Iodine greatly helped, but still lingering symptoms
Hello, I'll try to keep this brief. A couple years ago I started taking cheap Jamieson vitamins kelp supplements (350mcg iodine) and after a few months I had a terrible panic attack which is something I've never had in my life. In the month that followed I lost 30lbs despite eating, was freezing cold, shaky, and had diarrhea every time I ate. I also felt like I had gone crazy. I went to several doctors who just tried to give me SSRIs which I did not take. After months of researching other issues (nutrition, blood
Sugar etc) and trying many different mental techniques (yoga, meditation, CBT, self hypnosis, 5htp) I still was physically terrified all the time and had all my physical symptoms. This went on for months and over time my weight started drastically fluctuating all the time. I would gain or lose 5-7
pounds overnight even when I was eating the same things every day.
I eventually started reading about thyroid issues and realized I had likely given myself
Iodine induced hyperthryroidism. Thyroid issues run rampant in my family (both siblings, mother and all aunts/uncles on mothers side), and I also live in the area known as the 'goiter belt' so it does make sense that this would happen to me. After reading 2 medical textbooks about the thyroid (werner and ingmars thyroid, and mcgavacks the thyroid), and countless clinical papers, websites and other books I thought
Iodine might ironically be the solution to my problem. I got some
Lugols 2% solution and took 5mg for my first dose. I was so scared I actually wrote up my last wishes in case something happened lol
Well that very first night I went to bed and my girlfriend said I was warm. I had been freezing cold 24/7 for almost 2 years, and was even cold to the touch. I was still wary but took 5mg/week for a month, then moved up to 12.5mg a week for another month, then 12.5mg/day. My weight stabilized, I felt warm, the physical sensation of terror disappeared, and my heart stopped pounding in my head, ears and neck 24/7. Its really quite miraculous. Also my right eye which had been bulging the whole time with visible sclera above lower eyelid (aka 'von kollers sign') went back to its proper size.
Now I've been on 12.5mg daily for a few months (i did go up to 30mg, then 50mg/day but i started having palpitations and eye bulging again), but I'm still having some issues. I'm still shaky, weak and have been losing weight again but much more slowly this time. If i exercise too hard my vision goes wavy and I get very weak and shaky. My eye started bulging again a few weeks ago and I stopped
Iodine for a few days and felt much better.
I don't know if at this point I should be taking iodine once a week instead of daily, stopping it altogether, or if i am missing something nutritionally that is preventing me from healing properly. I know someone will likely suggest taking MORE iodine, but I dont feel that is right for me after my previous experiences. I also tried taking the 'ATP cofactors' that dr brownstein mentions in his book and they made me feel absolutely terrible. I've taken niacin before and like it, but when i took 100mg b2 (riboflavin) I was STARVING about 30 minutes later even though I took it with food. I thought I should give it a chance anyways so I continued taking it twice a day for a week but it made me feel confused, anxious and weak the entire time. When I take B complexes I get anxious, confused and 'sketchy' also and I believe its from the riboflavin as I've taken many of the B vitamins alone without issues.
Any advice, or information would be very welcomed. Its so frustrating to be so close yet still having ongoing issues. I'd love to figure this out and resume living a normal life again. Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading this!
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