Re: Dr. Skibola and Dr. Abraham: Intellectual Arguments

[Guest guest]

Hi, Zoe,

The Dr. Skibola and Dr. Abraham quotes were derived from Dr. Abraham's article, The Wolff-Chaikoff Effect: Crying Wolf?

Specifically, the quotes are near the end of section 2: "Divert attention from the fact that iodine is the active ingredient in seaweed against the carcinogenic effect of estrogens on female reproductive organs and against many other diseases of the Western World. Use a smokescreen pointing to some other factors in seaweed eliciting these beneficial effects."

Hope this helps...

Sally

[Guest guest]

Sally, could you please give us references for these quotes? Thanks. Zoe

Dr. Skibola and Dr. Abraham: Intellectual Arguments

Good morning,

Dr. Abraham v. Dr. Skibola

Dr. Abraham writes, "Most Internet users do not go further than the information supplied on the Web. Rarely do they search further in the orginal studies. So, what is on the Net about Skibola's studies?? In an interview with Amy Norton, Skibola did mention iodine as a potentially toxic substance. "Adding seaweed to the diet is probably going to be beneficial," Skibola said. However, she offered a word of caution about the kelp supplements sold at health food stores. Kelp contains high amounts of iodine, as well as low levels of heavy metals, and taking the seaweed in supplement form makes it easier to get too much of these potentially toxic substances. According to Skibola, kelp is not recommended for women who are pregnant or nursing, or for people with an overactive thyroid gland."

Dr. Abraham goes on to state, "Yet, she used in her studies, seaweed supplements made up of seaweed powder obtained by the same company that sells bulk seaweed powder to manufacturers who supply seaweed capsules to health food stores. Skibola is very concerned about toxic substances such as iodine in seaweed from health food stores, but she never reported the levels of iodine present in the seaweed she used in her studies. Is that double standard? Atlantic seaweed used extensively by the health food industry as a source of iodine contain approximately 0.4% iodine (dry weight), that is 4 mg. iodine/gm seaweed. In her studies of premenopausal women, she used a daily amount of 0.7 gm to 1.4 gm. Therefore, the daily intake of iodine in her study subjects would be 2.8 mg to 5.6 mg mg/day. That is the amount of iodine used by Ghent et al. to successfully treat fibrocystic disease of the breast."

Thus, according to Dr. Abraham, Skibola is of the belief that people with overactive thyroid glands should avoid seaweed because of the toxic element iodine.

An intellectual debate on our very pages.

Sally