Re: Phone consult with Flechas about Iodine loss -

[Guest guest]

Thanks for sharing this with us, . Part of it is quite similar to what he told me when I had only 48% saturation after 3+ months on 50 mg Iodoral.

I didn't really understand why he relates this situation to the sodium/iodide defect. With the sodium/iodide defect, you should have very high levels of excretion. If you had that defect when you first had your test, you should have had high levels of excretion -- e.g., greater than 90% excretion, less than 10% saturation. However, your first test did not show this. Instead, you had slightly higher than average on your first test, if I remember correctly. (44% is average)

So, his logic does not make sense to me. If it makes sense to you, please explain it to me.

Second, the way to heal the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) defect is with Vitamin C, about 3 grams per day. What had your Vitamin C levels been? I had been taking 8 grams or more of Vitamin C for several years. If that heals the NIS defect, mine should have been well healed. However, I still had only average saturation after 3+ months on 50 mg.

I had also been taking Celtic (or Redmond's) sea salt, about 1/2 teaspoon per day, since shortly after I started the iodine. I knew that was supposed to help with the bromide detox, but I hadn't put it together that part of what it does is dislodge the bromide from the NIS.

He mentioned the DNA methylation silencing genes to me, too. This is the article he said was key in understanding methylation (and thyroid autoimmune diseases):

High frequency of skewed X-chromosome inactivation in females with autoimmune thyroid disease: a possible explanation for the female predisposition to thyroid autoimmunity.

Brix TH, Knudsen GP, Kristiansen M, Kyvik KO, Orstavik KH, Hegedus L.J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2005 Nov;90(11):5949-53. Epub 2005 Aug 16.

This article helped me understand why it is primarily women who get autoimmune disorders, but it didn't help me understand how iodine is related.

I found the following tutorial for physicians on methylation and gene silencing in cancer:

http://tinyurl.com/pe9ha

http://www.currentrxcme.com/NewFiles/ASCOenduring.pdf#search=%22methylation%20gene%22

The tutorial was interesting, and the first part was useful in helping me understand methylation. But it still didn't help me understand how iodine fits this picture. It did help me appreciate that DNA methylation is a hot new buzz word in medicine.

had this intriguing comment when I asked him about methylation and iodine: "Demethylation is probably an important mechanism of action for iodine. The maspin tumor suppressor gene becomes suppressed when methylated. Iodine demethylation expresses it. I wasn't able to go into this in my article." However, when I asked for more information, he said he didn't have any more. I haven't had time to research this further.

"He recommended I take Phosphatidylcholine 385 mg, softgels- 2 twice daily AND Betaine Free Base 1/2 teaspoon daily and monitor my TPO anti-bodies frequently." This is new. Do you know exactly what these are supposed to do???

Did he tell you to keep taking the Iodoral? If so, how much and for how long? Are you supposed to get another loading test?

Since magnesium is such an important part of your regimen, I'm wondering how magnesium and iodide are related. Do the same absorption mechanisms affect both? Do they compete for absorption?

I'm also wondering how long the "saturation" levels maintain after stopping the high dose iodine. I haven't read anything on that.

You are such a good researcher that I will be very interested in what you discover -- both from your own experiences and from what you read. Thank you so much for letting us know what happened in your consult.

I complete my month on 100 mg of Iodoral today and will then be taking another iodine loading test a couple days after that. We'll see what has happened on mine....

Zoe

Phone consult with Flechas about Iodine loss

Dr. Flechas called and seemed to be familiar with situation I am in. After months ofsupplementing 50mg of Iodine I have actually lost about 20% of my bodies iodine saturation.He said that I have a diminished iodine transport due to an sodium/iodide symporter defect andbromide overload. He said he has seen the symporter defect cause purging of existing Iodinestores in individuals with this problem while mega-dosing."Although congenital hypothyroidism due to sodium/iodide symporter defect is extremely rare,milder forms of iodine/iodide transport defect/damage throughout the whole body may be more commonand undetected"http://optimox.com/pics/Iodine/IOD-13/IOD_13.htm"If a patient has not taken iodine in significant amounts prior to this test and the test showsgreater than 90 percent excretion, one then needs to consider that this individual has asodium/iodide symporter defect. We now have done over 7,000 tests. A major symporter defect isdetected in about every 2,000 tests. If this defect is present, special considerations must begiven to try and get the defect repaired. A complete nutritional program is recommended. We havepreviously reported improvement of a cellular transport defect for iodine following Vitamin Csupplementation."http://www.vrp.com/art/1797.asp?c=1155970867437 & k=/det/9140.asp & m=/ & p=no & s=0He recommended I restart Iodine a few days after I start 1 teaspoon of Keltic Sea Salt a day,taken along with 1500MG of Ester-C twice a day. The combination of the sodium with the Iodine isan attempt to dislodge the Bromide from the defective receptors.He also mentioned I look into DNA Methylation to silence the gene for autoimmunity (hashimoto's inmy case). He recommended I take Phosphatidylcholine 385 mg, softgels- 2 twice daily AND BetaineFree Base 1/2 teaspoon daily and monitor my TPO anti-bodies frequently as it should be coming downwhile on the regimen for gene silencing. Both the Iodine and the gene silencing supplements can betaken at the same time. I've ordered the supplements, so I will keep you all posted.