The short answer is no. Here’s why.
It is considered a trigger for Hashimoto’s and for thyroid autoimmunity in general which would include Grave’s disease. There have been several large studies that show people consuming iodine have higher thyroglobulin antibodies. People who have iodine deficiency to begin with have a 4x higher chance of increasing their thyroglobulin antibodies when they take in more iodine. Just 500 mcg of iodine triggered or provoked autoimmunity in previously healthy people when iodine was added to the diet.
If you have long term exposure to iodine, it can have long term effects on regulation of your immune system, again, triggering autoimmunity.
Iodine increases oxidative stress and promotes inflammatory reactions. Oxidative stress and destruction of thyroid cells within the thyroid leads to your body’s inability to make thyroid hormones and leads to destruction of your thyroid gland over time.
Some examples of what it looks like when you supplement with iodine are:
You have high TSH and have hypothyroid symptoms so you supplement with iodine which causes destruction of the thyroid gland but will give you a normal TSH and improve your symptoms for a while.
You have normal TSH and no thyroid symptoms but you are consuming a fair amount of iodine through your diet or supplementing (it’s in all processed foods). You get thyroid gland destruction which will raise your TSH and maybe cause you anxiety and insomnia.
You have normal TSH (all of these normals are according to conventional medicine) and are on thyroid hormone replacement. You have no symptoms. You supplement iodine, you have destruction of the thyroid gland and you get depressed TSH (around 0.01), high T4 and T3 and you have hyperthyroid symptoms.
You have normal TSH, no symptoms, positive TPO antibodies (called silent autoimmunity), you supplement iodine, thyroid is being destroyed, you end up with normal TSH, no symptoms and TPO antibodies become elevated.
Iodine is a goldilocks nutrient. Your intake needs to be just right. According to Datis Kharrazian you need about a pin drops worth each day which amounts to about a tablespoon a year. That isn’t a lot. I guarantee you are getting much more than that in a year if you eat a standard American diet or take a thyroid supplement with iodine in it. So if you are taking a supplement with iodine, I might consider stopping it. If you are prescribed iodine by your doctor, I don’t even know if that is a thing, then I would not stop without talking to your doctor.
Another study, “Effect of small doses of iodine on thyroid function in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis residing in an area of mild iodine deficiency”, states that just 250 mcg of iodine to people with euthroid status (meaning their thyroid is working fine) but that had silent autoimmunity showed significant changes to their thyroid hormone function. One woman in this study had a TSH that went from 2.5 to 43.3 after supplementation. Most of the other people in the study saw their TSH double but antibodies were all over the place from a 900 point increase to very minimal proving that this disease and anything else in health and nutrition is very bio-individual or personalized.
A study on salt content in Slovenia showed that when the iodine in regular table salt there was increase from 10mg to 25mg of potassium iodide per kilogram of salt their rates of Hashimoto’s more than doubled.
It also has been shown to increase nodular goiter in people.
Iodine restriction may be a way to combat some of the thyroid disease plaguing the world. One study on this topic showed that 78% of subjects had normal thyroid function with just restricting their iodine and had no need for thyroid hormone replacement in just 3 months. Restriction in this study was less than 100mcg per day.
In subclinical hypothyroidism which is when you have high TSH but no symptoms, iodine restriction is thought to normalize or decrease TSH levels and these iodine levels are correlated with urine iodine concentrations. It is thought that iodine restriction could be a major or preferred treatment option for some people.
Where do we get most of our iodine?
Iodized salt is probably the biggest and that is in every processed food that has salt as an ingredient unless it is specified.
Seasoning mixes made with salt or things like onion salt, celery salt etc.
Seaweed and the snacks made from seaweed
Foods containing iodates, iodide, algin, alginates, carrageen, agar
All processed bread products
Milk (1 oz a day is allowed)
Egg yolks
Seafood minus freshwater fish
Many supplements, especially multi vitamins and thyroid supplements
Anything with Red Dye #3
Most restaurant and processed foods
Soy products: edamame, tofu, soy burgers
Goitrogens on the other hand, we have long been told to avoid and that may not need to be the case.
A study on broccoli sprouts in thyroid patients found that it was completely safe for thyroid patients to consume. The thyroid was not negatively affected at all. In fact, in this study, the broccoli sprouts were shown to activate Nrf2 which protects us against toxins and oxidative stress related conditions.
Bottom line for goitrogens from food are that they do not cause goiter or affect how much T3 or T4 is produced. They actually increase our levels of glutathione, our major antioxidant and protect our thyroid from oxidative stress/damage.
Goitrogens from chemicals do cause goiter and do negatively affect the thyroid and should be avoided when possible. These are things like PCB’s and Phthalates. So cleaning up your environment including getting rid of plastics might be helpful which I have talked about on the detox podcasts.
So bottom line, consider how much iodine you are getting in your food. If you are not feeling well or you can’t get your antibodies down, you might consider a low iodine diet to see if it helps. We also need to remember that there is an ebb and flow to this disease. We will always have to mind things like stress and food in order to feel our best. If you are in a place where normal to you is tired, moody, stressed, irregular bowels please know that is not normal, that is your body telling you something is off.
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Take care.