Every cell in your body requires iodine to keep it functioning properly.
Iodine is one of the most important minerals for healthy cellular and metabolic function.
This essential mineral is required throughout the body, especially in the thyroid gland, but also in breast, ovary, uterus, and prostate tissue.
After researchers discovered that iodine deficiency caused goiters, iodine was added to table salt.
Today, that often isn’t enough.
Crops are grown in iodine-depleted soil, iodine is no longer used in commercial baked goods, and studies show that dietary iodine levels have fallen by as much as 50%.
At the same time, our intake of iodine competitors like chlorine, fluoride, and bromide has all increased.
These toxic compounds lower the activity of iodine in the body by blocking iodine receptor sites, and all three are found commonly in both foods and the environment.
Chlorine is now widely used for water purification, fluoride is almost universally found in toothpaste and drinking water, and bromide replaced iodine in commercial baked goods and is common in soft drinks.
As a result, many experts believe that iodine support can be the missing intervention for optimal health.
Systems especially reliant on optimal levels of iodine are immune, breast, ovaries, prostate, brain, and perhaps the best known, the thyroid.
Dr. David Brownstein, the iodine guru, clearly lays out what we would expect to find in iodine-deficient individuals.
When iodine is deficient, nodules form in key organs leading to pre-cancerous conditions and then eventually to full-blown cancer.
He says, “Iodine’s main job is to maintain the normal architecture of those tissues. With iodine deficiency, the first thing that happens is you get cystic formation in the breasts, the ovaries, uterus, thyroid, prostate, and let’s throw in the pancreas in here as well, which is also increasing at epidemic rates – pancreatic cancer. Cysts start to form when iodine deficiency is there. If it goes on longer, they become nodular and hard. If it goes on longer, they become hyperplastic tissue, which is the precursor to cancer.”
I say that’s the iodine deficiency continuum.
Brownstein continues, “The good thing about iodine is, iodine has apoptotic properties, meaning it can stop a cancer cell from just continually dividing, dividing, dividing until it kills somebody. Iodine can stop this continuum wherever it catches it and hopefully reverse it, but at least put the brakes on what is happening.”
The Emerging Role of Iodine in Breast Health | Iodine – The Great Detoxifier
Iodine is a breast protector, and it promotes detoxification, lymph flow, and offers protection to the receptor sites.
But when iodine is deficient, estrogen can become imbalanced and dysfunctional.
A common link between fibrocystic breast and breast cancer is insufficient iodine and halide toxicity.
We are seeing an increase in uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts, infertility, thyroid nodules, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer from iodine deficiency.
The good news is iodine turns on estriol, which is the positive estrogen that protects against estrogenic cancers.
As Dr. David Brownstein explained, iodine turns on natural cancer cell death, also known as apoptosis. Think of it as a kind of Pac-Man that eats up renegade cancer cells.
However, there are three forms of iodine that are the best.
For instance, the thyroid gland absorbs potassium iodide best, while breast tissue can better utilize molecular iodine.
Additionally, there is evidence that using sodium iodide enhances absorption of other forms of iodine.
Just remember that potassium iodide and sodium iodide are used for hormone balance and immune health, whereas molecular iodine is used for breast, prostate, colon, and cellular health.
And in my 13 years of working with breast health, I have seen remarkable changes in women’s breasts that were lumpy, cystic, and painful, and seen a reduction in lumps and cysts when women have used iodine as part of their daily supplementation.
In addition, Lugol’s Liquid Iodine 2% can also be used topically for lumps, cysts, and tender breasts, but it’s best to mix it with a carrier oil.
Castor oil also has many positive healing benefits, so you can mix the two, if you’d like.
At this point, you might be wondering, what are some iodine-rich foods?
For the vegetarians, dried prunes, white potatoes, navy beans, seaweed, and cranberries are a few that provide good sources of iodine.
Seafood, like canned tuna and salmon, and shellfish, are also great sources of iodine, along with boiled eggs, yogurt, certain types of cheese, and turkey breast.
However, you should be mindful of the source of the seafood, due to heavy metals.
Himalayan salt also contains a small amount of natural iodine, but it usually has less iodine than iodized salt, and most sea salt does not contain enough iodine to meet your daily needs.
As a thermographer, I have imaged thousands of women, and one of the most common things I find is lymphatic backup, which can be caused by wearing a bra.
Every time I see this, it provides a poignant reminder of the fact that wearing a bra can put your breasts at risk of breast disease and even breast cancer.
It’s these kinds of findings that make me even more grateful for the research of experts like Sydney Ross Singer.
His findings are crucial for women who want to take control of their breast health, and he was nice enough to let me publish another one of his articles, which you can read below:
Have you or someone you know been harmed by wearing bras?
If so, then you could become a co-plaintiff in a future class action lawsuit against the bra and cancer industries.
Product liability applies to garments, as well as other consumer products, and bras are known to cause health problems, including everything from headaches and back pain to nerve compression and tingling in the hands.
Bras have been shown to affect digestion, breathing, and even menstruation since they also interfere with the sympathetic nervous system.
Bras can also constrict the lymphatic system, which is the circulatory pathway of the immune system.
This causes reduced lymph and blood circulation, toxin accumulation, and reduced immune function, which can lead to breast pain, cysts, and even cancer.
The degree of damage that a bra can cause depends on the bra’s material, its toxic chemical content, how tightly it’s worn, the length of time it’s worn daily, and the number of years it has been worn.
According to the 1991-93 US Bra and Breast Cancer Study, documented in Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras, bra-free women have about the same risk of breast cancer as men, and the tighter and longer a bra is worn the higher the risk rises, to over 100 times higher for a 24/7 bra user compared to a bra-free woman.
Since that groundbreaking study, numerous other studies worldwide have confirmed a bra-cancer link.
The Lymph Connection
The lymphatic system consists of microscopic vessels that originate in the tissue space and lead to larger, but still tiny vessels that ultimately enter a lymph node. These nodes are bean-sized filters lined by white blood cells. This is the front line of the immune system.
Most of a breast’s lymph nodes are in the armpit. If the nodes detect a virus, cancer cell, or other foreign or hazardous substance in the tissue fluid, they begin an immune response by producing white blood cells to combat the problem.
Once through the lymph node, the fluid works its way through larger lymphatic vessels back to the heart and the bloodstream.
One important fact about the lymphatic system is that it is a passive drainage system. While the bloodstream delivers fluid under the pumping pressure of the heart, the lymphatic system has no pressure. Its flow is influenced by gravity, breathing, exercise, movement, and massage, and it is kept moving toward the lymph nodes by one-way valves.
The slightest constriction or compression of the tissue can close down the tiny lymphatic vessels, inhibiting lymph flow and leading to fluid accumulation, cysts, pain, and tenderness.
This fluid congestion within the tissue is called lymphedema.
Bras + Toxins = Cancer
The toxins that are within the breast tissue include some biochemical products of tissue edema, such as free radicals, which are known to cause cancer.
In addition, there are toxins in our air, food, and water, including pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, plastics, and other products of our petrochemically polluted world. Many of these are known to cause cancer, and we deliver these toxins to all our tissues each day through the bloodstream.
It is the job of the lymphatic system to remove these toxins, but bras can inhibit this process by compressing and constricting the breasts.
This is how bras cause breast cancer.
Cancer-causing toxins are delivered to the breast tissue by the bloodstream and are kept there by the bra. The toxins are the bullets, and the bra holds them in place, pointed directly at the breasts.
In addition, cancer cells that spontaneously develop in germ cells of the breast tissue cannot be properly removed from the breasts when the lymphatics are impaired. This means the body cannot effectively kill these seeds of cancer, allowing cancers to develop.
The breasts are the most clothing-constricted of any organ, and this explains why women have more cancer in the breast than anywhere else in their bodies.
It also explains why women have more breast cancer than men, and why breast cancer is only a problem in cultures in which bras are worn.
Where there are no bras, there is virtually no breast cancer.
If you feel you have been harmed by wearing a bra, please reach out to Sydney Ross Singer at sydsinger@gmail.com.
This August I was invited to be invited on Mo Akins’ podcast, Health Your Own Way.
Mo and and I had a lovely chat, covering breast cancer symptoms to watch out for, breast cancer prevention, the importance of the immune system, and everything in between. Watch it now!
The number of women diagnosed with breast cancer has been increasing dramatically in recent years.
As a thermographer I can attest to this as I have personally seen an increase in women with fibrocystic breast, suspicious thermographic findings and breast cancer over the past 2 years.
Aren’t we getting tired of these statics?
One out of eight women is diagnosed with the disease with a staggering 4,000 new cases diagnosed weekly.
Every year in the United States, more than 186,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 41,000 die because of the disease. With the billions dedicated to cancer research only 1-3% spent in research goes to prevention.
Breast cancer is an industry that focuses on treatment, not prevention.
The rhetoric of the war on breast cancer is just that…rhetoric, women want answers to prevent, treat and gain remission from the grip of breast cancer.
Informed women are aware of the actions they can take to minimize their risk of developing breast cancer like reducing exposure to environmental estrogens and other toxins in their body, including:
eating healthy organic produce,
consuming hormone -free animal products,
using natural skin care products,
maintaining optimal levels of vitamin D,
exercising on a regular basis,
maintaining a healthy weight,
ditching their under-wire bras,
healing sexual trauma and
getting a yearly thermogram to monitor the health of their breasts.
However, there is one secret weapon many women are not aware of: the essential mineral known as iodine.
Iodine helps your hormone receptors function properly, giving your hormones the ability to communicate with ease and allowing your moods to be regulated. The breast tissue also requires iodine to remain healthy.
There is growing evidence linking iodine deficiency and:
breast cancer,
fibrocystic breast,
uterine fibroids,
thyroid nodules,
breast cysts,
pancreatic cancer,
prostate cancer,
thyroid cancer and
lower IQ.
Estrogen production becomes unbalanced and dysfunctional, and breast tissue becomes more sensitive to estrogen. Cystic changes occur, increasing the risk of breast cancer. Iodine turns on cancer cell death, apoptosis.
Dr. Dave Derry, breast health specialist, states “iodine enables the excess cells [in the breasts] to be cleared out, and the breast can return to its natural state as the fibrocystic disease slowly disappears from the breast. A lack of iodine in the body can lead to the development of fibrocystic breasts.” You can read more at www.theiodineproject.webs.com
Results obtained in studies of breast health noted that all forms tested: molecular iodine, sodium iodide and potassium iodide produced beneficial results; the best results were achieved with molecular iodine. Molecular iodine comes from sea vegetables.
Without the proper amount of iodine, breast tissue can become fibrocystic or develop precancerous and cancerous lesions.
Recent research shows prolonged deficiencies of iodine can exacerbate or be a contributing factor in the development of breast cancer. Animal studies conducted over 40 years ago showed breast tissue of animals with iodine deficiency developed cancer when the deficiency was not corrected.
The same study showed the risk of breast cancer was directly related to the length of time the iodine deficiency was present. Iodine deficiency is also known to cause fibrocystic breast disease.
It is a pre-cancerous condition of the breast tissue, which makes your breast very painful and fibrous.
Due to the fibrous and dense nature of breast tissue in a fibrocystic state, it is very difficult for doctors to detect the presence of breast cancer.
Iodine supplementation has been shown to significantly decrease breast pain, tenderness, and nodules of women with fibrocystic breast disease.
Iodine can also decrease uterine fibroids.
Japanese women consume a diet high in iodine-rich seaweed, which provides them with an iodine intake twenty-five times higher than the average American woman.
Japanese women also have breast cancer rates roughly one-third of those found in American women, and that disappears in Japanese women who immigrate to the US, where they consume considerably less seaweed.
If you have Graves Disease, or Hashimotos, please consult your physician before supplementing with iodine.
There are three beneficial forms of iodine to nourish multiple body systems. Three forms are optimal because different tissues in the body prefer different forms.
For example, your thyroid tissue absorbs iodine best as potassium iodide, while breast tissue takes up iodine in the form of molecular iodine. Additionally, there is evidence using sodium iodide enhances absorption of the other forms. Iodine supplementation is not just for preventing goiter.
Actually, only a small amount of iodine is really necessary for preventing goiter. But today, doctors have found that all tissues of the body require iodine.
The breasts, ovaries, uterus, thyroid, brain and prostate tissue require iodine.
This is far from a definitive guide to iodine as there is so much information and science out there on the subject. We need to know of its importance in breast health as well as in all endocrine health. Look for the continuation of iodine in the next blog or grab a copy of by book: Thermography and the Fibrocystic and Dense Breast that provides further information.
When we are educated about our breast health, it is empowering. No one loves her breasts as much as you do, and you want to keep them for the rest of your life!
As the holiday season approaches, a gathering would not be complete without a cheese board. Until I started researching the genetically engineered growth hormone called rBGH, I was a hard core grazer at those cheese boards. Not anymore.
This is not new news, but like news, it is released and falls by the way side. It is urgent that women in particular know the dangers that genetically engineered cheese poses to their breast health.
Please seek out organic milk and cheese at your local farmers market and health food stores. For those wanting to avoid cheese altogether, several vegan cheeses have come on the market. There are options.
Thank you Dr. Mercola for permission to share this message.
By Dr. Mercola
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. If you’re a woman, your chance of getting breast cancer in your lifetime is about one in eight.
Researchers at a breast cancer conference stated that up to one-third of breast cancers could be avoided by making different lifestyle choices, such as the foods you choose to eat.
There is one food you may be surprised to learn, that is directly linked to breast cancer—and that is pasteurized dairy in the form of milk or milk products.
The risk lies in consuming milk from cows treated with a synthetic, genetically engineered growth hormone called rBGH. Unfortunately, this applies to about one third of the dairy cows in America.
When you consume dairy products from these cows, every product made from their milk is contaminated with this dangerous hormone—be it cheese, ice cream, yogurt, butter—or just plain milk.
Cows are injected with rBGH to boost their milk production.
But science has proven this practice, although profitable to the industry, comes at a high price to you, as well as to dairy cows. RBGH, or recombinant bovine growth hormone, is a synthetic version of natural bovine somatotropin (BST), a hormone produced in cows’ pituitary glands.
Monsanto developed the recombinant version from genetically engineered E. coli bacteria and markets it under the brand name “Posilac.”
RBGH is the largest selling dairy animal drug in America.
But it is banned in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and in the 27 countries of the European Union because of its dangers to human health. Many have tried to inform the public of the risks of using this hormone in dairy cows, but their attempts have been met with overwhelming opposition by the powerful dairy and pharmaceutical industries, and their government liaisons.
Monsanto Lawyers Threaten “Dire Consequences” for Whistleblowers
In 1997, two Fox-affiliate investigative journalists, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson, attempted to air a program exposing the truth about the dangers of rBGH. Lawyers for Monsanto, a major advertiser with the Florida network, sent letters promising “dire consequences” if the story aired.
After attempts by Fox to bribe the reporters to keep quiet failed, the station agreed to air a revised version of the report. An unheard of 83 edits later, the report was shelved and the courts took over. Although a lower court ruled in favor of the reporters for some $425,000, a Florida appeals court denied them whistleblower protection, claiming Fox (and the media in general) have no obligation to tell the truth and have the freedom to report, essentially, fact OR fiction as real news.
They tell their story in an article at PR Watch. (It was taken down)
It is stories like this that reignite my determination to bring you factual information about these important issues regarding your health.
Despite decades of evidence about the dangers of rBGH, the FDA still maintains it’s safe for human consumption and ignores scientific evidence to the contrary. According to Dr. Samuel Epstein, a well-respected professional in cancer prevention and toxicology and chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, the FDA has responded to evidence that rBGH is unsafe with a wide range of “tenuous and inconsistent claims” based on “highly speculative and misleading calculations…based on a wide range of assumptions,” often citing flawed scientific studies that simply are not meaningful.
In 1999, the United Nations Safety Agency ruled unanimously not to endorse or set safety standards for rBGH milk, which has effectively resulted in an international ban on U.S. milk. The Cancer Prevention Coalition, trying for years to get the use of rBGH by the dairy industry banned, resubmitted a petition to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MD, in January 2010.
They are still waiting for a response. Although the FDA stubbornly sticks to its position that milk from rBGH-treated cows is no different than milk from untreated cows, this is just plain false and is not supported by science.
Differences Between rBGH-Treated and Untreated Milk
According to Dr. Epstein, rBGH milk differs from natural milk nutritionally, pharmacologically, immunologically, and hormonally, and he cites the following differences. RBGH milk contains:
Increased levels of insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1)
Contamination with illegal antibiotics and drugs used to treat mastitis and other rBGH-induced diseases, as well as pus from increased rates of mastitis among the cows injected with rBGH
Increased levels of the thyroid hormone enzyme thyroxin-5′-monodeiodinase
Reduced casein content (a milk protein)
Increased concentration of long-chain fatty acids and decreased concentration of short-chain fatty acids
ALL of the factors above can cause or contribute to health problems for people. But people aren’t the only ones suffering—as it turns out, the cows getting injected with these hormones are suffering as well.
RBGH Causes 16 Different Medical Problems in Dairy Cows
As mentioned above, the cows receiving this synthetic hormone suffer massively high rates of mastitis, a painful infection of their udders. Monsanto’s own data show up to an 80 percent incidence of mastitis in hormone-treated cattle, resulting in the need for routine administration of antibiotics and other drugs. This increases the frequency of allergic reactions and fuels antibiotic resistance. But mastitis is not the only adverse veterinary effect. The Canadian Journal of Veterinary Research (2003) found 16 different harmful medical conditions resulting from rBGH administration to dairy cattle, including:
40 percent increase in infertility
55 percent increased risk for lameness
Shortened lifespan
Hoof disorders
Visibly abnormal milk
From the data presented in this meta-analysis, I think it’s a reasonable conclusion that injecting animals with rBGH is cruel and inhumane treatment, besides producing milk that is not fit for human consumption.
RBGH Raises Levels of IGF-1 in Milk by Up to 70 Percent
IGF-1 is a potent hormone that acts on your pituitary gland to induce powerful metabolic and endocrine effects, including cell growth and replication. Elevated IGF-1 levels are associated with breast and other cancers. When cows are injected with rBGH, their levels of IGF-1 increase up to 20-fold, and this IGF-1 is excreted in the milk.
According to some confidential, unpublished industry studies, IGF-1 levels consistently elevate by 25 to 70 percent in rBGH milk. In reality, it is probably worse than that, since standard calculation techniques used by the dairy industry underestimate IGF-1 levels by a factor of four.
Not only are IGF-1 levels elevated in the milk of rBGH-treated cows, but a significant portion of this IGF-1 is in the free, or unbound, form, which may be about 10 times as potent as the IGF-1 in untreated milk. And not only does pasteurization NOT destroy this protein, but studies show it actually increases IGF-1 levels by about 70 percent, presumably by disrupting protein binding. There is a glaring absence of safety margins for IGF-1 in milk, and assurances by industry and government regulators to establish these parameters have been nothing more than empty promises.
Ok, so the levels of IGF-1 are higher in rBGH milk. But does the IGF get absorbed into your system when you drink it, or does your digestive tract break it down and render it inert?
Science tells us unequivocally that you do NOT break this down when you swallow it, but you DO absorb it into your bloodstream, as evidenced by both human and animal studies. Infants and young children absorb IGF-1 in even higher concentrations than adults, because their gut wall is more permeable to proteins. Infants and young children show higher levels of cow’s milk protein antibodies. The IGF-1 in dairy products appears to be protected during digestion by casein and by dairy’s buffering effects.
How Elevated IGF-1 Levels May Raise Your Breast Cancer Risk
Only one of every 10 breast cancer cases is attributed to genetics—the other nine are triggered by environmental factors, some of which are dietary. The fact that increased IGF-1 levels in hormone-treated milk increase your risk for breast, colon, and prostate cancers as has been documented in about 50 scientific publications over the past three decades. Among them is the 1998 Harvard Nurses Health study, which showed that premenopausal women with elevated IGF-1 levels had up to a seven-fold increase in breast cancer. And women younger than age 35 who have elevated IGF-1 have more aggressive breast cancer.
How does IGF-1 contribute to breast cancer?
IGF-1 regulates cell growth, cell division, and the ability of cancer cells to spread to your distant organs (invasiveness). In other words, IGF-1 has potent mitogenic effects in human breast tissue, especially in the presence of estradiol (a form of estrogen). Growth factors such as IGF-1 are “catalysts” for the transformation of normal breast tissue into breast cancer tissue, and are critically involved in the aberrant growth of human breast cancer cells. The following two findings have direct bearing on this link between elevated IGF-1 levels and breast cancer:
Specific IGF-1 mammary cell receptors are elevated by a factor of 10 in malignant human breast tissue.
IGF-1 plasma concentrations are higher in breast cancer patients than in healthy patients. (As an aside, this is how the breast cancer drug tamoxifen exerts its action—by reducing blood IGF-1 levels.)
According to Dr. Epstein, IGF-1 blocks your natural defense mechanisms against early microscopic cancers—it prevents apoptosis of cancer cells, or programmed cellular self-destruction.
The breast tissues of female fetuses and infants are especially sensitive to hormonal influences and cancer-causing chemicals. Infants and children exposed to high IGF-1 early on may become “sensitized,” leading to health problems later in life, such as breast enlargement in infants and young children, and breast cancer in adult women. Yet, despite these elevated risks to children, few schools make rBGH-free or organic milk available, nor do most state governments under low-income food programs. A study authored by Dr. Epstein demonstrated that IGF-1 in rBGH milk is a potential risk factor for both breast and gastrointestinal cancers. And a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention concluded that diet can impact cancer risk by influencing IGF-1 level.
The risks don’t end with breast cancer.
Ten studies show that consuming milk from rBGH-treated cows raises your risk for colon cancer. Seven studies document this for prostate cancer. If you want more information on this topic, I recommend reading Dr. Epstein’s 2006 book, What’s In Your Milk?
Are You Drinking rBGH Milk?
You very well may be drinking rBGH milk, or eating rBGH cheese or yogurt, as no labeling is required. This is despite the fact that surveys show that more than 80 percent of Americans want it labeled, but the government, as usual, continues bowing to industry lobbyists. The good news is, as increasing numbers of consumers and dairies choose to avoid rBGH, you can find labels that say “rBGH-free” or a similar variation. Organic milk is also rBGH-free. According to the Hartman Group, organic milk is now among the first organic product consumers buy.
Organic milk is enjoying an annual growth rate of about 20 percent, while overall milk consumption has dropped by about 10 percent.
Organic milk is certainly preferable to milk that contains this dangerous hormone. However, I still don’t recommend drinking any milk that is pasteurized—organic or otherwise. You can avoid the risks of rBGH, as well as pasteurization, by drinking only raw milk that comes from a small farmer you know and trust. The milk issue is really part of the larger problem of genetic manipulation of our food supply. The more you can avoid genetically modified (GM) and highly processed foods, the healthier you and your family will be.
HERE ARE THREE THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO:
1. Do not buy milk from cows treated with rBGH. Unless the milk-label states “NO rBGH”, you can assume the milk is contaminated. rBGH has become so widely used by dairy farmers. Most health food stores sell rBGH-free milk.
2. Contact your local supermarket and find out if they have a policy regarding rBGH and milk. Make clear that you would like rBGH-free milk.
3. Write to the FDA and express your concern that they are restricting the labeling
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Organic milk is enjoying an annual growth rate of about 20 percent, while overall milk consumption has dropped by about 10 percent.