Other Iodine Products
By Don Bennett, DAS
Whenever something starts to become popular, like iodine testing and correction, the not-so-worthy, worthless, and "woo woo" products will appear, and they are marketed to appeal to those who are influenced by great sounding promotional information.
Nascent iodine is based on Edgar Cayce’s so-called “energized” iodine. The iodine is reduced to a 1% concentration in 100% ethyl alcohol and then “electro-magnetically transmuted into the atomic state”. But it’s not mentioned that this state is not stable, and will revert back into the diatomic state at sea level pressures. But even if it stayed monoatomic, this form will not saturate body tissues sufficiently, and has not been shown to effectively detox halides such as bromide, fluoride, chloride, and heavy metals such as mercury, as the diatomic form of iodine does.
Some people who buy monatomic "nascent" iodine are essentially buying it with the faith that Edgar Cayce was onto something really amazing and that we should probably follow his divinely-inspired recipe. And I'm not saying that Edgar Cayce was merely trying to rip people off; knowing that iodine was a helpful substance, he may have honestly felt that this form of iodine would be superior, but the level of scientific inquiry that we have today says otherwise.
This form of iodine is not recommended for the iodine therapy protocol as the goal is tissue saturation and halide detoxification / protection. Plus, the “nascent” products do not contain both iodine and iodide, and the body needs both forms. Different parts of the body look for one of the specific forms, for instance the breasts concentrate iodine and the thyroid concentrates iodide (and the body does not convert one form to the other when supplied from a supplement, which is why a proper supplement supplies both forms, like the Lugol's formulation).
And lastly, the recommended amount (up to 2.4 mg/day) is not considered a therapeutic dose, and if that's what's needed to restore whole body tissue sufficiency of iodine, and to combat our halogen exposure, "nascent" products are not going to cut it. And some educators recommend "one drop a day" which would equate to 650 mcg or 0.650 mg a day, which is a meaningless amount for someone who is iodine insufficient/deficient, or for someone who has whole body tissue sufficiency of iodine but simply needs more iodine in their diet due to their body's needs (their body dealing with an as-of-yet undiagnosed tumor for example).
And by-the-way, you can't judge a product's worthiness based on experiencing some improvement. Health improvement is not the same as health restoration... there's a huge difference!
 The
whole "nascent" concept concerning elements is from a long
since abandoned theory that was put forth in the early days of modern
chemistry in an attempt to explain chemical reactions. There is no
such thing as a "nascent state" of iodine or iodide that
is somehow a different or "superior" form. Such a state
does not exist. Those who make such ridiculous claims are either ignorant
or hucksters. If those marketers knew chemistry, and bothered to actually
read and understand the history of the chemistry they lift from old
text books for their own nefarious use, they would have discovered
that, theoretically, the nascent form of an element could exist for
only a small fraction of a microsecond, and only during a chemical
reaction, before returning to its "regular" form. That old
theory was abandoned as understanding of chemistry's reaction mechanisms
grew. It is buyer beware regarding claims made about any elemental
substance being offered that is somehow purer or superior in any way
to the elemental substance itself. |
Jodis-Concentrate iodine claims "overdose is impossible". While that sounds wonderful because people have been harmed by taking iodine, let's delve deeper. Any nutrient that the body requires, if taking in too large a dose should cause harm. It's called an overdose. Even the essential nutrients water and sunshine if taken in too large a quantity become toxic and will harm you. This is because they are biologically active. If a nutrient is claimed to be impossible to overdose, and the claim is true, it cannot be biologically active and instead is "inert".
When industry sees there is a market for something, like "vegan D3" for example, they will provide it even if there's no such thing as a 100% vegan D3; they will simply say it is "vegan" and sell it because there's a market for it (and because they know there are no regulations that prohibits them from doing this). The benefits of iodine have become known (again; this was known in the early 1900s in the US), but there is a lot of misinformation about it thanks in part to the people who are philosophically opposed to the taking of nutritional supplements who say we don't need to take them. And because there are people who have gotten themselves into trouble by simply ordering some iodine and taking it without knowing what they were doing, when they post about their bad experiences with iodine, this gets around, and iodine gets an undeserved bad rap, so then there's a demand for an iodine product that won't hurt people, and the woo-woo product industry is happy to oblige as is the case with this product. Oh, the promotional material sounds very convincing, but that's because it's designed to be.
| And by-the-way, the way the body works with nutrients is as follows: there are only three scenarios regarding the amount of a nutrient that comes into the body: 1) You get less than what the body needs, 2) You get exactly the amount the body needs, 3) You get more than what the body needs. The odds of getting precisely the amount the body needs – no more, no less – is a trillion-to-one, meaning, it's never going to happen. So for all practical purposes we're left with only two scenarios. Now, which one do you think the body prefers: not getting enough of a nutrient, or getting more than it needs? To guarantee that it gets enough for whole body tissue sufficiency of a nutrient, it must get more than it requires from the foods that you eat. Logic (and biology) dictate this. And the body is perfectly capable of excreting the excess (after it stores what it wants of the overage). So you should want more than you need, just not an overdose (which is an amount that overburdens organs/glands, and can cause harm). |
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Another example of a "woo woo" iodine product
Notice, nowhere does it mention if it contains both iodine and iodide atoms, and in what ratio, which a good iodine supplement would. Having been a supplement industry insider, I can tell you that supplements that cite a "proprietary process" are to be avoided. And a water-based carrier is preferable to an alcohol carrier. |
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Bottom line: The well established products that have a track record, like the one I recommend, have been found to be safe and effective when used properly, and they are the ones that iodine literate practitioners use. And I know of no such practitioner who would use the ones mentioned above.
More fascinating iodine info at...
health101.org/iodine
and
health101.org/iodine7