Re: Is Iodine over-hyped Edit ++++
Yes, but if you look at the oxidation potential of oxygen
and compare it to that of iodine,
then you find that oxygen is a stronger oxidizer than iodine
so by the same logic, one could ask, why breathe elemental oxygen in the first place, since it is even more oxidative than iodine.
Ever think, that life itself is an oxidative process ? I don't think anyone can escape that.
A certain isotope of potassium that occurs in all potassium, is radioactive. I did the calculation once using the avg. amount of potassium in the body, the percentage of the radioactive isotope, and its half life, and found there are something like 100,000,000 nuclear disintegrations of potassium going on in every 24 hour period. That's just one element, and the body has many elements, of which many others have unstable nuclei also. Emission of alpha particles is oxidative, and emission of beta particles generates free radicals !!! Whatever is one going to do ?
so, in comparison with all the nuclear reactions going on in the body, and every breath of air containing 20% of oxygen, I think a couple milligrams of iodine, having a molecular weight of about 254, is dust in the wind.
ed ++
If one wishes to reduce oxidative damage, then they ought focus on trying to breathe one less inhalation of the lungs every five minutes. That's 288 fewer inhalations per day, which at 2 liters each, and 20% oxygen, represents 115 fewer liters of oxygen per day, or about five moles of oxygen !!
ed++++
That is the equivalent of ingesting 1250 grams of iodine, basis the number of electrons involved in the oxidation reaction. So a milligram of
Iodine gives the oxidative power of breathing 1/(1250)X(1000) = 1/2,500,000 of 288 inhalations of the lungs or 0.0002 of a single inhalation. One milligram of iodine, equals two one-thousandths of an inhalation of air.
Think it's really worth worrying about ??
Of course, it's just my opinion, neither right nor wrong, as with all opinions.