Re: Re: new and want to handle goiter

[Guest guest]

Esmeralda,

The iodine loading test determines how much iodine is excreted in urine over

24 hrs. after consuming an initial Iodoral dose of 50 mg at the start of the

test. The test result is calculated as the amount of iodine excreted

divided by the initial 50 mg., and then multiplied by 100 so that the result

is expressed as a percentage. That percentage is what I was referring to as

the known baseline. If your percentage falls below 90%, you are not

considered to be iodine sufficient.

If you take the iodine loading test before you start taking iodine/iodide,

your iodine sufficiency percentage will tell you if iodine insufficiency is

playing a role in your thyroid problems. It helps eliminate some of the

guesswork in trying to figure out causative factors.

The other important reason to do the iodine loading testing first is to

determine if you are one of the people that might have problems with your

sodium iodine symporter (NIS). People with a faulty NIS have had seemingly

paradoxical results when taking iodine. Their initial iodine loading test

showed a higher level than when their test was repeated several months after

consistent iodine supplementation. The iodine docs figured out these people

had a faulty NIS.

The NIS is the system that transports the iodine/iodide molecule across the

cell membrane. A faulty NIS system can be corrected once it's identified.

But if you have a faulty NIS system, if you don't do the iodine loading test

before supplementing, you can spend months supplementing and not achieve any

better iodine sufficiency, and not have any improvement in symptoms. If you

don't test first, but supplement for a while, and then take the iodine

loading test, and still have so-so results, you won't know if you have a

faulty NIS system or just need a higher dose of iodine/iodide. It takes two

different iodine loading tests with a course of iodine/iodide

supplementation inbetween to know if you have a faulty NIS system.

On the other hand, if you believe in muscle testing and kinesiology, maybe

you can get an answer that way.

I haven't done an iodine loading test myself. Because of congenital

misdevelopment, I don't have a thyroid. So I don't have goiter, or Hashi's,

or thyroid cancer, or nodules, or any other complicating conditions that

might indicate a more pressing need to know my iodine sufficiency. I might

do a test this summer, if I visit relatives that live near Dr. Flechas, and

save on express mail. But if I was dealing with a goiter and/or Hashi's, my

bias would be to get testing. Having less than ideal thyroid metabolism

does do the body wrong.

Lynn

> Thank you for the complete and helpful answer. Do you have any

> suggestions on what the 'known baseline' would be? Is this symptoms or

> something else.

>

> Esmeralda

>

> >

> > You can up your iodine without testing first, but if you are a Hashi's

> > patient, you need to pay particular attention to how your body is

> reacting.

> > Not everyone reacts favorably. The advantage of testing first is

> that you

> > have a known baseline which might be helpful in sorting out what

> follows.