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New This Week: August 17, 2011

Iodine Deficiency — An Old Epidemic Is Back

Dear Readers,

One of the main roles for the mineral iodine is to help manufacture thyroid hormones. And once upon a time in America — especially in the Great Lakes region — there were many cases of goiter, an enlarged thyroid gland caused by iodine deficiency. The iodine/goiter story had a happy ending, however, when manufacturers began adding iodine to salt ("iodized salt"). After that, goiters in the U.S. mostly disappeared.

But the iodine story turns out to have an epilogue. A new epidemic of iodine deficiency has occurred. And it's bringing a lot more than goiters with it.

Fatigue? Pain? Weight gain? Breast cysts or tenderness? In this issue, I'll tell you why you might be at risk for an iodine deficiency, what it might be doing to your health — and an easy way to protect yourself.

Read more »

Love & blessings,

Dr. T

Research Briefs

Because I'm discussing the importance of iodine in this issue of the newsletter, I thought I'd alert you to several new studies on the mineral that show it's importance in health, and it's safety when taken as a supplement.

Low Iodine After Pregnancy, Hypothyroid for Life?

Read more »

Less Iodine, More Likely To Gain Weight

Read more »

Supplemental Iodine is Safe

If you take a look at the scientific literature on iodine, and you'll see frequent reports about the risk of hyperthyroidism from a too-high intake of iodine. This problem is relatively rare, and just about the opposite of what's actually happening in the U.S. — an epidemic of hypothyroidism, with a widespread deficiency of iodine playing an important role.

Read more »

Featured Questions from Readers

Q: My daughters have been diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. What do I do? Read more »

Cool Stuff

Optical Illusion

Gaze at the picture below. Believe it or not, nothing at all is moving. That's just your head playing games with you.

Learn More

This Week's Joke

A Pirate Walks Into a Bar

"Whoa," exclaimed the bartender. "I see you have a peg leg. What happened?"

"Oh nothing really, we got into a fire fight with another ship and I caught a cannonball in the leg and they cut it off and gave me a peg leg. But I'm walking just fine now," answered the pirate.

"Hey, I see you're missing a hand. What happened?" asked the bartender.

"Oh we pulled up next to a ship and got into some hand to hand sword fighting and I lost my hand," said the pirate. "But I had this hook put on and everything is fine now."

The bartender said "I noticed you have a patch over your eye. What happened?"

"Oh it's nothing," answered the pirate, "A seagull flew over me head and pooped in me eye."

"Bird poop made you loose your eye?" asked the bartender.

"No," answered the pirate. "It was my first day with the hook."

........

We thank John C for this week's joke. John wins her choice of a free bottle of Corvalen or Energy Revitalization System vitamin powder. We invite you to email us your favorite jokes or quotes. If we use

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Some information on this site is from the book From Fatigued to Fantastic! Third Edition by Jacob Teitelbaum MD, copyright 2007 by Jacob Teitelbaum MD. Used by permission of Avery Publishing, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.