Hello, I am new here, have read much on
Iodine supplementation and my head is swimming. Here's my background:
I was diagnosed with inflammatory
Arthritis due to an autoimmune disorder. My blood tests and symptoms were enough to confirm autoimmune but not enough to point to which one. My only symptom is
Arthritis in my hands that was confirmed to be inflammatory as opposed to osteo. I have rosacea, a spot of vitiligo and have had asthma since childhood. All of these have been described as inflammatory responses. I mention these because somewhere in my reading I linked inflammation with low thyroid. I don't recall why or how.
As I was going through the autoimmune tests, I continually mentioned my "other" symptoms. Hair loss, always cold, lethargic, severe brain fog, forgetful, difficult to loose weight, and temps consistently between 96.2 and 97.5. Finally when I started to lose eyebrow hair, my doctors paid attention. I was tested by GP and found to have normal thyroid levels. But because symptoms wouldn't go away with diet and exercise she sent me to endo doc. Endo did full panel and, upon my insistence,
Iodine blood test. Again thyroid was normal but
Iodine was low even though I was already supplementing with 300mcg kelp. B12 was also low. She said to add another 150mcg of kelp and a B12.
Within 1 week my hair stopped falling out and the brain fog and coldness occurred less often. For the first 5 months, I noticed that when I forgot to supplement, my hair would fall out again. After about 10 months I could go weeks without the supplements before hair loss would occur.
However, I still was not losing weight and had the occasional foggy and lethargic days. So I upped my dose to 450mcg iodine through kelp supplements. I thought I had researched well, but when the headaches and general crappy feeling began I looked further and found I should have been using support supplements. I'm now wondering what else I may have missed??? Here are my test results and the supps I'm taking now:
TSH 1.65 (.4-4.5)NORMAL RANGE
T4 FREE 1.1 (.8-1.8)
T3 UPTAKE 32.8% (27-40%)
THYROID PEROXIDASE AB no anitbodies
T3FREE 2.9 (2.3 - 4.2)
IODINE 53 (52-109)
Supplements:
Selenium: 200 mcg ashwaghanda: 500mg
vit c: 500mg turmeric: 400mg
fish oil: 2000mg general multi vitamin
magnesium: 250mg vit D: 500IU
calcium: 630mg indole-3-carbinol
Indeed my test numbers are squarely in the center of the ranges but there is no denying how the iodine stopped the hair loss and how the bald spot in my 1 eyebrow has started to grow back.
The headaches occurred after the 3rd day of upping the iodine to 450mcgs and continue (4 days now). Do my combinations look right? What is the best method to deal with the headaches? If it's short lived (2 weeks or less) I can push through and ignore them but any longer, I'll need other options. I wonder if I will see weight loss with this level of iodine? I take all of the supplements at the same time in the morning. I wish to stick with the kelp for now and have found a reliable source through this forum. Any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Wow - this is long, sorry