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Australia is adding iodine to their bread

kangarooOn the heels of an excellent Thyroid Patient STTM Community Call on iodine with guest Stephanie Buist (see below), it was just announced by the Food Standards Authority of Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) that Australia will add the micronutrient iodine to bread. New Zealand already started that practice in September of last year.

The announcement mentions the importance of iodine to thyroid functioning, as well as for infant brain and nervous system, both during and after pregnancy.  For the latter, it states “Not having enough iodine during pregnancy and early childhood can cause developmental delay and lead to reductions in mental performance. This damage prior to 2-3 years of age is irreversible.”

Apparently, the  soils of Australia and New Zealand are not too prolific in iodine, and patient levels have been revealing that fact for decades. But Stephanie Buist, the friendly and knowledgeable owner of the yahoo group Iodine, as well as a thyroid cancer survivor, states that even most US soils are becoming depleted.  It’s not just a problem of the northern US “goiter belt”, Europe or Africa anymore.

The importance of iodine goes even farther than thyroid functioning, pregnancy and infant brain development. It has a key role in breast health, your immune system, bones, estrogen metabolism, lung health, eyes, and cancer prevention. The iodine4health website lists many benefits as well as areas not understood yet.

How much do we need? Experts like Abraham, Flechas and Brownstein will emphatically state that we probably need more than is recommended.  At least 50 mg of iodine may be necessary for awhile to bring your levels back up to healthy amounts, besides stop the the side effects of iodine on hashimotos disease.  i.e. thinking you are getting enough iodine naturally from foods, or even from natural desiccated thyroid like Naturethroid, Erfa’s Thyroid, or compounded, may not be so.

How do you find out if you are iodine deficient? Stephanie stated on the Community Call that the majority of folks probably are deficient. But if you want to be sure, you can do the Iodine Loading Test.

What are good iodine supplements? Lugols is an liquid variety, and my husband and I personally use it in our morning juice or Emergen C (my husband uses Emergen C in water since he’s diabetic, and it’s a good way for him to get his Vitamin C).   In pill form is Iodoral, developed by Abraham.  You can google either and find some website sources. Also good to take with iodine supplementation is magnesium, Vitamin C, and selenium, which helps with the detox effects.

You can listen to the recording of Stephanie’s and my conversion on iodine by going to the link below for Episode 5 of the Thyroid Patient STTM Community Call. (Yes, I will correct the skipping you hear in my voice next time.)

Read Diana’s experience with iodine helping her get off desiccated thyroid. Not something we can all do, but it happened to her!

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Patients and wise doctors continue to learn in leaps and bounds

IMG_2008 Just when you think we’re full of great information for better thyroid care, there’s still more to learn and find out.  Below is information that you might find interesting on STTM.

ADRENALS: For those who discovered via the 24 adrenal saliva test that they needed cortisol support, we have come to realize that some can’t do the ramping up schedule from a small amount to a larger amount without having problems from the feedback loop.

Instead, many simply need to “start” on the higher amount, which would range from 20-30 mg. You can read about that on the How to Treat page, and you’ll note that not one morning amount goes higher than 10 mgs.  With the exception of men, higher than 10 mg seems to suppress the ACTH and adrenals too much.

A NEW LOOK: To make the STTM home page more understandable to newcomers, the home page has broken down the information better into separate pages, and also has a new interesting way of using it.

LISTEN TO THIS INFORMATION: STTM has short audio clips you can listen to, or send someone else to, to help understand what this is all about.

STORIES OF OTHERS: Individual real-life stories continue to come in, proving over and over that this revolution for far better care really does work.

FEEDBACK and MORE FEEDBACK: I get emails daily about lives changed thanks to this patient revolution. It’s wonderful to see people finding out WHY they have depression, less stamina than others, rising cholesterol and blood pressure, hair loss plus other lingering symptoms of  hypothyroidism left untreated because of the lousy TSH, or undertreated because of the equally-lousy T4-only treatment like Synthroid. I can’t begin to post them all, but STTM does contain a sampling of this feedback.

DESICCATED THYROID BRANDS: Wow, the list is growing for desiccated thyroid brands around the world! We now have listings for Denmark, Germany, Italy and New Zealand, as well as more detailed information on compounded thyroid in Australia. Thanks to all who contributed.

KEEPING UP WITH ADDITIONS TO STTM: In case you didn’t know, there’s a page meant to inform you of what’s added to STTM. I may neglect to list a few additions occasionally, but think I’m pretty close to getting most of them up there.

MEDICAL RESEARCH TO PROVE WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW: Did you know that STTM has a page which compiles research and studies which prove what we as patients already know? It’s not loaded with research yet, but it’s growing. And if you have found more to contribute to that page, use the Contact Me form.

SITE MAP: And bottom line, you can always go to the Site Map, or review the information more compactly in the book, which patients are taking into their doctors offices.

*Want to be informed of these blog posts? Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the Notifications on the left at the bottom of the links.

*Stop the Thyroid Madness T-shirts are now 50% off! I like sales, don’t you? And by wearing these shirts, you’ll never know what seed you put in the mind of someone walking past you who’s still on Synthroid or any other T4 meds, and doesn’t know WHY they have depression, rising cholesterol, easy weight gain, the need for naps, etc. You”ll also find humorous bumper stickers which definitely spread the word.

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