I mentioned in the prior post that I never suspected iodine deficiency. No thyroid issues; no competing halogens; fish 3 times weekly.

My concern was specifically for prostate cancer, but I was not about to start on a supplement without first testing. The easiest test is to dab some iodine on the inner arm & measure the absorption time:

"Home test for iodine deficiency includes taking some iodine and a swab of cotton. You can find tincture iodine in a drugstore. Dip the cotton swab in the tincture iodine and paint a circle in the inner part of your upper arm or the thighs. Once you have done with that, wait for an hour. After an hour if you find that the circle has disappeared, it means that your body is deficient in iodine. However, on the other hand, if the circle remains as it is for at least four hours, it means that the iodine levels are fine."

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/test-for-...deficiency.html

I don't recall my absorption time, but it was short enough for me to begin dabbing a little iodine on my arm before bed. It was always gone by the morning.

Some weeks later, I had a scheduled visit to my integrative medicine doctor. He said that it was not advisable to address a deficiency in that way, & told me to use Iodoral (which is much more expensive).

There is a tendency for the medical establishment to confuse "adequate intake" with the absence of obvious disease. For vitamins B1, C & D, beriberi, scurvy & rickets, respectively, are the signs of deficiency. For iodine: goiters. But the absence of obvious disease does not indicate that intake is optimal.

I'll use vitamin D as an example. The conventional wisdom is that deficiency = 0-20 ng/mL; insufficiency=20-30 ng/mL. But there are now experts who define sufficiency as 50-70 ng/mL, or thereabouts. Some advise cancer patients to aim for 75-80 ng/mL.

The reason for the lack of consensus is that that the most important use of vitamin D is in circulating calcium homeostasis. Many sites in the body have vitamin D receptors, but peripheral tissue (e.g. prostate) are denied access when circulating vitamin D is suboptimal.

This is exactly what happens with iodine. The thyroid is aggressively competitive for iodine uptake. The health of the thyroid is not indicative that all is well in prostate or breast tissue - & many other locations..

"Iodine receptors exist in each of the many trillions of cells in the body and regulate cellular function"

http://lifespa.com/2009/11/iodine-deficiency/

"The U.S. RDA of iodine is 150 micrograms (mcg) for adults, while 220 mcg and 290 mcg are recommended for pregnant and lactating women, respectively. These quantities were established to effectively prevent goiter but do not provide for the body's other needs for optimal thyroid, endocrine or immune system function, nor are they sufficient dosages for the prevention of cancer.

Iodized salt hasn't eliminated iodine deficiency disorders in the U.S. Recent studies by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicate low levels in more than 50% of the population (accounting for all demographic categories including ethnicity, region, economic status, race, and population density).

Adequate iodine levels are crucial for all aspects of health and well-being; in fact, in generations past, physicians routinely used iodine in medical practice. The typical dose was 1 gram of potassium iodide (KI), containing 770 mg of iodine, which far exceeds the current U.S. RDA of 150 mcg.

Dr. Albert S. Gyorgi (1893–1986), the physician who discovered vitamin C, wrote: "When I was a medical student, iodine in the form of KI was the universal medicine. Nobody knew what it did, but it did something and did something good. We students used to sum up the situation in this little rhyme:

If ye don't know where, what, and why
Prescribe ye then K and I."

http://www.naturalnews.com/023107_iodine_body_thyroid.html

It would be simplistic to suggest that a lack of iodine is responsible for all Dupuytren's cases, but with occult deficiency being the norm, it would be prudent to try the arm test. If enough people try it, we can quickly determine whether the theory has merit.

-Patrick

Re iodine: I just coated the nodules on my hand and pinky joint with Betadine. It was absorbed virtually immediately. Interesting!