Iodine, Fluoride and Thyroid Function

January 12, 08 by Cassie 23 Comments

My intention with these posts on health is to help others who may be struggling with issues similar to mine.  During our prayer time last night, I was praying for friends who need physical healing.  As I finished, I saw a picture of Jesus healing the humble and sick everywhere He went.  Even though our bodies are temporal, God does care about them. 

I mentioned to a friend that I thought I might be sensitive to iodine.  She quickly sent me an urgent e-mail saying that those who are sensitive to iodine are often also sensitive to fluoride, and to stop using fluoride toothpaste immediately.  She later sent links to the following articles:

http://thyroid.about.com/library/derry/bl7.htm

http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/thyroid/

http://www.rense.com/general57/FLUR.HTM

 

http://wholelifetimes.com/2005/04/wh_lead0504.html (I found this later–a good introduction with links to other information)

One thing that these articles mention is that the body can confuse fluoride with iodine and that fluoride can displace iodine in your thyroid and cause thyroid disorders.  Hence the problem of being sensitive to both iodine and fluoride (I confirmed this with my doctor yesterday–she agreed that this is correct).

The following is a link to possible symptoms of fluoride poisoning/sensitivity:

http://slweb.org/ftrcpossiblesymptoms.html  I printed this out and had to highlight the majority of symptoms: arthritis, asthma, chronic fatigue, fatigue, food intolerances, gastrointestinal problems, gum disease despite good dental hygiene, heart palpitations and increased heart rate without exertion, skin problems, tea drinking causes upset stomach, gastric pain, heart palpitations and jitters similar to strong coffee, thyroid diseases.  There are more symptoms at the link, but these are mine.

I have narrowed down my problem foods to dairy, seafood, sea salt, seaweed products, eggs, wine/wine vinegar–I like to cook with these but had to stop because I have a horrible reaction to them, raisins, cream of tartar (which is a byproduct from wine making, tea: black, rooibos and other herbal tea, WATER, juices. . .I also have other food allergies like almonds and soy, but I avoid these always and these have not factored in to these other problems. 

Dairy – eggs in my list fit under an iodine sensitivity, but I still have these other mystery food sensitivities.  I have thought it strange that drinking tea, even decaf, makes me feel like my heart is going to beat itself out of my chest, and that rooibos causes gastric distress and gallbladder pain.  I had wondered why after dinner often I feel like my blood pressure goes way down, my head hurts, and my heart is racing.  I have wondered why I can never feel hydrated even though I drink a lot of water, and somehow that after I drink water I feel worse and not better.  In fact, sometimes my lungs start hurting.  I have also recently noticed (before my friend told me about fluoride) that my chest tightens and I have a harder time breathing while I am brushing my teeth.

During my research I found the USDA National Fluoride, Database of Selected Beverages and Foods, Release 2.  This is a wonderful resource!  I printed it out to make reading easier.  It lists the parts per million of fluoride in common foods and beverages.  All of my other problem foods are listed as being very high in fluoride!  Other foods, like rice and black pepper, have a medium amount and I can see that if you combine certain foods you would be getting a lot of fluoride from them as well.  I’ll give you a sampling of foods, below.  I do suggest looking at the document.  Even if you are not sensitive to fluoride, it is possible you and your family are overdosing.  After looking at these various resources, I definitely disagree with adding fluoride to our drinking supply. 

Tea, black, brewed, regular, all 3.73 ppm; Tea, black, brewed, decaf, all 2.69 ppm; Tea, green, brewed 1.15 ppm; Tea, herbal, chamomile, brewed 0.13 ppm; Tea, herbal, peppermint, brewed 0.90 ppm.

alcoholic beverage, wine, red 1.05 ppm; alcoholic beverage, wine, white 2.02 ppm–my wine vinegar is a blush color, and I react very strongly to this.  As a comparison, distilled alcoholic beverages, all 0.08 ppm. 

Juices are pretty high, partly because fluoridated water is usually used. 

Brewed coffee is 0.91 ppm.  Decaf is 0.52 ppm.  I don’t drink coffee, but I thought some of you might want to know how much it contains.

Unless you buy bottled water with added fluoride, most bottled water is very low in fluoride.  Aquafina has 0.05 ppm.  Propel Fitness Water has 0.02.  Others are a bit higher.  Tap water (municipal and well) has about 0.71 ppm.  Only a reverse osmosis filter will remove fluoride.  We filter our water, but the fluoride is still there.

rice, cooked 0.41 ppm, black pepper 0.34 ppm, iodized salt 0.02 ppm.  This combination has affected me many times!  Between the fluoride and the iodine. . .

fruits and veggies are mostly low, although organic would be a better choice because produce is sprayed with fluoride containing pesticides.  Definitely wash your produce and buy organic apples and berries, if you can.  These absorb a lot of pesticides.

White grape juice 2.13 ppm, raisins 2.34 ppm.

Baked potato chips 1.06 ppm, corn chips, tortilla chips 0.52 ppm

mature boiled beans, 0.02 ppm

You can find more info on the USDA document. 

I also found a tea website that said that “With the exceptions of fluoride and copper, the trace minerals in rooibos are not enough to make the tea a meaningful dietary source of minerals for the average consumer.”  I get a headache, feel funny, and have gastric problems every time I drink it.

Fluoride can cause thyroid disorders and infertility–I linked to that info above.  My TSH level was 4.2 in September and 4.8 in December.  I just had more blood-work done yesterday (almost 20 vials) and will be interested to see what my level is.  My doctors all tell me that my TSH level is normal and that this cannot be the cause of my miscarriages!  But my friend who has hashimotos told me that her specialist says that with levels over 4. one cannot typically carry a baby.  And according to the Amercan Association of Clinical Endocrinologists as of November 2002, a better normal range is 0.3 – 3.04.

My rheumatologist is sending me to an allergist, is checking all kinds of thyroid issues,  arthritis issues, is doing another complete metabolic workup, checking antiphosphilipid antibodies and will do a bone scan to check my bone density because of my celiac sprue.  I am getting the works!  The crazy thing is that my blood work shows that I am a very healthy person, but I feel horrible most of the time.  It points to a sensitivity, in my opinion.  I am grateful for these tests, because they can help rule out other causes of my problems.

Please pray that the allergist will be able to help me.  I am hoping he knows something about these kinds of sensitivities and will be able to tell me how best to handle them.  We will see!

In the meantime, I am drinking bottled water and avoiding fluoride and iodine as much as possible. 

Later: I just took a shower and now have a headache, my lungs hurt and I am having trouble breathing.  That could be caused by a combination of fluoride and chloride.  I have multiple chemical sensitivites (to things like chlorine, ammonia and synthetic fragrances and dyes).  We filter chlorine out of our drinking water, but not out of the rest of our water.  I am thinking of putting a chlorine filter in my shower head to see if that helps.