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Abraham
The historical background of the iodine project.Abraham GE The Original Internist, 12(2):57-66, 2005
"This drop in % excretion has been observed in some subjects after they have achieved whole body sufficiency for iodine, even though they continued to ingest 50 mg iodine/day regularly. Increased exposure to goitrogens may be the explanation. In some of these cases, the author has observed increased urine bromide excretion as high as 20 fold baseline levels following the loading test, concomitant with a drop in percent iodide excreted."
"Orthoiodosupplementation resulted in marked increase in bromide excretion, and to a lesser extent in fluoride also. The results obtained in the first 5 subjects studied are displayed in Table IV. The results observed for bromide in subject #5 were so surprising that they were published as a letter to the editor of Townsend Letters. These findings have since been replicated in a large number of tests. Female patients with breast cancer seem to retain more iodine on the loading test then normal subjects and excreted more bromide than normal subjects. This needs to be confirmed using a well-designed protocol since this observation is anecdotal on a small number of patients.
"Another factor involved in the increased demand for iodine is the presence of excessive amounts of goitrogens in the diet and from lifestyle. For example, smoking increases serum thiocyanate levels, interfering with the sodium/iodide symporter function. Sources of goitrogens are available from medical textbooks, although the halides fluoride and bromide are not listed as goitrogens. Fluoride interferes with the uptake of iodide by the thyroid gland symporter system, but it is itself not transported inside the thyrocyte, suggesting that fluoride causes oxidative damage to the halide-binding site of the symporter. The author previously discussed the goitrogenic effect of bromide even at low concentrations. Patients who used water from wells and municipal plants may be exposed to potassium perchlorate, a very powerful goitrogen that behaves like fluoride, binding to the halide-binding site of the symporter without itself being symported. A recent Internet publication by Kirk et al reported the presence of high concentrations of perchlorate in dairy milk sold in grocery stores and in human milk. The mean levels of perchlorate were 5 times higher in breast milk than dairy milk. Perchlorate has a selectivity factor of at least 30 over iodide. To compete effectively against this goitrogen, the peripheral concentration of inorganic iodide must be at least 100 times higher than the concentration of perchlorate. Kirk et al (16) observed that breast and dairy iodide levels were inversely correlated with the levels of perchlorate. Perchlorate and fluoride, due to their high redox potential, may cause oxidative damage to the halide binding site, decreasing its efficiency for iodide transport.
"If the pre-orthoiodosupplementation loading test report shows 90% or more of the ingested iodine in the 24 hr urine collection of patients on a Western diet, serum inorganic iodide levels are indicated to rule out an iodide transport defect or damage not just in the thyroid gland but throughout the whole body. In our experience, this is very rare and was observed in only 2 cases. The intestinal absorption of iodine/iodide involves a different mechanism than the uptake of iodide by target cells via the sodium/iodide symporter. For example, chloride competes with iodide in the intestinal tract but chloride has no detectable effect on the iodide symporter system. This explains why a patient with iodide transport damage is able to absorb iodine/iodide efficiently but unable to transfer peripheral iodine/iodide into the cells."
Iodine supplementation markedly increases urinary excretion of fluoride and bromideAbraham GE Townsend Newsletter, May, 2003
"While the debate continues, regarding benefits and adverse effects of fluoridation of our water supply and bromination of our food supply, what can one do to minimize the toxic effects of these 2 halides? One approach in decreasing the body burden of fluoride and bromide is orthoiodosupplementation, that is iodine/iodide supplementation in daily amount for whole body sufficiency."
"Is there a practical and simple way to lower the body's burden of fluoride and bromide? It has been known for sometime now that bromide competes with chloride in the extracellular space and that the total molar concentration of bromide plus chloride remains constant. (8) This concept has been used to decrease extracellular bromide levels by saline loading. However, the presence of bromide in the thyroid gland (9) and the central nervous system (10) suggests that there is another intracellular "pool" of bromide, not responding to chloride. In the thyroid gland, bromide competes with iodide for uptake, oxydation and organification.
"Therefore, increasing iodide intake should lower bromide levels in the thyroid, preventing and reversing its thyrotoxic and goitrogenic effects. The same applies to fluoride. Galletti and Joyet (12) evaluated the effect of 5-10 mg fluoride on thyroid functions in hyperthyroid patients. Although fluoride inhibited the iodide-concentrating mechanism of the thyroid, fluoride did not accumulate in the thyroid. Based on their radioactive tracer studies, they concluded "Fluorine does not impair the capacity of the gland to synthesize thyroid hormones when there is an abundance of iodide in the blood." Therefore, fluoride toxicity depends on iodide supply."
"Following supplementation with the iodine/iodide preparation, there was a progressive increase in the excretion of fluoride and bromide. With 3 tablets, the 24h excretion of fluoride was 17.5 times baseline level; and for bromide, 18 times baseline level. These high levels persisted even after one month of supplementation at 3 tablets/day, being 15 times baseline level for fluoride, and 16 times for bromide. After one month, the estimated total amount of halide excreted was 24 mg fluoride and 8700mg bromide. It is unlikely that such large amounts of halides came from the thyroid gland. It would seem that the whole body is being detoxified. Orthoiodosupplementation could be used under medical supervision to detoxify the body from unwanted halides in a manner similar to the use of EDTA for the detoxification of heavy metals."
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