 12.5 mg and 50 mg daily. Preliminary research indicates that if a person is iodine insufficient, it takes about three months to become iodine sufficient while ingesting a dosage of 50 mg of iodine daily and a year to achieve that while ingesting a dosage of 12.5 mg of iodine daily.
Because of the continuing radiation, it behooves us to start taking the highest dosages tolerable to protect not only our thyroids but also all the glandular tissues as well. Iodine protects the thyroid, breasts, prostate and ovary glands as well as other tissues in the body from radioactive iodine whether used by mad doctors or ingested from the environment.
If you had your thyroid removed due to thyroid cancer, can you take iodine supplements?
Phyllis,
Many other organs in the body need and utilize iodine in small amounts besides the thyroid, for example the ovaries. You can use some iodine supplements but with caution.
I have 2 nodules in the thyroid, I not have cancer, and hormones are controlled. What do to get the thyroid nodules, making them disappear, when I have to do surgery? I do not take medicine. I’m not a smoker, do not drink alcohol nor coffee.
Dear Eloina,
You should be using Dr. Sircus” protocol. You should be intaking iodine daily. Please see his information on iodine, it is valuable even if there is no cancer present. http://iodine.imva.info/index.php/about/ There is a great deal of information there and in the book Iodine: Bringing Back The Universal Medicine
tenho 2 nodulos na tireoide, não cancer, e hormonios controlados. O que fazer para tirar os nodulos? Não tomo remedios. Não fumante, não bebo alcool e nem cafe.
Hi I have hashimoto disease, but my t3 and t 4 are normal. I was advised to not take iodine, why? Could you explain this to me….
Thank you!
Denice
Hi Denice,
There are many doctors who don’t believe in iodine use with Hashimoto’s disease. ..Some interesting studies in animals have shown that a connection between iodine intake and selenium intake have a lot to do with who is affected adversely if they have Hashimotos and supplement iodine, and those who are nnot affected adversely by iodine It appears adequate selenium intake and balance protects those with Hashimotos from adverse reactions to iodine. Here is an excerpt from one article explaining this.
See the full atricle for more detailed information.
Excerpt:
Excess iodine intake can cause an autoimmune thyroiditis that bears all the characteristics of Hashimoto’s. However, in animal studies this occurs only if selenium is deficient or in excess. Similarly, in animal studies very high iodine intake can exacerbate a pre-existing autoimmune thyroiditis, but only if selenium is deficient or in excess.
With optimal selenium status, thyroid follicles are healthy, goiter is eliminated, and autoimmune markers like Th1/Th2 ratio and CD4+/CD8+ ratio are normalized over a wide range of iodine intake. It seems that optimizing selenium intake provides powerful protection against autoimmune thyroid disease, and provides tolerance of a wide range of iodine intakes.
http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=3621
Please be aware that other doctors who research and use high dose iodine treatment do successfully use iodine in Hashimotos….like David Bernstein, George Flechas and Dr. David Derry.
Claudia French
IMVA staff
Hi Joel,
,,,,. I’ve been feeling fine with 2 drops of this + sun and 1g vit D ……
is that a typo ~ 1g vit D ? could you check and reply with both the amount and the indentity of the Vit D ie vit D2 or vit D3 ?
Bob
I’m in Hawaii, taking iodine daily preventively, alternating one day of LEF’s potassium iodide tabs (130 mg) with one day of Atomidine, 2 drops.
I don’t see anything mentioning Atomidine. It’s labeled as iodine trichloride providing 600mcg per drop, which is one ‘serving’, to be taken in the morning. I’ve been feeling fine with 2 drops of this + sun and 1g vit D and other supplements. I’ve seen some authors suggest up to 12mg/day.
I’d like to hear any further information about Atomidine if you have any. Thank you. Wikipedia is interesting but who knows what’s been changed and for what reason…
I’m a little ambivalent about this regimen, not knowing
(a) whether I was initially iodine deficient, nor
(b) how much radioactive iodine are we actually receiving where I live. It’s on the southwest dry side of the island, hence very little rain, which would carry the most concentrated fallout I assume. There’s supposedly a monitoring station here but I’ve yet to find a public way to access it’s readings.
The initial computergraphics on I think dutchsinse site showed very little iodine drifting southward all the way to the Hawaiian islands. But a more current computergraphic has caesium curling all over Hawaii as well as the west and northwest coast.
Joel,
We don’t know a lot about Atomodine, except that it is more caustic to the skin than nascent iodine. Nascent is gentler though it only ocntains 400 mch per drop in the 2% solution.
Claudia French
IMVA staff
how do you know if you’re deficient?
If you put some cheep iodine on your skin at night, maybe a size of a coin, and if the stain will be not visible, and gone by morning, you could be iodine deficient.
But maybe Dr Mark will answer this better.
Gilgamesh,
Thank you, your explanation is just fine!
I would only add that anyone can also get an iodine test from Dr. David Brownstein. Its more expensive and called the Iodine loading test. You take a 50 mg. Iodine tablet in the morining then the amounts of iodine excreted in the urine are measured throughout the next 234 hours. I beleive the less you excrete, the more deficient you are.
Claudia French
IMVA
Liz,
See our iodine site here on deficiency….this is a stub from the book. there is more info in the book. http://iodine.imva.info/
Basically you can either be tested fir iodine deficiency by one of the iodine doctors like David Brownstein, or you can try the patch test, which some people dont believe is an accurate indicator. Paint a patch of iodine on your inner forearm and if this patch is no longer visible after 18-24 hours, you are probably iodine deficient, as the body absorbed the iodine from your skin. If its still visible, you probably have a good level of iodine in your body.
Claudia French
IMVA staff
Thank you Dr. Sircus for all your informative articles.
But would you still recommend nascent iodine for someone who has a goiter from Grave’s disease and HYPERthyroidism (overactive thyroid)?
Hi Katie,
Yes, Iodine can be beneficial in Hyperthyroidism and Graves Disease as it can help stabilize the thyroid gland’s production of thyroid hormone….(too much is produced in hyperthyroidism)
But you should do so under the care of a qualified health care practitioner.
Always appreciate information that can be trusted. I will record the daily
dosage range for iodine. Best regards, Joyce
Joyce, What exactly are those dosages? I am still very confused when it comes to converting dosages for Nascent.