Iodine deficiency

[MotherofCFBoy11yrs]

I've not worried about my son's iodine levels before reading an article that reports that the vast majority of patients at a German CF centre are iodine deficient: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23107148. This is despite the fact that in Germany foods have added iodine.

It occurred to me that we use non-iodized salt and that the organic milk my son drinks has hardly any iodine (the soil here has very little iodine) so his only real source of iodine is fish. I've started giving him kelp tablets and I will ask his iodine to be measured.

Iodine deficiency can cause puffiness, dark circles under the eyes, slowed metabolism or even mental slowness. AquADEKs do not contain iodine.

Some earlier studies warned about excess iodine in CF.

 

[LittleLab4CF]

Thank You!
That and so many other "little things" like that get missed, glossed over or ignored and unless we advocate for ourselves with infomation and knowledge. I am sure this is standard, but almost every blood test and every ER visit comes up low in potassium. I once mentioned potassium as a supliment, silly me, they use potassium chloride in lethal injection. I looked at a number of potassium suppliments and they match Gatorade's 3% of RDA. Bananas, milk, and a host of other foods contains 300% or more of the RDA potassium in a dose. Granted, eating potassium in food is about the only safe way to injest potassium without overdoing it. You may regret eating a dozen banana's at once but the 5000% RDA in those bananas won't be the problem because it just won't be absorbed.

Like your unadulderated salt, they don't put a big label saying NO IODINE, GET IT ELSeWHERE, we forget that these additives were put into food because of an ignorant public. The FDA, spent many of its early years addressing the important nutritional issues by adding vitamins or essential minerals to other food stuff we need. Adding iodine to salt was an easy one because natural salt often has too much to taste good. I support anybody interested in healthy eating, and I participate in buying organic meats, eggs and milk products as well as other food that doesn't really need additives. The whole concept of organic food, or holistic medicine requires a well educated person to do it all without relying on experts to insure we don't forget iodine or such. Here we go again?

LL

 

[MotherofCFBoy11yrs]

You're welcome LittleLab4CF! And thank you for pointing out potassium. My son drinks about a gallon of milk every day so I haven't worried about potassium. But I've only started to look into the details of CF nutrition this year and it's very complex, so much to learn. I assumed milk would take care of the iodine as well and only recently I read an article pointing out that organic milk can have very low mineral content.

I noticed my son having darkish circles around his eyes and a slightly puffy face some time ago and I could not figure out why. Now that I think about it, it was coincidental with switching to organic milk and starting UDCA. It seems UDCA has an antithyroid effect. So I'm waiting to have his iodine levels tested - it's a urine test, I doubt he has been tested for it before - and in the meantime I'm just giving him a seaweed tablet or two a day.

It surprises me is that little is written about iodine in CF. I noticed that some adults with CF have Hashimotos disease... The first time I read about iodine in CF was in the wonderful CF Mudda blog. She is as convinced about the importance of potassium as you are: http://cfmudda.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/salt-supplementation.html.