Focus on Seniors: Let's not forget the importance of iodine

....Some of the problems associated with iodine deficiency include chronic fatigue, weight gain, low metabolism, bone loss, increased cholesterol levels, fat retention, depression, hair loss, intolerance to cold, enlarged thyroid, exhaustion, poor sex drive and poor circulation.

Other things have changed since the '20s.

We've increased the amount of fluoride and chlorine in our water supplies. Both fluoride and chlorine are chemical antagonists to iodine. So we may need even more iodine now than we did then.

And if you have some concerns about increased levels of radiation in our environment because of the recent Japanese nuclear disaster, one of the products of nuclear fission is radioactive iodine. Your thyroid doesn't recognize the difference between a supplement of inorganic iodine and radioactive iodine.

So if you're iodine deficient, which many of us are, the thyroid will absorb what it can get. And radioactive iodine is not a healthy form of iodine........