Using Iodine to Ramp Up the Immune System

Iodine is a case in point. The body’s ability to resist infection and disease is hindered by long-term deficiency in essential vitamins and minerals.  Importantly poor immune response is correlated with impaired thyroid function; a deficiency in iodine can greatly affect the immune system primarily because low levels of iodine lead to problems with the thyroid gland.

In sufficient amounts iodine can not only adjust a dysfunctional thyroid, it can assist with a host of glandular imbalances as well as kill a wide assortment of internal as well as external bacteria, fungi, and virus’s. Iodine has many non-endocrine biologic effects, including the role it plays in the physiology of the inflammatory response. Iodides increase the movement of granulocytes into areas of inflammation and improve the phagocytosis of bacteria by granulocytes and the ability of granulocytes to kill bacteria.[1]

“At 6 grams daily (which is 6 million micrograms/day or 6,000 milligrams/day!), a much higher dose, iodine has been used to cure syphilis, skin lesions, and chronic lung disease,” says Dr. Gabriel Cousens. “From a larger physiological perspective, it is important to realize that the thyroid is only one gland of many glands and tissues that needs iodine. Other glands/organs/systems with high iodine uptake are the breasts, ovaries, cervix, blood, lymph, bones, gastric mucosal, salivary, adrenal, prostate, colon, thymus, lungs, bladder, kidney, and skin. Iodine is found and used in every hormonal receptor in the body,” he states. Though no one alive today uses such high dosages cancer patients should take notice and not be shy about how much iodine they should take.

[1] Stone OJ (1988) The role of the primitive sea in the natural selection of iodides as a regulating factor in inflammation. Med Hypotheses. 25:125-129