Bromide & Salt Loading
The iodine doctors have found in treating over 4000 patients that what is commonly thought to be a bad reaction to iodine is most likely bromide toxicity. Iodine, Bromide, Fluoride and Chlorine are all halides. When we are low in iodine and are exposed these other halides they will take a place on the iodine receptors. If we have been exposed to many of these halides over a long time period we may be considered bromide toxic. In the lab tests for iodine sufficiency the docs are seeing high levels of bromide excreted as the dose of iodine increases. Moving bromide out of the body can cause symptoms (listed below) in people who are highly bromide toxic, as the iodine pushes the bromide off the iodine receptors. There are several strategies for dealing with bromide symptoms if you get them.
Dr. Brownstein has said that less than 5% of his patients had any kind of detox symptoms from the iodine protocol.
https://www.drbrownstein.com/homePage.php
When detoxing the most common solution is Salt Loading (see details below).
Many have had success stopping iodine for a couple days, then continuing. Doing this on a regular basis is pulse dosing (days off and days on). This is a common solution for any healing supplement that causes a detox or herxheimer reaction. I have used this method for antifungal supplements as well when the die off detox gets overwhelming.
Sometimes just lowering the dose for a week or two, even a month or two depending on how long term you plan to use the supplement and allowing your body time to adjust before raising it up again is the easiest solution. Some people use large amounts of Vitamin C. The Vitamin C never worked for me though, it just added bowel irritability so if you have low bowel tolerance with Vitamin C keep that in mind. I used all of the above methods. At the bottom of the page I have included my iodine usage chart from 2009-2011 and you can see how I pulsed, took breaks and changed doses. I didn’t keep track of my salt loading but I was taking a fair amount of salt daily and usually upped my salt when I attempted to raise my iodine dose.
Far less is known about the effect of Fluoride as it is pushed out of the body. It often can take high doses of iodine over a period of time for the body to start to move the other halides out of the body. Iodine used to be added to breads and baked good when that was stopped many manufactures started to use bromide instead. Bromide is also a common fire retardant it is found in most new plastics, carpets, household goods, & new cars. Bromated oil is in Mt.Dew and some Gatorade, although Gatorade has chosen to remove this as of sometime in 2013. Bromide is commonly used in hot tubs and spas and of course chlorine is used in swimming pools and drinking water systems. Fluoride is added to many water supplies and is in toothpaste and in many foods manufactured with fluorinated water. Avoiding these halides is very difficult in our current culture.
Iodine is our only protection, After we have reached iodine sufficiency (which for some of us will take some time due to our currently high halide load) how much iodine we need to maintain that sufficiency in this toxic world is a matter of debate. The iodine Doctors originally thought 25 mg and since have raised that and believe 50 mg is required. We all have to take into account our body weight and exposure. Some on the iodine list on yahoo who are in pools often take a high dose to counteract the chorine and bromide they are exposed to.
More and more doctors are becoming aware of the importance of iodine again but still it is too few. Many if not most of us are using the iodine protocol on our own and taking responsibility for out own bodies. As always nothing on this site is medical advice just a culmination of my experience and experiences of others on the protocol through observation of our own bodies. Please seek out the assistance of an iodine knowledgeable physician. I am accustomed to using myself as a guinea pig but that doesn’t mean I recommend it to those who have no experience in self treatment.
Bromide toxicity symptoms I had were:
Body: diarrhea or constipation, hormone changes, leg and hip ache, frequent urination (mimicking urinary infection)
Mood: Anxiety, dream changes, irritability, lethargy
Head: brain fog, headache, sinus ache, runny nose, hair loss
Mouth: dry mouth, increased salivation, mouth and tongue sores, odd swallowing sensation
Skin: Acne, skin rash (bromaderma) look in the archives for the pics of the rash I had on my chest
Twitching & Jerking: eye lid twitching, foot twitching, tingling in hands or feet, leg jerking
Bromide Overdose
Many of these extreme symptoms of bromide toxicity are not likely to happen on a iodine protocol but it is interesting none the less.
Drowsiness, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, acne, skin rash, blurred vision, dizziness, mania, hallucinations, increased thirst, hunger and urination, pancreatitis, muscle weakness, hypothyroidism, poor memory, psychosis, coma, possible attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) in children.
