Unfortunately, your body produces no iodine of its own. Your diet probably doesn’t provide enough. And, you lose massive amounts of iodine daily through urination.

Without a sufficient amount of the “raw material”, iodine, your thyroid can’t produce enough thyroid hormones – T4 and T3 – for your body to function properly.

1. There is almost no iodine in most foods.
2. The recent campaign to limit salt intake to control high blood pressure means that many older patients aren’t getting even the small amount of iodine found in iodinized salt.
3. The American diet is full of chemical additives and foods that prevent your body from absorbing iodine. The most prominent iodine blockers are chlorine, fluoride, bromine, soy and soy products.

Unfortunately, soy flour is now used as an additive in nearly all commercially baked goods in the U.S., even in those marked as “organic”. That means that, even when iodine is added to products such as bread, the soy flour can neutralize the effect of even that little iodine!

Rather than flood your body with synthetic or animal-based thyroid hormones, it may be more effective to give your thyroid the extra iodine it needs to produce its own thyroid hormones. The Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board recommends between 150 mcg to 1,000 mcg of iodine daily.

1. Unexplained weight gain
2. Fatigue
3. Aches and pains
4. Depression, memory loss and confusion
5. Dry, flaky skin
6. Swelling of the lower legs and the ankles
7. Cold, numb, and painful extremities
8. Low sexual desire and energy
9. Menstrual problems