My experience with iodine

I have been reading this forum since the end of last year. The information that I found here has helped me so much! I learned a lot by reading how people reacted to taking Iodine and how they dealt with the detox. Thank you al so much! So, here's my story. I hope it isn't too long!

I have been hypothyroid since I was 24. It started really slowly: just tiredness at first. After five years or so I started to become emotionally unstable. I was paranoid, frightened, scared and unhappy. A friend said to me: “You’re always tired”. And I was...
Still, I didn’t really realise how much more tired I was than any healthy person was. The decline was so gradual.

I got worse and worse... I was in a lot of pain. Everything hurt. My joints, my muscles, my insides, ... , everything. And I was always sooo tired. I didn’t want to do anything. Not go to birthdays, no walks, no nothing.

Symptoms:
Allergies (hey fever, mites allergy, cannot tolerate parfume, suspected Hashimoto’s); bad candida infection (vagina, gut and mouth); menstrual pains (uturus, lowerback radiating to whole back and shoulders and neck); outer eyebrows gone; burn easily in the sun, hearing is bad especially in groups; tinnitis; bad memory (shortterm and longterm): I cannot leave a pan on the stove and go do something else: it burnes; treamors in eye lid; fastness of thinking impaired: I cannot follow a conversation / movie / book; cannot concentrate; underside of feet hurt; all joints feel like they are burning; gut hurts (even worse when pressed); the slightest physical excercise or house work results in rapid heart beat, profuse sweating, red face, muscle pain and inflamed tendons; ganglion on back of hand; pain in left knee (other than the burning sensation); nose and throat tonsils and lungs inflamed at a regular basis (once an month); weight gain (my heaviest was 95 kilo’s); cannot tolerate carbs (not even full grain, not even beans); out of breath after taking three steps on the stairs; cold sore on lower lip (has been so big as to reach my jawbone); Depression (actually had a test done as part of some other tests by a doctor and it was confirmed); moodswings. Well, and then a lot that I’m forgetting right now ....

During that period I have been to a doctor a few times. He told me to just take it more slowly.

At the age of 34 I weighed 95 kilo’s, was always tired, was bloated, in pain all the time, couldn’t tolerate any carbs (by then I was on Atkins because carbs made my heart race and made me feel as if I would die), couldn’t think straight, was unreasonable and had dark clouds in my head (that’s what the Depression felt like).

I again went to a doctor (I had just moved, so it was a different one this time). He again told me to take it easy. I replied that, if I took it any more easy then I was doing now, I might as well go and lay in my coffin right away. I started to cry out of frustration (first time I did that, I never cried). Probably to get rid of me he “allowed” me to have my blood tested. When the results came back it was clear that I was hypothyroid. I was so releived that they found something (little did I know..).

At the age of 34 I was placed on thyroid hormone, T4 only. This doctor knew very little about thyroid illnesses and put me on a high dosis immediately. I fell extremely ill from that: I couldn’t walk a mile. Any excertion would make me breathless, and in extreme pain. At that point I could not work anymore. My boss at the time was very understanding (until then I hadn’t called in sick very often, I simply went to bed straight out of work). I couldn’t work for a whole year. I just lay on the couch or in bed and felt miserable.

After a year I felt about as bad as I did before I started the T4. I started working again. Still had to get to bed as soon as I got home. I read a lot about Hypo-T and decided I wanted to try the dessicated form of thyroid meds. My doctor said that those kind of meds were too unreliable. So then I asked to be allowed to take T3 instead (alongside the T4). He thought that was nonsence too. But this time I was determined and I asked to be sent to a specialist (in Holland you have to have a referral). I had researched to which doctor I wanted to go, and he relented. The specialist thought T3 was nonsence too, but gave it to me anyway.

The T3 gave me back my capacity to think. It also made me feel less cold. The first time I took T3, some kind of electric pulse shot to my toes, fingers and head. It helped a lot. The other symptoms remained though...

Through the years I had to up my T4 from 100 mcg to 137 mcg. My TSH was no longer measurable. Doc said I was hyper. I disagreed and said I was hypo. I still had the classic signs of hypo (cold, ...) and none of the hyper.

My list of symptoms was still the same and I got progressively worse. I would get ill every month. It always started with my nose tonsils, then the throat tonsils, and then my lungs. I would be rid of it only one week in the month. It exausted me. I also still had the tiredness, the pain in my joints, the fog in my brain (better after T3, but not resolved), .... I had to be in bed by 20:00 and sleep to 6:30 to not get sick and have a little energy.

I always kept reading a lot about hypo-T, hoping to find something I could do myself. And to be honest: to get out of the grip of my GP, who was trying to get me to lower my T4.

I discovered I had a mercury poisoning (someone told me that mercury could be a problem, I researched and it did tick a lot of my boxes). I started taking selenium for that. Selenium meed me feel happier and think more clearly. Reading about mercury poisoning let me to iodine. I started taking kelp, but it didn’t do much for me. Then I found Curezone in oktober 2011.

In november 2011 I started on Lugol’s (bought online on Ebay). I took 50 mg twice a day. I got hyper, and I lowered my T4 dose accordingly. The effect was temporary though and I upped to the original dose again (back to 137 mcg). This was such a disapointment! Then I read dr. Brownsteins book where he said that it might take up to three years to see any significant improvement in the thyroid. So I had to be patient (which I am not :-)). I also started to gain weight.

My candida really hated the Lugol’s (and because of that I loved it). I also took the accompanying supps.

After reading a lot on Curezone, I decided to up my Iodide by taking SKII. Now I took 100 mg of Lugol’s and 50 mg of SKII. Again I got hyper, lowered my T4. This time I didn’t need to up it back! I was now on 125 mcg/day T4. I also still take my T3. I don’t lower that, it has a half-time of a day, whereas the T4 has a half-time of a week.

28th feb 2012: I am now on 150 mg Lugol’s and 300 mg SKII daily since the start of february. I haven’t taken any medication for three weeks now. The remaining blood dosage is now 400 (started on 1450), so there’s almost no medication left in my body. Manganese, copper and B12 are also important to me. A lot is happening to my body:

Spots on my hands are disappearing. My allergies are gone. Pain in left knee is about half as bad as it used to be. Losing weight, but more than that: my body is starting to look different. Face is not puffy anymore. My muscle strength is coming back. I’m soooo much happier! My head is wonderfully clear. My feet do not hurt anymore. Hart rate has gone down (except when I’m hyper ofcourse). I love going on a visit now. I have much more energy, and when I get tired, I just sit down for 15 minutes and then I’m ready to go again. When hypo-T, resting didn’t make any difference. Joints don’t burn anymore. Tonsollitis is much better, but not resolved. I walked up a hill last week with my husband (1,94 meter, I am 1,75 meter) and I could keep up with him without even panting or my heart racing!

Remaining symptoms:
Menstrual pains (just read here that that might be an B12 deficiency, I ordered the book). I get horrible pains in my lower back and shoulders. These pains stay for about a week after the bleeding has stopped. I still have intermittend bleeding too. I think my candida is almost under control (still get the rapid heart beats sometime though, and still cannot tolerate carbs). Short term memory still bad. Gut still hurts. Diarrhea often.

So, a lot is better, but I’m not there yet. But then, I’ve been ill for more than 15 years now, and I’ve only been on Iodine for four months! The improvement is amazing!

I did have detox symptoms, I still do: zits zits zits :-). Also headaches and sinus dripping: tissues everywhere in the house. It always gets a lot worse whenever I’m upping my iodine/iodide.

I now take my supps as follows:
• On getting up I take my T4 and T3 (or not :-)).
• Morning supps: B2, B3, manganese, milkthistle, B12 sublingually
• For breakfast: ACV with the mother = unpastorized (1 tablespoon) in a tall glass of water, with added to that ¼ teaspoon bicarb and 30 drops of Lugols (7,5 mg total Iodine + Iodide per drop). The ACV has the added benefit of making your stool thicker, which is a good considering the high dose of magnesium and vit C I’m taking.
I eat a bowl of biogarde (fermented yoghurt) with fruit.
• Also, I prepare half a liter of water with in it: ¼ teaspoon magnesium flakes, ¼ teaspoon of vit C (ascorbic acid), 1/8 teaspoon borax (not every day) (pre-dissolved in hot water and then added to the cold water), 30 drops of SSKI , ¼ teaspoon lysine powder. During the day, I poor this in drinks.
• For lunch I eat sour-dough bread (whole grain) with a thick layer of coconut oil spread over it and then goats cheese or liver pate.
• When I come home I make a salad (andive a/o spinach a/o lettice a/o chicory, lentils, red kidney beens and coriander/cilantro) with an egg and a dressing (mustard, vinigar, oil, teaspoon of tea tree honey, sea-salt).
• For diner I eat veggies and meat. From doing Atkins I learned to eat only little carbs. I reserve the carbs for work in the form of bread, because it is so easy to take with you to work. Sometimes I eat a bowl of biogarde after. Or some fruit.
• Supps at night: copper, zinc, iron, multi, omega-3, Vit-E, Vit-D, selenium, Vit B complex, MSM.
• When I feel I need it: ¼ teaspoon Sea Salt in water.
• Lots of water

Good luck everyone!
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