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Iodine Deficiency
Iodine Australia
Iodine Australia
Iodine Iodine is one of the most important brain
nutrients and affects peak brain development and thyroid gland function
Iodine deficiency is now present in significant levels in Australia. Significant means that it is able to cause significant amounts of harm to mental development of infants. Thyroid cancer rates are now increasing dramatically in parallel with the fall in iodine intake.
Iodine Australia
What is Iodine? A chemical element, it cannot be
created nor destroyed (outside of a nuclear reaction).
If it is not in the soil it is not in the food from the land. The sea is rich in iodine so seafood has some iodine and seaweed has a lot. (But seafood is not the answer for most people).
Iodine Australia
Why are Australia & New Zealand low in iodine? Their soils are low in iodine Their main sources have always been inadvertent
contamination during food processing The dairy industry used to use iodine based sanitisers, so
milk cream and yoghurt had a lot of iodine. But most farmers no longer use iodine. Nonetheless, milk remains a good source of iodine.
Less than 20% of salt used in food is iodised. Seafood has some iodine but is very variable Seaweed has a lot of iodine but is not a major part of our
diet, and is already environmentally threatened
Iodine Australia
Why is USI Universal Salt Iodisation the best solution? Iodised salt was the world’s first functional
food (1924) and there is a vast international experience
It is widely used in over 100 countries and is cheap safe simple and very effective
It gives excellent community coverage with less variability than other methods, including in the presence of multicultural societies like ours with varied eating habits.
It is easy to implement and monitor Much salt is already iodised (eg for export) so
changeover is not disruptive.
Iodine Australia
What does Iodine do? An essential component of Thyroid
hormone T3 T4 which is how it acts on the body.
It is the main growth factor for foetal brain development via maternal and foetal thyroid hormone.
It appears that iodine does not have a direct effect on the brain apart from via thyroid hormones.
Iodine Australia
What affects our IQ? Genes Diet- Iodine 13.5 points Diet- Omega-3 5 points Diet- Breastfeeding 5 points Diet- Iron status Lead poisoning Minus 7 to 20 points Other
Iodine Australia
What affects our IQ? Other: Birth weight Birth order Number of years in school
Social group of parental home Father's profession Father's economic status Parental ambition Mother's education Average book-reading Emotional adaptation Self-confidence according to attitude scale measurement Age (negative relationship in adults)Degree of authority in parental home (-ve)Criminality (-ve)Average TV viewing (-ve) Height Number of siblings (-ve) Infant malnutrition (-ve) Degree of parental rigidity (-ve) Alcoholism (-ve) Mental disease (-ve)
http://www.wilderdom.com/personality/L4-1IntelligenceNatureVsNurture.html
Iodine Australia
What effect does ID have on IQ? Minus 13.5 points
(ref) http://members.aol.com/svennord/ed/normal.htm arbitrary average of 100 and standard deviation of 15.
Iodine Australia
What effect does ID have on IQ? Compare that a mere 5 point IQ loss doubles
developmental delay
Iodine Australia
What effect does ID have on IQ? Minus 13.5 points!!!! 3 times increase in mild developmental delay
IQ <85 7 times increase in severe developmental
delay IQ <70 bright (IQ>115) and gifted children (IQ>130)
plummet from (bright) 16% to 2.3%, and the gifted from 2.3% to 0.13% = 1/18th i.e almost totally absent.
Note that the definitions may vary for delay and giftedness but the statistics are accurate for the IQ number.
Iodine Australia
ID and development A general diminution in intelligence in iodine-deficient
communities such that iodine deficiency is considered to be the commonest cause of preventable intellectual disability worldwide.
A small decrease in serum free thyroxine level during pregnancy, either because of iodine deficiency or thyroid disease, is an important risk factor for impaired psychomotor development in infants.
The recent demonstration of intellectual impairment in the children of American women who had mild hypothyroidism in pregnancy highlights the need for better detection and treatment of hypothyroidism in early pregnancy, irrespective of its cause.
An increase in ADHD
Iodine Australia
WHO daily intake: optimal iodine nutrition Adults 150 µg/day
Pregnancy and Lactation
250 µg/day
Children (6-12 years)
120 µg/day
Infants (0-5 years)
90 µg/day
http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/Food_Facts/FAQ/what_is_iodine_faq.asp
Iodine Australia
Australia is iodine deficient Iodine deficiency in Australia is a severe
public health problem (Ref 1,2,3,4). Iodine intake continues to fall. WHO is in the process of increasing the reference intakes for iodine, so the level of deficiency from current published estimates is a significant underestimate.
Australia is now officially iodine deficient (WHO)
Iodine Australia
ID in Australia 1 Iodine deficiency and goitre in schoolchildren in Melbourne, 2001
Ciara M McDonnell, Mark Harris and Margaret R Zacharin 76% (439/577) of students had abnormal urinary iodine values,
with 27% (156/577) having values consistent with moderate–severe deficiency. The median urinary iodine excretion for the total group was 70μg/L, with values for school years 5–12 ranging from 62 μg/L (Year 12) to 76 μg/L (Year 9). The median urinary iodine value in girls was lower than that in boys (64μg/L v 82 μg/L), and girls had significantly lower urinary iodine values overall (P < 0.002). There was no association between goitre grade and moderate–severe (< 50 μg/L; P = 0.39) or mild (50–99 μg/L; P = 0.07) urinary iodine deficiency.
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/178_04_170203/mcd10274_fm.html
Iodine Australia
ID in Australia 2 Iodine deficiency in urban primary school children: a cross-sectional analysis
Kamala Guttikonda, Cheryl A Travers, Peter R Lewis and Steven Boyages MJA 2003; 179 (7): 346-34 http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/179_07_061003/gut10121_fm.html
Iodine Australia
ID in Australia 3 Iodine deficiency in ambulatory participants at a Sydney teaching
hospital: is Australia truly iodine replete? Jenny E Gunton, Graham Hams, Marcelle Fiegert and Aidan McElduf MJA 1999; 171: 467-470 http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/171_9_011199/gunton/gunton.html
Results: Moderate to severe iodine deficiency was found in 16 pregnant women (19.8%), five postpartum women (19.2%), 46 patients with diabetes (34.1%) and five volunteers (26.3%). Mild iodine deficiency was found in an additional 24 pregnant women (29.6%), nine postpartum women (34.6%), 51 patients with diabetes (37.8%) and 9 normal volunteers (47.4%). Median urinary iodine concentration was 104 µg/L in pregnant women, 79 µg/L in postpartum women, 65 µg/L in patients with diabetes mellitus and 64 µg/L in volunteers.
Iodine Australia
ID in Australia 4 Where has all our iodine gone? The possible re-emergence of iodine
deficiency in Australia needs to be investigated in national surveys Creswell J Eastman AM (Editorial)MJA 1999; 171: 455-456 http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/171_9_011199/eastman/eastman.html
It was predicted by a speaker at the Nutrition Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting in Brisbane 2004 that he expected to see cretinism emerge again in Australian neonates if the problem of iodine intake is not addressed.
Iodine Australia
Thyroid cancer skyrockets in NSW in parallel with the drop in iodine intake
1. Females
Iodine Australia
Thyroid cancer skyrockets in NSW in parallel with the drop in iodine intake
2. Males
Iodine Australia
Iodine Deficiency Australian Style? The irony: Australians receive international
accolades for helping 3rd world countries beat iodine deficiency!
Iodine Australia
Iodine Deficiency Australian Style? Ironically our success in Thailand is mirrored by an opposite increase in iodine deficiency and thyroid disease in Australia
Iodine Australia
Myths about nutrient supplements Myth 1. Vitamins just give you expensive
urine Fact 1. All drugs etc give you expensive
urine, it it what they do before they enter the urine that matters. Many vitamins have measurable physiological effects. A good explanation for this is that the Western diet has on 1/7 to 1/3 of the vitamins and minerals of hunter-gatherer diets.
Iodine Australia
Myths about nutrient supplements Myth 2. Australia's food supply is so good
that nobody needs supplements. Fact 2. The physiological effects of vitamin
supplements are so clearly demonstrated that, by law many foods must be supplemented with vitamins. Eg B1 and B3 in rice and flour, folic acid supplements etc.
Iodine Australia
Iodine Supplements Adults. Centrum
Iodine Australia
Iodine Supplements Blackmore's Pregnancy
and BreastfeedingFormula
Sun-Herald5-12-04
Iodine Australia
Iodine Supplements 4 to 12 years. Blackmore’s Kids
Multivitamin and Minerals Chewable
Iodine Australia
Iodine Supplements Under 4 years. Consider iodine
solution. NB Most infant formulae are mildly
deficient in iodine
Iodine Australia
Prof Eastman’s 7 point strategy (Heinz newsletter) 1. ANZ education strategy
2. Encourage intake of cows milk (still a good source despite lack of standardisation)[and lack of commitment from Dairy Australia in my opinion]3. Only iodised salt should be used for cooking and seasoning except for people with nodular goitres or overactive thyroid disease).4. Increase seafood consumption where possible.5. Supplement iodine before & during pregnancy and during lactation.6. Encourage mothers to choose infant formula with higher level of iodine. NB some criticisms of FSANZ's current standard 2.9.1 of 1.2 ug iodine/ 100 kJ as too low. (Ben- calculation 4000 kJ= 48 ug iodine cf RDI= 90 ug/day. Whoops! ).7. Develop a national policy
Iodine Australia
WHO daily intake: optimal iodine nutrition Adults 150 µg/day
Pregnancy and Lactation
250 µg/day
Children (6-12 years)
120 µg/day
Infants (0-5 years)
90 µg/day
