Iodine: the universal remedy

Iodine, an essential nutrient, has been abandoned by our home pharmacies because of ignorance, misunderstanding, and a lot of disinformation about this mineral.

In this article I would like to put iodine in it’s rightful place again, demystifying the beliefs that still persist.

Do you have tincture of iodine* in your home pharmacy? Probably not. Formerly iodine was the universal remedy, not only for families but also for doctors who, when they didn’t know what to give their patient, gave them iodine.

*Tincture of iodine is not the form you take internally. It’s for external use.

A bit of history

Nobel prize winner, Albert Szent-Györgyi, who isolated vitamin C and discovered how the Krebs cycle worked, said:

“When I was a medical student, iodine in the form of KI (potassium iodide) was the universal medicine. Nobody knew what it did, but it did something and did something good. We students used to sum up the situation in this little rhyme:
If ye don’t know where, what, and why
Prescribe ye then K and I.
Our medical predecessors, possessing very few and crude instruments only, had to make use of two given by nature (the use of which has since gone out of fashion): eyes and brains. They were keen observers, and the universal application of iodide might have been not without foundation.”

(Extract from the preface by Doctor Guy E. Abraham for Doctor David Brownstein’s book: Iodine, why you need it, why you can’t live without it).

Iodine was discovered at the beginning of the nineteenth century by two French researchers Courtois and Gay-Lussac. Shortly after, another Frenchman, Doctor Jean Lugol made the Lugol solution, a liquid iodine supplement that you can still find today. It was largely used to treat infectious diseases and other conditions. Then it fell into oblivion probably because of the arrival of antibiotics.

Ditch lined with stones, used to burn seaweed to then extract iodine from the ashes. This practice continued until the 1950s. (Isle of Batz, Brittany, France). Picture taken by myself.

Myths surrounding iodine

As of the middle of the twentieth century iodine fell victim to two myths. The idea spread that it is a mineral only needed for the good functioning of the thyroid and that one must not exceed tiny amounts otherwise it becomes toxic.

These two beliefs are false.

Since the work of Doctor Guy E. Abraham, the initiator of The Iodine Project, iodine has been put back into it’s rightful place. Only now the news needs to spread! Many other doctors (mainly in the USA) use it in the amounts it should be used to get results.

There still is a kind of iodophobia within the medical community. Doctors are hesitant to use it as it has been used by generations of clinicians in the amounts that enable it to be efficient on many aspects of health.

« Ortho-iodo supplementation (meaning the use of iodine in the right amounts) should be part of a complete nutritional program, emphasizing magnesium and not calcium. Medical iodophobia is the unjustified fear to use non radioactive inorganic iodine/iodide to treat symptoms and signs of iodine/iodide deficiency, in amounts known to be safe and efficient according to the collective experience of three generations of clinicians (12,5-50mg/day).” Dr Guy Abraham

(This paragraph may not be the exact words of Dr Guy Abraham as I have translated a French text back to English.)

What does iodine do ?

Iodine is anti bacterial, anti fungal, anti parasitic, anti cancer and it helps eliminate thick mucus (in case of a cough) from the lungs. It was known for that.

It’s effect on the immune system is closely related to it’s role in the thyroid. A dysfunctional thyroid reduces the efficacy of the immune system. In addition to it’s effect on the thyroid, iodine also has a direct effect on the immune system.

Doctor Mark Sircus in his book Healing with iodine, your missing link to better health says that there is no bacteria or other micro-organism that can survive or adapt to an environment rich in iodine.

A recent study, from January 2021 shows several things.

1) Many other tissues, organs, glands (breasts and prostate) and cells other than the thyroid, use iodine to function optimally. Among them are the different immune system cells including the lymphocytes, commanders in chief of immunity.

(Doctor David Brownstein says that according to a study of the scientific literature, the two forms of iodine, iodine/iodide are necessary for the optimal functioning of every organ and cell of the human body.)

2) Iodine has an anti-oxidant effect and that is always a good idea for immunity and inflammation.

3) iodine induces cell differentiation and death. Cancer cells are cells that have lost their capacity to multiply and differentiate into healthy cells. They proliferate without being able to stop. This study showed that iodine is anti-proliferation, pro-differentiation and pro-apoptosis (which is the necessary death of cells that have already served). In a healthy body cells are constantly renewing themselves.

4) Iodine is an immune-modulator, meaning that it acts directly on certain cells of the immune system to activate our defenses or calm an over reactive or dysfunctional immune system as in allergies or so called auto-immune diseases.

Iodine is necessary for the health of the whole hormonal system including the breasts, the ovaries, the prostate, the pituitary, the hypothalamus, the thyroid, the thymus. In other words all the glands in your body need iodine to function optimally.

How much to take and in what form

According to doctor Guy Abraham we need a minimum of 13 mg of iodine (yes mg and not mcg) per day to ensure good hormonal health. This is far from the 150 mcg that are officially recommended!

Women need more iodine than men (men need more zinc than women)

The best sources of nutritional iodine are the kelps and fucus families of seaweed. Ryan Drum, researcher and avid seaweed consumer recommends eating between 5 and 15 g of seaweed per day.

The Japanese are traditionally big consumers of seaweed and they ingest on average 13,8 mg of iodine per day. That is 100 times more than the 150mcg recommended in France and the USA.

You can eat all sorts of seaweed and they give you all sorts of nutrients, but they are not all high in iodine. To get the updated amounts recommended by researchers and doctors (knowledgeable on the subject of iodine) and also what the Japanese consume, you would need to eat a lot of seaweed, which may not be realistic for you. That’s why it may be better to take a supplement.

The group led by Doctor Guy Abraham, in order to have real and efficient results on your health, recommends between 12 and 15mg per day and in the case of a pathology 50mg or more. You will not get all the effects mentioned if you only take 150 mcg per day. Remember, iodine toxicity is a myth.

However it’s better to increase the dose progressively to avoid detoxification reactions that are falsely attributed to iodine itself.

You’ll find Lugol’s solution (also called Lugol iodine) by searching on the internet. Work with a practitioner who knows about iodine to evaluate your needs. If you have issues with your breasts, ovaries or prostate, the doses are higher than the 13 mg to maintain health.

Iodine is absorbed through the skin, the digestive system and the air. Take seaweed baths and breathe in ocean air specially when the waves crash against the rocks or on the sand with vigor.

Is there such a thing as an allergy to iodine?

When you take amounts of iodine as recommended by the doctors in this article, your body, while it eliminates certain toxins can manifest symptoms through a reaction called Herxheimer reaction named after the person who described the phenomenon.

The detox reaction linked to iodine is a beneficial thing for the body. It has been shown that iodine helps eliminate halogens like fluorine and bromine and certain toxic metals like lead and mercury.

It’s not an allergy to the element iodine as you cannot be allergic to a mineral that is essential to health.

There is another type of reaction in addition to the detox reaction that had given people the false idea that you can be allergic to iodine. Some drugs contain iodine with other added substances that the body can react to. Iodine is accused of being the culprit whereas it’s the “other” substances that are to be looked into.

Also there are some forms of iodine people may react to. Iodine, itself, being an essential mineral is not the culprit. Work with a trusted practitioner who knows the truth about iodine and its different forms.

My personal story with iodine

Here is my experience of taking 12,5 mg of iodine per day. For years I have had hard cysts in my left breast. They come and go and I wanted them to go for good. After one and a half months of iodine at that dosage, they are gone! There are many happy stories of people taking the right amount of iodine in the book mentioned below.

Why are we deficient in iodine?

For various reasons. Soil deficiency, food deficiency and another major reason: bromine in our environment.

Several pollutants, fluorine and bromine (called halogens like iodine) take the place of iodine in our organism. Bromine in particular is omnipresent in various forms in the industrial world and finds it’s way in our body by blocking the iodine receptors.

This means iodine can’t do it’s job if it’s not present in sufficient amounts to block bromine and eliminate it.

But there is another reason for iodine deficiency: this mineral is misunderstood and that may well be the main reason for it’s deficiency in the world.

Essential books

The Iodine Crisis : What You Don’t Know About Iodine Can Wreck Your Life by Lynne Farrow. Doctor David Brownstein wrote the preface.

Lynne Farrow healed herself from breast cancer thanks to iodine. After that she became an ardent iodine activist to spread the vital information about this mineral.

Doctor David Brownstein’s book Iodine, why you need it, why you can’t live without it. He is the doctor who helped Lynne Farrow heal from breast cancer.