One take on Potassium Iodide

ONE MINERAL CAN HELP A MYRIAD OF CONDITIONS FROM ATHEROSCLEROSIS TO "COPD" TO ZITS

(Reprinted From "Nutrition and Healing")

If you've read or heard anything at all about potassium iodide, it's probably been in association with terrorist attacks or nuclear power plant disasters. Potassium iodide (usually taken in tablet form) is recommended by "public health" authorities to protect the thyroid gland against accumulation of radioactive iodine released by a "terrorist bomb" or by nuclear power plant "meltdown". But in reality, potassium iodide is a very effective "home remedy" with literally dozens of uses.

Older readers may remember Mother putting "iodine" on cuts and scrapes. It kept infection away as well as any "modern" antibiotic ointment, with the added benefit of not inducing "bacterial resistance". But what else is potassium iodide (usually abbreviated by it's Latin initials "SSKI") good for? Read on…and then make sure to read the separate section about keeping SSKI use safe.

Some years ago, a retired Indian physician told me about his use of SSKI during more than 30 years traveling from village to village in rural Africa. Most usually, the only drinking water available was from a local stream or river, muddy and contaminated. After removing sediment and debris by straining the dirty water through cheesecloth, he'd add several drops of SSKI, and wait two to three minutes. He and his team could then drink the water. In over 30 years, he never got an infection from contaminated water. The SSKI killed any micro-organisms present.

Fortunately, the water available to most of us when traveling is considerably cleaner. Despite this, when Holly (my wife) and I travel, we always carry a small bottle of SSKI, and put one or two drops into any water we're not absolutely certain about. We've cut back considerably on airline travel this year because of the thoroughly un-American and extremely unpleasant "airport Gestapo" experience. But when we're forced to travel by air, we drink a few ounces of water with 10 drops of SSKI, and prevent any "airline sinusitis" or other respiratory infection that so often follows several hours spent breathing re-cycled, germ laden air. (SSKI rapidly accumulates in any and all body secretions, including in the sinuses, where it inhibits or kills bacteria, viruses, and fungi before they can cause an infection.)

Although Holly has never had the experience, occasionally another woman at one of the conferences we attend has developed a bladder infection when far away from home and her own physician. Holly gives her our "back-up" small bottle of SSKI with instructions to take 10 to 15 drops in water or juice every 3 to 4 hours (while awake) until the infection is gone.

[Although SSKI is close to 100% effective in the elimination of bladder infections, this is a "high dose"; make sure to read the section "Keeping SSKI safe". If possible, it's best to use the simple sugar D-mannose to eliminate bladder infections. D-mannose is effective over 90% of the time, and is very, very safe. For details, see D-mannose and Bladder Infection by Lane Lenard Ph.D. and me, available through the Tahoma Clinic Dispensary.]

When our children were teenagers, they always knew where to find the SSKI bottle. Whenever one of them "popped a zit", she or he would rub SSKI into it every hour or two. The offending "zit" would be gone in 24-48 hours or less; an innumerable number of social events were rendered "zit-free" by this approach.

So far, I've been telling you about SSKI's ability to "kill germs" in one place or another. We'll return to this important "home remedy" use for SSKI, but let's digress for now to other uses.

Many women develop "fibrocystic breast disease". In the 1970s, I learned from pioneering trace element researcher Dr. John Myers that iodine (a close "relative" of SSKI) would eliminate even the most severe cases of fibrocystic breast disease. [For the full details of this treatment, see pages 169-174 of The Patient's Book of Natural Healing by Alan Gaby M.D. and me.] In "medium" to "minor" cases, 6 to 8 drops of SSKI taken in a few ounces of water daily will frequently reduce fibrocystic breast disease to insignificance within three to six months. Please do not do this without monitoring your thyroid function…see "Keeping SSKI Safe" on page whatever.

One of our daughters and at least thirty other women I've worked with in nearly 30 years have helped ovarian cysts disappear within two to three months with the same quantity of SSKI. Again, make sure to monitor your thyroid function!

It's very likely that SSKI helps eliminate fibrocystic breast disease and ovarian cysts at least partly through it's interaction with estrogens….which brings us to another important use for SSKI (and other forms of iodine such as "Lugol's solution" and "di-atomic iodine"). All of these forms of iodine help your body to metabolize estrone (a slightly carcinogenic human estrogen) and 16-alpha-hydroxyestrone (a much more dangerous metabolite of human estrogen) into estriol, an "anti-carcinogenic" or at worst "neutral" form of human estrogen. I've reviewed literally hundreds of hormone tests in over 26 years which have proven this point. This testing and treatment usually requires the help of a physician skilled and knowledgeable in nutritional and natural medicine, who can also help with monitoring thyroid function. (See "Resources", page 8).

There's a lot more to this article, which can be found here. The site in particular is run by an MD in my neck of the woods who specializes in combining natural medicine with the unnatural stuff *grin*. This is where I buy my potassium iodide (since none of the local shops carry it).