What’s the Solution?

So what is the answer? Here I resist the urge to point you to some Iodine supplement and pick up a commission for sending you there because it is far simpler than that. The answer is to throw away the salt that you use to cook and season your food and replace it with Iodinised Salt (it tastes the same and costs just a few cents more). Yes it is truly as simple as that. You don’t need to increase your intake of salt because salt is still a cause of high blood pressure, you just need to continue using salt in the same safe manner that you use it now, just replace normal salt with Iodinised salt. End of problem.

So how is it possible that intake was sufficient ten years ago but is insufficient today?
The major reason is that most nations have stopped using Iodine solution to sterilize milk containers before bottling; today they use a Chlorine solution. The old system used to leave a beneficial contamination of Iodine that mixed with the milk when it was bottled. This amount was sufficient to fulfill the needs of our bodies.

2. The solution to IDD is relatively simple and inexpensive. Food fortification has proven to be a highly successful and sustainable intervention. Iodized salt programs and iodized oil supplements are the most common tools in the fight against IDD.

3. Iodized salt is the first choice for intervention because it is universally and regularly consumed, costs very low per person annually and is manufactured with simple technology.

4. A reliable method of assessing the extent of IDD in a population is to determine the urinary iodine excretion levels in a vulnerable group. Pregnant mothers are a susceptible group for assessing iodine deficiency, as the iodine requirements during this physiological state are comparatively high.

5. High TSH levels are an indicator of low iodine levels. TSH helps the thyroid gland capture iodine from the blood, so if little iodine is available, the body increases its production of TSH to try and capture more. In a population with sufficient iodine, fewer than three per cent of newborns should have a TSH concentration over 5mIU/L, says the WHO. Dietary changes are responsible for the lack of iodine.

6. Health education is a effective way to eradicate IDD, where messages related to IDD are disseminated and the schoolteachers can be requested to visit children’s homes to check living conditions and to check if they are consuming iodized salt and if the iodine content of the salt they consume is adequate. A public awareness program before and during pregnancy would be good for iodine.

For example, to mark Global Iodine Deficiency Disorders Day on October 21, 2001, India issued a commemorative stamp on iodized salt.

A salt-testing kit costs are very cheap and can easily be used by local communities to verify whether the salt they buy is adequately iodized. With UNICEF support, thousands of these kits are being distributed in India through the public network of anganwadi, or community health centers, and schools. UNICEF also provides support for the production and distribution of millions of leaflets and other materials promoting consumption of iodized salt.

2. Seafoods, eggs, papayas, mangoes, pineapple, onions, potatoes, oats, leaf lettuce, beans, carrots, and anything grown near the ocean. Depending on the amount consumed, fresh fruits and vegetables provide between 4 and 27 percent of daily iodine requirements.

3. Herbal sources are kelp, dulse (another seaweed), black walnut, spirulina. Kelp lowers the bowel transit time, absorbs toxins from the bowel, and regulates the intestinal flora. This is why many people notice a reduction in body odor and gas while taking the kelp, because it purifies the body, making it a favorite source of iodine supplementation.

4. Cereals contribute 32 to 49 percent of dietary iodine. Milk and other dairy products are another important source.

Best sources are raw because heat and food processing destroys iodine. Insufficient iodine in the diet can lead to the medical condition goiter and other iodine deficiency disorders.

In children, the thyroid does not function normally until age 2 or 3, but for some children that function isn’t complete until ages 5-12. Iodine during the growth of children is therefore essential to help protect growing children against toxins in their systems.