Going Back to Iodized Salt
For years I have been using Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, which is free of iodine and other preservatives. But at a recent nutrition workshop, I learn that most people, especially females, are iodine deficient because food preparers generally do not use iodized salt in fear that the iodine may cause a radical color change to their food products.
Iodine is an essential mineral for the thyroid to produce thyroxine (T4) to keep hypothyroidism at bay. Unless one consumes a lot of seafood or seaweed, a lack of iodine is just one of the ways that hypothyroidism can occur. The other two off the top of head are:
1) if too much thyroid gland was removed from a hyperthyroidism treatment
2) congential defect
3) There is one more, but I don’t remember at the moment.
Look in the mirror. Between your collar bone and your Adam’s apple is where the thyroid is located. If something appears to be bulging, this maybe a goiter. A goiter can occur in either someone who has hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism. Your doctor can test how well your thyroid is working.
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I use very little salt due to lower leg edema from veinous insufficiency, but when I add salt, I use a natural sea salt, which contains trace iodine, but I’m wondering if that is enough, I will have to look into that and see. Thanks for reminding me that its needed by the thyroid. Even though I work in allopathic medicine I personally use homeopathic medicine so I could increase my iodine without increasing my actual intake!
Yikes this is scary stuff thanks for the tip. -Dee
You probably want to contact the salt manufacturer for further specification. My gut feeling is that if iodine is not indicated on the label, there probably is not much. Iodine is not an abundant mineral.
One more thing I want to add. Sodium does not affect edema. Sodium is an ion that dissolves in water. Edema is caused by plasma protein leaking out into the interstitial fluid because of an inflammatory response, such as histamine or a backup flow from an organ. When the plasma protein leaks out into the interstitial fluid, it’s going to cause swelling. Picture this. Your capillaries are like “Tylenol capsules” floating in the pond. When the “granules” (plasma protein) inside the capsule leaks out into the pond, water will follow because water is very drawn to protein. Soon the pond becomes the bay. This is why people swell.