<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While iodine naturally occurs in many foods, including fish, dairy products and vegetables grown in coastal areas, it is naturally scarce in many places. Until 1924, iodine deficiency was a leading cause of health issues in the United States, including widespread goiter in the Great Lakes, Appalachians, and Pacific Northwest — sometimes called the goiter belt — until the </span><a href="http://www.mortonsalt.com/heritage-era/roaring-20s-and-beyond/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Morton Salt Company</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> started adding the ingredient to common table salt. </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2284884"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Two years earlier</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Switzerland mandated that salt be fortified with iodine after the country found that 30 percent of its young men were unfit for military service due to goiter, and since then, around 120 countries around the world have implemented iodine supplementation programs. At a cost of only $0.05 cents per person per year, it’s a remarkably cheap public health initiative with tremendous benefits. </span></p><p><div data-conversation-spotlight=""></div></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the benefits turned out to be an increase in IQ in populations with access to iodized salt. Research on men who had access to iodized salt found </span><a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2013/07/23/how-adding-iodine-to-salt-boosted-americans-iq/#.WltpBTM-JsM"><span style="font-weight: 400;">an increased IQ by as much as 15 points</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Men who had access to iodine had a greater chance of getting into the more selective Air Force. The boost in IQ averaged out to an </span><a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w19233"><span style="font-weight: 400;">increased IQ of 3.5</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> points over populations pre-dating the 1920s.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today, however, our changing dietary habits may be causing increasing levels of iodine deficiency again. Worries about hypertension have caused many Americans to limit salt in their diets, and the popularity of non-iodinized sea salt in cooking has led to decreased levels of iodine in others. Changes to the way wheat is processed in recent years also reduced the amount of iodine in flour. Additionally, the proliferation of processed foods in the American diet means that many people can’t say how much iodine they are actually getting — while it is added to table salt, food processors typically use salt that that is not fortified with iodine. In other words, eating more chips won’t get you this vital nutrient. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Drinking milk will — as long as it’s cow’s milk. The amount of iodine in milk substitutes is very low; </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cows’ milk provides around 70μg (micrograms) per glass, a considerable proportion of the daily recommended 150μg iodine intake recommended for adults. A glass of milk substitute may provide only around two micrograms. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">As milk substitutes like almond milk and soy milk become more popular, </span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/most-milk-substitutes-are-low-in-iodine-here-s-why-that-matters-a7969936.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">some nutrition experts</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> are becoming concerned that pregnant woman who favor these alternatives aren’t getting enough iodine to facilitate proper brain development in their babies. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Between 1971 and 2001, the iodine intake in the US </span><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/complementary-medicine/201108/iodine-deficiency-old-epidemic-is-backhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/complementary-medicine/201108/iodine-deficiency-old-epidemic-is-back"><span style="font-weight: 400;">dropped by 50 percent</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. The effects on public health could be significant. A National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development study found that women who were deficient in iodine had more fertility problems — and </span><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/sc-hlth-iodine-deficiency-fertility-0124-story.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">only 56 percent</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of American women had adequate iodine levels. Doctors recommend that women take prenatal vitamins with iodine for three months before trying to become pregnant.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another curious twist to the story of iodine: Iodine is derives from potassium iodide, a salt of stable iodine that is suddenly the hottest supplement in the US, because it is believed by some to protect against radiation poisoning in the event of a nuclear bomb attack. As tensions between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Um escalate, sales of potassium iodide are skyrocketing. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“On January 2, I basically got in a month’s supply of potassium iodide and I sold out in 48 hours,” </span><a href="https://www.self.com/story/potassium-iodide-nuclear-attack"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said Troy Jones</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, who runs the website nukepills.com. Alan Morris, president of the pharmaceutical firm Anbex Inc., which sells potassium iodide, also says sales have increased. “We are a wonderful barometer of the level of anxiety in the country,” he said.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But will it save you? Potassium iodide could prevent your thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine released in a nuclear attack or in the event of a nuclear power plant accident, but it won’t protect other parts of your body. "[It is a reasonable treatment, but it is certainly not the entire story," </span><a href="https://www.self.com/story/potassium-iodide-nuclear-attack"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said James J. Galligan, Ph.D., </span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">a professor of pharmacology and toxicology and director of the neuroscience program at Michigan State University. "People must protect themselves from the other risks.”</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you don’t have access to potassium iodide, iodized salt isn’t a reasonable alternative. However, antacids may be. Plus, stockpiling those will be useful if worrying over nuclear war is giving you heartburn. </span></p>
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