There are a few reasons for thyroid problems becoming so prominent – certainly food choices and lifestyle play a part, but the major reason is the disappearance of iodine in our diets and its lack of use in common medical practice. In fact, we have increased our exposure to toxic iodine competitors! Before the universal use of synthetic drugs that are so common today, iodine was essentially the medicine used by physicians around the world. And it was effective for everything; healing wounds, destroying bacteria, stopping viruses, and possibly even preventing cancer. Iodine – along with L-tyrosine – is an absolute must for a healthy thyroid. When your body produces too little thyroxine, the normal metabolic and chemical processes your body requires slow down, resulting in hypothyroidism or underactive thyroid. While low-functioning thyroid is common in both men and women, from my experience, women are far more apt to have hypothyroidism than men. But diagnosing hypothyroidism isn’t always what it should be. The most serious problem is that many doctors rely completely on a blood test that is grossly inaccurate and overlooks a majority of low thyroid diagnoses. That’s because most of the current tests are inadequate, and don’t show the full picture of how well the thyroid is functioning.
Historically, iodine was always used for infections and for pneumonia and bronchitis. Lack of it was considered to be the cause of mental slowness. Even today, iodine deficiency is considered to be the most common cause of preventable brain damage in the world. But in the 1940s, a single paper written by two researchers completely changed the way we use iodine. This poorly documented paper gave the impression that iodine use was not only archaic and unnecessary, but could even be dangerous, citing overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) as a side effect. Almost overnight, the use of iodine in medicine was stopped and in its place we have a fear of one of the most important and critical nutrients in our diet. With the advent of modern drugs since the 1940s, could the profits realized by the drug companies have a bearing on discrediting the use of iodine for hypothyroidism?