Thyroid support formulas and copper

[Guest guest]

A couple of months ago I raised an issue about thyroid supplements and

copper. Unfortunately that thread generated some unnessesary friction

(mostly my fault). But I'd like to look at the issue again in a

logical manner.

In doing a search of thyroid supplements, they seem to fall into three

categtories:

1. Complex mixtures

2. Iodine only, perhaps kelp

3. Homeopathic

Category 1 supplements all seem to contain copper, usually 1 mg per

pill. They also all seem to contain iodine of some type, selenium,

tyrosine, zinc, B6, and B12. They also seem to contain various herbs,

that vary from formula to formula.

I find it interesting that the category 1 supplements all seem to

contain the same stuff. Somebody, somewhere must have identified these

things as being necessary for thyroid health.

As discussed before, copper is the problem. There are many articles

saying that copper is really bad for cancer patients, because it

promotes angiogenesis.

Looking at the above list of ingredients, it looks like it would be

relatively easy to take all the supplements separately without the

copper -- zinc, selenium, iodine, tyrosine, and the B vitamins. The

herbs may be a bit of a problem, but I'm not sure which herbs would be

important. (Are any?)

I was advised to take 9 thyroid pills a day, which contained a total of

9 mg of copper -- way way too much. However, one member here told me

that I could ameliorate the danger by taking IP6, which would chelate

the loose copper. This brings up a whole different topic - can IP6

chelate loose copper? That would be cool if it could.