Take Control of Your Thyroid Health and Metabolism with This Rediscovered Mineral From a Whole Food Source*

Iodine may just be one of the most misunderstood minerals in recent history.

During the first half of the 20th century, nearly every doctor practicing in the U.S. prescribed an iodine supplement for patients experiencing thyroid concerns and other health issues. It was just considered standard practice.

Then, in the second half of the century, something happened to dramatically change the situation.

Two researchers in Berkeley, California published their findings from a questionable study – a study in which they also grossly misinterpreted the data.

Worse, one of the researchers went on to use this data to define levels of “iodine excess,” incorrectly concluding that a relatively small amount of iodine was potentially harmful – all without sufficient scientific evidence.

That faulty declaration, in essence, marked the death of iodine as a nutritional supplement.

After that, physicians were taught early on in medical school that these common supplemental forms of iodine were toxic.

By the 1970s, health professionals were convinced they needed to avoid iodine supplements like the plague – and instead recommend medications using a truly toxic and potentially harmful type of iodine.

In addition to pharmaceuticals, iodized table salt became the standard for supplementing iodine.

Even though later studies demonstrated the benefits of iodine supplements, the opinion formed by the faulty research – referred to as the “Wolff-Chaikoff effect,” prevailed.

By 2005, medical fear of iodine had reached pandemic proportions.

It’s been a slow comeback, but supplemental iodine is once again receiving the attention and respect it deserves…

What Is Iodine and Why Your Body Needs It

You may have heard of the words iodine and iodide – and even thought they were interchangeable, but they are two different compounds.

Iodide is the form of iodine found in nature, when iodine binds with another element and forms salt, such as potassium iodide or sodium iodide. Because iodine usually occurs as a salt, it is referred to as iodide.

Your body doesn’t make its own iodine, so you must get it from diet. Good sources of iodine include dairy, cranberries, eggs, potatoes, seafood, and sea vegetables.

Many of your body’s cells require iodine, but your thyroid gland – that butterfly-shaped gland located near the bottom of your neck, right beneath the Adam’s apple – needs iodine to produce the thyroid hormones triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4).

Healthy thyroid function is regulated by thyroid-stimulating hormone, or TSH, which is secreted by your pituitary gland.

The secretion of TSH increases the uptake of iodine by your thyroid and stimulates T3 and T4. However, without enough iodine, TSH levels can remain elevated.

Thyroid hormones regulate your body’s metabolism, including protein synthesis and the actions of your enzymes, as well as your appetite and digestion. They affect your breathing and heart rates, bone growth and skin health.

In fetuses and infants, these crucial hormones are required for proper skeletal and central nervous system development. A lack of iodine can affect normal development of the brain, resulting in low IQ, intellectual disability, stunted growth and even brain damage.

Iodine supports many other aspects of health, in addition to supporting your thyroid gland, including:

• Energy levels*

• Body weight*

• Cardiovascular function*

• Brain function*

• Mood*

• Respiratory health*

• Breasts and fertility*

• Body temperature regulation*

If you don’t get enough iodine, your thyroid gland may not function properly. It may fail to make enough thyroid hormones, or your thyroid may even grow too big – a sign that your thyroid gland is trying to trap more iodine from circulating blood.

The Reemergence of Iodine Deficiency

Before the 1920s, iodine deficiency was common in many regions in the U.S. and in most of Canada.

Despite the use of iodized table salt in the last half century, iodine deficiency continues to be a public health problem.

Measuring iodine levels isn’t a precise science. In a healthy person with optimal levels of iodine, 70 to 80% of the mineral is concentrated inside the thyroid gland and most of the remainder leaves the body via the urine.

It’s believed that low iodine levels are so common today that lab ranges have become based on deficiency instead of levels found in healthy individuals.

So, what’s causing so many people to have low levels of iodine?

Starting in the 1950’s in the U.S., several factors have contributed to iodine deficiency that has persisted over three and one-half generations.

Municipalities began adding fluoride to drinking water. Also, the commercial bread industry started to substitute potassium bromate for potassium iodide (a source of iodine) in bread and pastry flour.

Both substances interfere with the absorption of iodine from your food.

To make matters worse, health professionals have increasingly advised their patients to eat a low-salt diet, a recommendation not based on solid science.

Considering iodized salt has been the main source of iodine for many individuals over the years, low-salt diets have likely played a significant role in the reemergence of iodine deficiency.

13 Signs You May Be Deficient in Iodine

As we’ve seen, an iodine deficiency can affect more than your thyroid gland.

Researchers believe a deficiency may even raise the risk of damage to the DNA in the mitochondria of your cells.

A quick glance at the symptoms linked to iodine deficiency reveals how iodine influences your entire body. Most of the symptoms, however, are due to the effect of iodine on your thyroid gland.

Any of these 13 signs can be a warning that you may be low in iodine:

1. Constantly feeling tired

2. Muscle Weakness

3. Unexpected weight gain

4. Difficulty losing weight

5. Hair loss

6. Dry skin

7. Always feeling cold

8. Difficulty learning and remembering

9. Elimination issues, especially constipation

10. Slow heart rate

11. Hoarse voice

12. Fertility issues

13. Heavy or irregular periods

Tragically, iodine deficiency remains the most common preventable cause of intellectual disabilities worldwide.

Are You in One of These High-Risk Groups?

Certain groups have emerged as being at greater risk for iodine deficiency:

• Those who drink fluoridated water or eat commercial baked goods: If you live in a community that fluoridates its drinking water, or you consume commercially produced bread and pastry items, you may be at greater risk for iodine deficiency.

• Those who restrict salt intake: If you follow a low-salt diet, you may be at higher risk.

• Those who eat limited amounts of iodine-rich foods: If you avoid, or limit your servings of eggs and dairy products, seafood, and sea vegetables, you likely aren’t getting enough iodine in your diet.

• Those who live in areas with iodine-deficient soils: Mountainous areas and areas prone to flooding tend to be more iodine deficient, so foods grown or produced in these regions may be lower in iodine. Pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers can also deplete soils of iodine.

• Pregnant women: The need for iodine increases during pregnancy, so pregnant women are at risk of not getting enough iodine.

When you consider all the different variables that can put you at increased risk, it’s easy to understand why iodine deficiency remains so prevalent around the world.

While it makes good sense to avoid things like fluoride and potassium bromate that can interfere with the absorption of the iodine you do get from your diet, you may need to do more if you are at risk of iodine deficiency or know you have low levels.

Iodized salt isn’t solving the problem – nor do I believe it’s the best solution for achieving and maintaining healthy iodine levels. Let’s take a closer look at what I believe to be a much more desirable approach.*

The Power of Sea Vegetables for Bioavailable Iodine

Seaweed is a rich source of the highly absorbable forms of iodine, such as the molecular form (I₂) and iodine-protein complexes. In addition to iodine, seaweed provides other valuable minerals and antioxidants as well.

However, levels of iodine can vary tremendously among the almost 10,000 species of sea vegetables found around the world.

Ascophyllum nodosum, or Knotted wrack as it’s commonly known, is a slow-growing seaweed that grows on sheltered rocky shores and sea lochs in the North Atlantic Ocean. It can live to be several decades old.

Gram for gram, no land-based whole food packs the same nutritional punch as Ascophyllum.

This brown seaweed contains alginates in its cell walls, in the form of calcium, magnesium and sodium salts of alginic acid. Calcium alginate is considered a valuable dietary fiber.*

In addition to alginates, polyphenols, and tannins, Ascophyllum contains all the vitamin groups, minerals, trace elements and essential amino acids.

Above all, Ascophyllum is an outstanding source of iodine in the form your body can use.

A recently published study compared the naturally occurring iodine from whole food Ascophyllum nodosum to potassium iodide (KI), a commonly used synthetic iodine supplement.

Over a two-week period, 22 healthy non-pregnant women of childbearing age with low intakes of dairy and seafood received either 500 mg of Ascophyllum nodosum organic seaweed supplying 712 mcg of iodine, or equal amounts of iodine from KI.

At the end of the study, urinary iodine excretion was measured in both groups. With the Ascophyllum group, greater effects were seen on concentrations of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) as well as urinary iodine levels, compared to the KI group.*

With Ascophyllum, there was a delayed release – the iodine was released slowly and showed an initial lower spike, but it remained available in the body for a longer period, as compared to KI, which is rapidly excreted.

The researchers concluded that seaweed is an effective source of iodine, with its more controlled and consistent release and longer-lasting action in the body.*

Straight From Scotland’s Magical Sea Lochs, Iodine From Organic Seaweed

Magical. That’s the word people use when they first step foot in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland.

An intriguing collection of more than 50 inhabited and uninhabited islands, islets and skerries, it’s a world unto itself. It has everything, from cragged mountains and emerald rolling hills to snow-white beaches and azure seas.

And the remote Scottish Outer Hebrides Sea Lochs are home to something else, too – an abundance of one of nature’s finest gifts: organic Hebridean Ascophyllum nodosum seaweed.

This is where we source our Iodine from Organic Seaweed.

Our environmental and sustainability award-winning producer provides us with some of the finest quality, wild harvested bioavailable iodine from this unique organic source.

Here are just a few of the things that makes our source of naturally occurring iodine – whole food Ascophyllum nodosum – so exceptional:

• Wild harvested and highly sustainable, it requires no fresh water, land, or fertilizer to grow.

• The pristine waters in which it is sustainably harvested using specialized vessels are carefully monitored and managed, with exclusive harvesting rights from the Crown Estate, a public corporation of the Scottish Government tasked with the management of land and property in Scotland.

• As part of the wide range of nutritional and safety tests carried out on the seaweed, each individual batch is analyzed for full and transparent traceability.

• The seaweed is carefully dried and milled using proprietary technologies designed to preserve the high nutritional quality, resulting in high quality and fully traceable production from sea to shelf.

• The factory where it is processed has won environmental and sustainability awards.

Each two-capsule serving of Iodine from Organic Seaweed provides 650 mcg of Iodine from Organic Ascophyllum nodosum.

Take Control of Your Thyroid and Metabolic Health with Iodine from Organic Seaweed

It’s simply not worth taking the chance of having low levels of iodine. Any degree of deficiency can impact not only your thyroid health, but your other organs, too, right down to the mitochondrial DNA in your cells.

Health professionals are slowly realizing the importance of iodine once again, but I encourage you to stay ahead of the pack and ensure you maintain optimal levels.

Iodine from Organic Seaweed provides a gentle, effective way to provide the supplemental iodine you may need.

And you know your source of iodine is coming from one of the most pristine, isolated locations on earth.

Take control of your thyroid and metabolic health today, and order Iodine from Organic Seaweed.