atoms bonded into their structure. The vast majority of
the Iodine on Earth, and in our diets, is in the form of
Iodides. Iodine is more chemically active than the
Iodides formed from it. That is why weak solutions
containing elemental Iodine are often used as
antiseptics, and in some parts of the world used for
water purification. Such solutions kill bacteria and
viruses that may be on the skin, or in drinking water, by
chemically "burning" or "bleaching" them, much like very
dilute solutions of the chemically similar element
"Chlorine" are also used to bleach and kill germs,
particularly in municipal water systems and in public
swimming pools.
During the 1970's, one of the experiments I most
enjoyed showing my students involved taking a small
scoop of pure, purple-black, crystals of solid elemental
Iodine, and placing them on top of one end of a small
sheet of ordinary kitchen-grade Aluminum foil. I would
roll and wrap the foil around the pile of crystals until I
ended up with cigarette shaped roll of foil with the Iodine
concentrated in one end. Then I would twist the foil to
bind and seal it so the Iodine could not leak out. Next I
pick the bundle up by the end that did not have any
Iodine it, to show it to the class. Then I would silently
wait for them to try warning me that my foil cigarette had
started emitting a cloud of translucent purple smoke.
This development, and the commotion it inspired,
usually got everybody's attention. As things continued
to heat up the Aluminum would be surrounded by an
atmosphere of darker purple Iodine fumes, and then
would burst into bright white/yellow flames that
consumed the purple fumes about as quickly as they
were cooked and sublimed out of the foil. The reaction
was not just between the Aluminum and the Iodine.
Some of the Iodine also reacted with the with the thin
Oxide layer on the Aluminum that usually protects that
metal from further oxidation, and also with Oxygen in the
air, to form Oxides of Iodine. Usually after less than one
minute, when the remains of the aluminum cigarette ran
out of elemental Iodine, the purple vapors would
dissipate, and the brightly burning Aluminum would
extinguish itself. The white "Aluminum Iodide" smoke
produced by the main chemical reaction would be left
floating around the room, and we would have to open
doors and widows for ventilation.
Aluminum, and most other metals, will also
spontaneously burst into flame and burn even more
quickly and energetically when they are placed in an
atmosphere of pure Bromine, Chlorine, or Fluorine.
These very active chemical elements, and Iodine, are
called "Halogens". They share similar chemical
properties, and in the periodic table of elements they are
all placed in the same column. I don't recommend trying
these metal burning experiments with any of the other
halogens, however, because they are all much more
active, tissue burning and toxic than Iodine. During The
First World War, for example, tons of Chlorine gas were
released by the opposing armies upon each other.
Chlorine gas is heavier than air, so it stays concentrated
near the ground and burns the eyes, throat and lungs of
anyone downwind from the release point. Tens of
thousands the soldiers out in the field were quickly
suffocated by the burns, and hundreds of thousands
more, who managed to managed to survive the initial
gas attacks nevertheless developed chronic breathing
problems that haunted them for the rest of their lives.
The suffering was so widespread and so horrific that
after The First World War the use of poison gas was
outlawed. Even Hitler and Stalin were afraid of the
retaliation their counties would draw, if they broke the
ban.
I hope all of this clarifies your understanding that
Iodines are compounds than contain chemically bonded
Iodine. The reason why elemental Iodine is much rarer
in nature than Iodides is that it is so chemically reactive
that it spontaneously bonds together with all kinds of
other elements and/or compounds, to form iodides with
them.
Iodine is also one of the rarer elements on Earth. It is
only about as common as gold. Since salts of it, and
most other compounds of it, are water-soluble, most of
the world's Iodide has ended up concentrated in the
ocean. Even so, there is only about one part Iodide per
each 100,000,000 parts of seawater. Removing the
water from seawater, there are about 3 parts of Iodide
for each million parts of sea salt. Our modern Iodized
table salt has about 74 part per million of Iodide added to
it. Thus, it has about a 25 times higher of a
concentration of Iodide than sea salt does. If you
replace your ordinary Iodized table-salt with sea-salt
because it is "more natural" and supposedly "healthier",
you may be cutting out the major source of Iodide in your
diet.
Animal sea-life needs Iodide to make and regulate the
thyroid hormones that drive its growth and energy use.
Salt-water shell fish, such as lobsters and crabs, can't
even moult (grow larger) without high concentrations of
Iodide in their diet. All kinds of sea plants and animals
have evolved to concentrate Iodide in their bodies to
levels higher than found in our iodized table salt. Most
kinds of seaweeds are very low in carbohydrates and
high in protein. The high levels of proteins in them are
also composed of very high concentrations of an amino
acid called "Tyrosine". By weight, for example, dried
kelp is about 60% protein and 5% carbohydrates, and
the protein in kelp is about 10% Tyrosine. Tyrosine
spontaneously absorbs, bonds with, and concentrates
Iodides. To further speed up this bonding of Iodides with
the Tyrosine in their structure, most seaweeds also have
"Iodide pumps" located in their cellular membranes that
pump some of the Iodide in the seawater around them
into their cells. This enables a lot of the Tyrosine in their
tissues to become Iodized, so they often end up with
Iodide levels inside their tissues that are about
1,000-fold higher than Iodide level is in the seawater
they live in. By weight, for example, the Giant Pacific
Kelp that grows off the coast of California, after it has
been dehydrated, typically contains between 3,000 and
7,000 parts per million of Iodide.
I believe the reason sea weeds have such high levels
of Iodide is to poison the fish, and other creatures, that
might otherwise eat very much of them. Since they have
evolved greater tolerance for high levels of Iodide than
most fish, filter feeders and crustaceans often survive,
and end up with, very high concentration of Iodide in
their bodies. So, in addition to seaweeds, most marine
invertebrates are also good sources of dietary Iodide for
humans.
Humans need a lot more dietary Iodide than most other
mammals because (as I will explain in detail in Feeling
Young and In Love) for millions of years our early human
and hominid ancestors evolved and prospered in
semi-aquatic, marine environments, where Iodide was
about 100 times more abundant in their food chain than
it is in today's modern American diet. Most of the human
population today still lives less than 200 feet above sea
level, and most of the people living near the sea, and still
dining regularly on foods from the marine food chain, are
healthier and live longer than the average American
because they eat higher and more optimal levels of
Iodide than the average American.
The first, and so far the only, major summary of all of
the scientific research done around the world over the
past 100 years on dietary Iodide sufficiency,
"Orthoiodiosupplementation for The Whole Human
Body", recently (in December 2003) concluded that the
amount of Iodide/Iodine needed for optimal human
health, happiness and longevity was about 12.5 mg per
adult per day. That is about 83 times as much as the
US Food and Drug Administration recommends, and
about 90-120 times as much as the average American
adult today actually eats. (To find this ground-breaking
summary, just put the word "orthoiodosupplemetation" in
your search engine.)
The average USA diet is presently one of the most
Iodine deficient in the world, and as a consequence most
of the psychological and health problems that Americans
suffer from, and are killed by, are Iodide deficiency
related. I will go into this sad and easily correctable fact
in detail in Feeling young and In Love. In The Basic
Program from Feeling Young and In Love I give more
specific Iodide dosage information for various age
groups and health conditions. The Basic Program can
be downloaded for free from this website.
Kelp Powder
There are three kinds of supplemental Iodide I
recommend. The oldest and most available is most any
kind of seaweed. I prefer ground up kelp powder
because it is the least expensive of the seaweeds, and
in its dehydrated and powered form it tastes salty and
makes a fairly pleasant tasting salt replacement in soups
and sauces and/or in combination with real butter or
cheese on top of hot-air-popped popcorn, baked
potatoes, and/or steamed vegetables. The average
Japanese adult gets about 14 mg of Iodide per day, from
eating sea weeds. Most of this Iodide is delivered in
their traditional morning bowls of boiled sea-vegetables
called "Miso Soup". To get the minimum-opitmal 12.5
mg of Iodide per healthy adult, per day from eating kelp
powder, from the Giant Pacific Kelp, you would need to
eat about 2 heaping teaspoons of dehydrated kelp
power per day.
Many oriental markets and health food stores sell
various kinds of dehydrated sea-weeds and/or kelp
powders. The "Now Foods" brand of powdered kelp I
have most commonly bought at my local health food
store currently costs about $3.50 per 8 ounces. My list
of on-line/mail-order suppliers is as follows:
Now Foods - Kelp Powder
Now Foods is its own distributor, selling directly to
retailers. When I put "now kelp powder" in Goggle, it
came up with dozens of on-line retailers reselling its
8-ounce bottles of Kelp Powder for about $3 each.
There are also many other types of seaweed, and
brands of kelp powder, listed on the Internet. In
quantities of 10 pounds or more, some of them cost less
than $2 per pound. Even at those prices, however, they
are not nearly as low cost, or as easy to use, as a
source of Iodide/Iodine, as is Lugol's Solution.
Lugol's Solution
In 1823 a French physician named J. G. A. Lugol
developed a concentrated solution of Potassium Iodide
and elemental Iodine for treating the mental and physical
problems of his female patents, and also as a general
purpose health tonic, antiseptic, disinfectant and
drinking water purification treatment. It was an
immediate success, particularly in treating depression,
obesity, slow metabolism, menstrual problems, breast
and uterine fibroids, tumors and cancers, and for
promoting better general health and happiness. In
1827, realizing that he had made a major discovery that
could help most people live happier, healthier and longer
lives, Lugol finally gave his formula to the world. Lugol's
Solution is composed of 85% water, 10% potassium
Iodide, and 5 % elemental Iodine. The Elemental Iodine
is what gives the solution its translucent dark brown
color. It also gives it its antiseptic, antibiotic and water
purification effects, and much of its anti-cancer effects.
In the human body large amount of Iodide are
enzymatically converted into elemental Iodine. The
female breast, for example, concentrates the amount of
Iodine in breast milk, by converting large amounts of
Iodides into elemental Iodine, then the elemental Iodine
ends up dissolving in and concentrated in the milk fat.
That vastly increases how much Iodine a mother's
nursing baby get. Even when no breast feeding is going
on females breasts still convert Iodides into elemental
Iodide. The kidneys then excrete the excess elemental
Iodine coming from the breasts about 5 times faster than
they excrete Iodides. That is why even women who are
not nursing babies ideally still need about 5 mg more
dietary Iodide per day than men. So if you eat enough
Iodide, even if you eat no element Iodine at all, you body
can covert enough of it into enough Iodine so that you
can enjoy all of Iodine's anti-bacterial, anti-viral and
anti-cancer activities that you need. In fact, the infection
fighting and cancer fighting white blood cells secrete
Hydrogen Peroxide, which converts any nearby Iodides
in the body into elemental Iodine. That Iodine then
attacks and helps to kill the germs and/or cancer cells
that the white blood cells are fighting.
The advantage of the elemental Iodide in Lugol's
Solution is that for people who are already sick, it is
already ready to start acting against infections and/or
cancers, so it is faster acting as and antibiotic, anti-viral
agent and/or anti-cancer agent than are Iodides. The
disadvantage if Lugol's is that the elemental Iodide in it
can cause burns and Iodine allergies, and can also kill
off too many of the good bacteria in the digestive system.
During the 19th century and the first half of the 20th
century Lugol's solution came to be widely
recommended by popular word of mouth, and was also
routinely prescribed by apothecaries, druggists,
pharmacists, physicians and all kinds of other healers for
everything from use as a cough preventive and cure, to
a cancer preventive and cure. Its effectiveness was why
it became so popular. During the previous century most
Americans ended up using Lugol's solution for treating
all kinds of health problems. Even today, it still works
better over the long-term for most such preventions and
cures, than any of our presently available prescription
medications.
Humans need to consume adequate dietary Iodide to
help them resist infections and autoimmune diseases,
and to avoid cancer and all kinds of other degenerative
diseases. Prescription drugs may temporarily suppress
some of the many symptoms caused by Iodide
deficiency, but the side effects of drugs are often worse
than the symptoms they treat. Also, even as some
symptoms of the underlying deficiency may be
suppressed, many other even worse symptoms will
sooner or later arise. The simple prevention of all of
these problems, and the need for so many medical
treatments and prescription drugs, is to provide
adequate dietary Iodide in the first place.
The amazing efficacy of Iodide/Iodine for preventing
and curing all kinds of common illnesses is detailed in
Feeling Young and In Love. For now let me just
summarize by saying that the most commonly proscribed
daily dosage delivers about 12.5 mg of Iodide/Iodine.
When bought in bulk, 12.5 mg/day only costs about $1
per year, and is enough to long postpone, or entirely
prevent, the development of the vast majority of the
degenerative diseases that presently disable and kill
most older Americans. 12.5 mg of Iodide/Iodine is also
enough to help slow the aging, and improve the health
and happiness, of most younger Americans.
Despite the well established cure-all nature of Lugol's
Solution, you may hear very little about it. While it was
very widely proscribed, and it, and solutions of
Potassium Iodide without the elemental Iodine, were
used regularly before 1950, by more than 100 million
Americans, "modern" doctors almost never proscribe,
recommend or even discuss Lugol's' Solution, or any
other Iodinde/Iodine containing supplements. In fact, few
of them have even heard very much about the bodies
need to Iodide/Iodine supplements, and what they have
heard has UNDERSTATED THE ACTUAL NEED BY
ABOUT 83-FOLD.
When Iodide started being added to table salt in 1924,
since the researchers developing the recommendations
came from "modern" medical orientations, where
prescribing the minimum effective dose of any
medication was, and is still, standard practice, and they
tended to view Iodide as some kind of toxic medication,
rather than as a natural and vital nutrient that we have
evolved high need for, and even higher tolerance of,
they ended up trying to find the very minimum amount of
Iodide that needed to be added to the diet to prevent the
immediate development of diseases such as cretinism
and goiter, rather than how much was needed for
optimum health and happiness. The 150 mcg per day
that they recommended, and that is still stupidly
recommended by our government, when that much is
actually consumed, is enough to suppress the
development of goiter and cretinism in about 97% of the
population. One problem, however, is that while most
American are still eating as much salt as ever, they are
getting more and more of their salt from processed
foods, such as junk foods, and less and less of their salt
from table salt. Since the government only mandated
that Iodide be added to table salt, junk foods and all
other high-salt processed foods, almost never contain
any added Iodide. Thus, the amount of Iodide that
Americans eat has been declining. It is now less than
20% as high as it was in 1969. It is also now
substantially lower than even the low-ball amount that
the government still stupidly recommends as sufficient.
There is major evidence that most Americans are
presently eating too little Iodide to suppress the
development of minder kinds of mental dysfunctions
such as our current epidemics of attention deficit
disorders, depressions, drug dependencies, obesity, and
wide-spread failures to fall and stay faithfully in love with
our mates. Also our current very low levels of dietary
Iodide are insufficient to suppress the premature
development of all kinds of physical degenerative
diseases, such as our current epidemics of heart
disease, cancer and arthritis.
Much of the misinformation about Iodide/Iodine is also
the fault of the drug industry. It does not like competition
against its more expensive and highly advertised and
medically promoted products. Even thought Lugol's
Solution would be vastly more health promoting,
applicable and appropriate than any of their patented
products, the drug industry cannot make any serious
money with it because it cannot be patented. Also,
Lugol's Solution is much less expensive than any
prescription medication. Even worse for the drug
industry than the extremely low cost of Lugol's Solution,
however, is its effectiveness at preventing and curing all
kinds of diseases. The more it is used, the more it will
undermine the sales of those of their patented drugs that
don't actually cure anything, but rather just treat
symptoms of diseases. That is the vast majority of
modern patented drugs. Basically if you are taking
enough Iodide/Iodine to avoid most illnesses and
degenerative diseases, then you are not going to need
to buy nearly as much of their very high priced drugs.
To help suppress public knowledge about, and use of,
Iodide/Iodine drug companies have lobbied and bribed
federal legislators and administrators, and have also had
the influence to get their cronies installed in the NIH,
FDA, and the DOJ. In the NIH the cronies have long
blocked the scientific study of the health benefits of
natural substances such as Iodide/Iodine. In the FDA
the cronies have lobbied for, written and enforced laws
that, for example, make it illegal for nutritional
supplemental manufacturers and distributors to make
any health claims at all for any nutritional supplements.
It does not matter how well researched and scientifically
substantiated such claims may be. Unless the
manufacturer pays huge amounts of money to have their
nutritional supplement tested and approved as a
prescription medication, then making claims about its
effectiveness is still forbidden. Since natural remedies
can't be patented there is no good means to recover
such expenditures.
On the other hand, since it's drugs are usually patented,
and even after the patents have expired the drugs still
have built up considerable brand name recognition and
loyalty, particularly among the doctors who are in charge
of proscribing them, the drug industry has been able to
build up a large enough cash flow so than it can afford to
invest tens of billions of dollars each year to advertise in,
and thereby better control, the medical journals and
medical education curriculums in this country. Such
investments teach medical students and young
physicians a lot about patented drugs, and how to use
them according to the drug industries recommendations,
rather than anything about Iodide/Iodine and how it can
be used to prevent the need for most drug prescriptions
and/or medical procedures.
This "disinterest in" (ignorance about and prejudice
against) natural remedies that has developed is also in
the financial interest of medical practitioners and the
medical establishment in general. With little dietary
Iodide/Iodine prescribed or consumed, people develop
all kinds of diseases sooner, more often, and more
severely, so they end up seeing doctors a lot more. It is
all about money. They make money treating diseases,
and Iodide/Iodine would prevent too many diseases,
and/or cure too many of their potential customers.
Getting back to the availability of Lugol's solution, it is
still theoretically legal to sell it. During the
administration of George W. Bush, however, the FDA
and the DOJ have raided and shut down the operations
of hundreds of manufactures and marketers of nutritional
supplements, including all of the lower-cost providers of
Lugol's Solution labeled for human consumption. The
only companies still selling it that I was able to find are:
There are also two other classes of sources of Lugol's
Solution, however, that are still on the Internet and
available to American citizens. One is marine aquarium
suppliers, and the other is laboratory chemical suppliers.
Marine aquariums, particularly those that house marine
invertebrates, need to have supplemental Iodide/Iodine
added to them. Since it was low cost and widely
available during the early decades of that industry,
Lugol's solution is still widely used to supplement the
Iodide/Iodine levels of saltwater aquariums. Just put
"Lugol's Solution" in your search engine, and most of
the suppliers your find will be retailers of saltwater
aquarium supplies.
Lugol's Solution is also widely used in the field of
biology. A common test for starch in plants, animals and
bacteria, for example, involves applying a drop of Lugol's
Solution to the specimen to be tested. The Iodine in the
drop reacts with any starch in the sample, to turn it deep,
dark blue. "Gram Negative Bacteria," for example, are
bacteria that contain small amounts of starch, and thus
have their stores of starch stained dark blue when
exposed to Lugol's Solution. Laboratory grade Lugol's
solution is low cost, widely available, and just as pure
and safe as Lugol's Solution labeled for human
consumption. Before using it, however, I suggest
reading the chapter on Iodide/Iodine in The Basic
Program from Feeling Young and In Love. It warns
about how to deal with Iodine sensitivity and other
problems that many American have developed due to
preexisting deficiencies of dietary Iodide. It also warns
about how children and adolescents don't need as much
Iodide as adults. One warning about ordering from
laboratory supply houses that I should mention is that
you don't need to order their larger size bottles. A single
Liter of Lugol's solution contains about 25,000 drops.
That is probably enough to supplement your entire
family for years. While most laboratory supply places in
your town, and on the Internet, probably sell Lugol's
Solution, the only one I have bought any from is NASCO.
They sell to the general public, their prices are
competitive, and their service was fine.
Ford's Formula Iodide Drops
Given the corruption of the Food and Drug
Administration so that it still only recommends about
1/83rd of the optimal amount of dietary Iodide, given the
corruption of the National Institute of Health, and the
drug industry which controls the NIH, so that they have
yet to do much of anything to test and/or publicize how
much dietary Iodide would best prevent disease and
improve health, happiness and longevity, and given that
the level of Iodide in the American diet has been
declining each year since 1969 and is now less than
20% as high as it was in the 1960's, I have formulated a
low-cost and easy to use Iodide supplement that the
third-party supplement manufactures and marketers can
produce and sell. I have included complete information
about why and how to use "Ford's Formula Iodide Drops"
in The Basic Program. I will add the contact information
about new suppliers of it periodically after I heard from
them. For now the only suppliers I am aware of are:
