http://www.iodinesource.com/ThyroidGland.asp#Iodine
It's a great site so be sure to go and read more. Here are my usual teasers
:
Quote:
"...After birth, the thyroid starts putting out a fairly constant supply of thyroid hormone for the rest of the human's life. The reserve of the thyroid gland to stress and its ability to respond appear related to adequate iodine intake before the age of puberty, which is the first real test of the thyroid's reserve abilities. Stress on the thyroid can be detected and the size of the thyroid gland measured accurately by ultrasound. The thyroid enlargement from physiological stress found in areas of borderline low iodine intake, occur during adolescence, pregnancies and menopause. These enlargements are good indicators of borderline iodine supplementation indicating a degree of iodine deficiency, but at the same time this illustrates the increased needs for thyroid hormone during period of physiological stress during life..."
|
Boosting your body supply:
Quote:
"...In the 1960s it was established that if the daily dose of iodine was increased to over 2-3 mgs of iodine per day, within two weeks, the thyroid became saturated and no longer took up iodine in significant amounts. So a normal person who raised their daily dose of iodine above, say 3 mgs, within two weeks their thyroid was almost completely stop taking up iodine as it became saturated, but more important to the body, all of the dietary iodine now went to perform other body functions...."
|
Geographical areas of concern:
Quote:
"...The average iodine intake of a normal adult on an ordinary diet in a non-goiter region is about 0.03 milligrams, a day. This tiny amount is only about one-seventh of what is needed for daily thyroid hormone production, but the body practices great economy and re-uses much of its iodine store repeatedly in producing hormone secretions. In goiter regions, not even the 0.03 milligram per day is available in the food and water. Goiter regions are to be found all over the world. No continent is free of them. Generally they are the mountainous and inland areas of the globe. A high incidence of goiter is found in the Himalayas in Asia, in the regions of the Alps and the Carpathian and Pyrenees mountains in Europe, and in the high plateaus of the Andes in South America. In North America, the goiter zone is the Great Lakes basin and the area of the St. Lawrence River, extending westward through Minnesota, the Dakotas, and the neighboring Canadian territory as far as the northwest and including Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. This great belt extends an arm southward in the rocky Mountain area and another in the Appalachian area..."
|