Podcast episode where JJ Virgin asks Dr. Alan Christensen whether a person with Hashimoto's should be taking iodine. Dr. Christensen advises caution: many people already get iodine (including from common levothyroxine/Synthroid doses), excess iodine can trigger or worsen autoimmune thyroid disease like Hashimoto's, and multivitamin iodine content is often unreliable. He cites typical Synthroid dosing (about 90–130 µg; 100 µg common) which provides roughly 65 µg iodine, general recommended intake ranges (~50–200 µg for non-pregnant adults) and a lower optimal range for those with thyroid disease (~30–100 µg). He also references a study analyzing 60 popular multivitamins finding large discrepancies between label and measured iodine content. Episode includes multiple sponsor ad reads and host commentary.
Questions this episode answers
About 90–130 micrograms; 100 micrograms listed as a common dosage.
About 65 micrograms of iodine.
About 50–200 micrograms.
About 30–100 micrograms.
60 of the most popular multivitamins; none matched their labeled iodine content reliably.
Chapters
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Should I be getting iodine? I have Hashimoto's and I've always wondered about that. This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times best selling author, celebrity nutrition expert and fitness hall of famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. NJW from Instagram Asks, your multivitamin does not have iodine. Should I be getting iodine? I have Hashimoto's and I've always wondered about that. Oh, and I'm on synthroid with no T3. Hey, it's JJ and today I've got my longtime friend Dr. Alan Christensen, aka Dr. C with me to answer this question. He, by the way, is my personal.
Doctor and is is managing my thyroid issue.
He's a board certified naturopathic endocrinologist and New York Times bestselling author from Minnesota who fell in love with his awesome wife Karen. Literally love at first sight. And they decided to get married on their first date. And that was over 24 years ago. In his spare time, he's a big time athlete, including mountain unicycling. Yes, you heard me right. We'll be right back with the answer. Stay with us.
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No, my multivitamin does not have any iodine. And that's on purpose. You know, most people that I see have thyroid disease. And what we've learned is that you can get thyroid disease from too little iodine. But that's really not the case anymore in the modern world. You know, more than often, people have far, far too much. And yeah, you should get some, but you always will get some. You mentioned that you're on Synthroid. So, for example, when you're on Synthroid, most people take between about 90 and 130 micrograms. Some are a little more, a little less, but you know, 100 micrograms is a common dosage. Well, that by itself has about 65 micrograms of iodine. And it turns out that both people who are not pregnant or lactating do their best between about 50 and 200 micrograms of iodine. So if you're on Synthroid, you're probably there already. And it's impossible to get no iodine in your diet. You know, some foods have a lot more than others, but no foods have none. And some foods have a lot. And what we've learned too is that that idea that 50 to 200, that's the safest range to not develop thyroid disease. But we've now learned that those who have thyroid disease, they have their best odds of their thyroid function improving when they're on the lower side of that, like about 30 to 100 micrograms. And yeah, you're already in that range just from the synthroid alone. Now, another thought is that multivitamins that have added iodine. There was a big study done a few years back in which they assayed them to see, well, how much iodine they really had. You know, they compared how much was there when the product was analyzed against how much the label said that it had, and they ended up analyzing 60 of the most popular multivitamins. And this is crazy, but not a single one contained, even within several micrograms, the appropriate amount of iodine per its label. So not even should it happen or not. But it didn't have what it said it had, and they had oftentimes two or three fold more than the label stated. So that's another reason not to be getting it from a multivitamin. Having Hashimoto's doesn't change that. Yeah, it only makes that more significant. We've now learned that the development of Hashimoto's, it comes about from age and gender, things that we can't control. But the third biggest variable is excess iodine. You know, in the past, areas that were blatantly iodine deficient, there were things like goiter or congenital hypothyroidism or cretinism, things that we don't see that much of anymore. But the more iodine started getting fortified in salt or added to processed foods, that's when we saw autoimmune thyroid disease start to develop. And what happens is the extra iodine builds up inside the thyroid and it irritates and damages the cells, slowing the gland and also triggering the immune system to go after it. So that's why there's none there. And yeah, you should get some. But you will. You're getting it already in your medication. You'll always get some in your diet. But your biggest concern would be too much, more so than too little.
This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetoj.com.
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