Mental Performance Enhancement: Iodine
Iodine deficiency affects perhaps more people in the world than any other deficiency disease, with latest estimates being greater than 1.9 billion people deficient. Iodine or the lack of it influences brain development, with mental retardation ("cretinism") one consequence of deficiency. Meta-analyses suggest that populations with iodine deficiency suffer from an IQ deficit of 13.5 points. The question that remains, however, is whether these IQ deficits are due to retarded neural development, and therefore more or less permanent, or whether repletion of iodine can improve IQ.
In a study undertaken to discover the answer, Albanian schoolchildren were given a one-time supplement of 400 mg of iodine, and took the Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices test before and after supplementation, and their scores increased by nearly 5 points, or some 25%. (Raven's correlates .91% with the Wechsler IQ test.) That's a whopping great number. And it provides powerful evidence that supplementation can improve mental performance long after gestation and infancy; hypothyroidism, in many cases probably due to iodine deficiency, hinders cognitive performance in adults as well as children.
So, you're thinking, that's all very well for those Albanian schoolkids, and maybe that will help supply the world with smarter arms-dealers, but how does that help me? Glad you asked.
There's considerable evidence that the vast majority of Americans are iodine deficient. (No jokes please.) Guy Abraham, M.D., has found that the vast majority of patients tested using an iodine loading test are deficient, many of them severely. (Dr. Abraham has written a number of articles on this; try Optimum Levels of Iodine for Greatest Mental and Physical Health.) Clinical and subclinical hypothyroidism are very common, affecting something like 12% of the population, and of course iodine deficiency isn't confined to this subset.
The Japanese have the highest iodine intake in the world (from seaweed), as well as a low rate of breast cancer, and there are reasons to think that the two are related. (Read Dr. Abraham for the details.) More germane to the point here: the Japanese rank third in the world, after Hong Kong and South Korea, in average IQ, and I wouldn't be surprised if Hong Kong and Korea had high iodine intakes too. Is that a coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. Personally, I'm not taking any chances.
Another excellent (and more succinct) article on this is Extrathyroidal Benefits of Iodine by Donald Miller, M.D.
One interesting aspect of all this is that, if Dr. Abraham's research is correct, and I think it is, the RDI (reference daily intake) for iodine in this country is low by two orders of magnitude. (For the cretins, that means it should be 100 times higher.) Iodized salt doesn't begin to cover the need. Thyroidologists say that we get enough, and they're wary of supplementation, but whole body scans using radio-labeled iodine show that it's taken up and concentrated by numerous tissues besides the thyroid.
The usual disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, and this is not intended as medical advice. Your results may vary.
Labels: Diet, Health, IQ, Pharmacology
posted by Dennis Mangan @ 6:44 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
besides salt and seaweed, what other dietary sources of iodine are available?
The cheapest is Lugol's iodine. Dose would be 2 to 6 drops daily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugol%27s_iodine
Beware, iodine stains everything, clothing, skin, kitchen counters...
The alternative is a tablet, Iodoral.
http://www.optimox.com/pics/Iodine/opt_Iodoral.htm
Iodine was fed massively to people near the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It would be interesting to see if their IQ improved.
We used to feed our first kitchen garden with seaweed. Do you suppose that we gained indirectly via our fruit and veg?
When I was a little kid I cut my toe on a pebble and my mom put iodine on the wound. Ever since, my big toe has been my most intelligent component. Unfortunately, I have trouble reaching the keyboard with it and even when I can, typing is very slow. So I've never achieved my potential.
Certain foods, such as broccoli, decrease absorption of iodine. Wikipedia states: "Cruciferous vegetables contain goitrogens and nitriles. Cooking for 30 minutes significantly reduces the amount of goitrogens and nitriles. At high intake of crucifers, the goitrogens inhibit the incorporation of iodine into thyroid hormone and also the transfer of iodine into milk by the mammary gland."
One of the interesting things about iodine as a nutrient is it can be applied to the skin and absorbed that way. One does not have to put up with the taste.
Guy Abraham on goitrogens in the environment:
"The requirement for iodine depends on the goitrogen load. The greater the goitrogen load, the greater the need for iodine. Bromide is a goitrogen that interferes with the uptake and utilization of iodide by target cells (1,2). The U.S. population is exposed to large amounts of the element bromine in its organic and inorganic forms. We have observed a basal mean level of urine bromide at 24 mg/24 hr, four times higher than reported in Western Europe. The United States utilizes two-thirds of the annual world production of bromine (17). The annual world production of bromine is 280,000 tons. At 909 Kg/ton, we have then an annual world production of bromine of approximately 254,520,000 Kg. The U.S. consumes 167,983,200 Kg of bromine annually. Out of that amount, 45,450,000 Kg are used in agriculture (food supply) and 9,090,000 Kg for water sanitation (water supply). The amount of bromine used in our food and water supplies compute to 21% of the total U.S. utilization of this goitrogenic halogen (18). It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that we, in the U.S., are exposed to high amounts of the goitrogen bromine via our food and water supplies in all its inorganic and organic forms, such as methylbromide in agriculture. Bromine competes with iodine for cellular uptake and utilization; and has goitrogenic, carcinogenic and narcoleptic properties (1). Iodine pulls bromine from storage sites and increases its urinary excretion (2). Chloride also increases the excretion of bromide i n urine (18). For detoxification of bromide, the halides iodide and chloride are the most effective.
The annual world production of iodine in 1981 was 12,000 tons or 10,908,000 Kg (18). Some 20% of the iodine used in the U.S. is for animal feed supplement, and none for human food, except the minimal amount in table salt (19). Between 1960 and 1980, iodate was used in bread with one slice of bread containing the full RDA of 0.15 mg (1). But some 20 years ago, iodophobia resulted in the removal of iodate from bread, replacing it with… you guessed it… bromate. If you wanted to keep a nation sick and zombified, we cannot think of a better way to achieve this goal (1)."
It's not clear that 'g' improved. I've long suspected that Ravens is probably measuring something that's not g.
Perhaps HS would like to share with us the grounds for his "suspicion" about the Raven's test. From the Wiki article: "Arthur Jensen, Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, has called Raven's Progressive Matrices "one of the best tests for measuring g," the general intelligence factor that all IQ tests measure to a greater or lesser degree. He also said that it is a test of inductive reasoning, unadulterated by verbal, numerical, spatial, mechanical, or musical interference. [4]"
Also, maybe he'd like to share his reasons as to why normal thyroid function doesn't affect brain function, despite this being as sure a fact as anything in biology.
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