Re: Effects of Iodine Supplements on Maternal Thyroid Function

They probably went with the women from Valencia for more control over the iodine intake. There are parts of the world where iodine consumption is lower making the research and findings more accurate. How would they be able to do comparative studies of low vs. high iodine intake in a society like Japan where the diet is rich in iodine to begin with? How would they be able to find someone with an iodine deficiency for comparison? How would they be able to monitor the actual daily iodine intake when even the plants grown in the area will contain a fair amount of iodine from ocean spray and rain?

And there are still other factors to take in to account. If you test subjects in an area where their water is fluoridated for example the fluoride would skew the results since fluoride displaces iodine.

So the researchers have to take these various factors in to account to begin with to get as accurate results as possible.

And it is possible that maybe the researchers are from the area. It would not make sense to pack up all your equipment and ship it half way around the world to test a small section of population if you have a suitable test source right where you live. But this is why numerous studies are done on different populations to verify findings. For example as they mentioned it has been shown in a number of studies that excess iodine intake appears to suppress thyroid function. This was not one study on one group of people. It was multiple studies on multiple groups of people.