Summer time pool time, but is the chlorine depleting your iodine?

Happy Monday everyone, and a special Happy Father’s Day for all those Fathers!  This week, as we continue on our summertime topics, we will briefly chat about chlorine pools, and why there are better options.

Lets first talk about iodine deficiency.  Iodine is essential for metabolic function, thyroid and brain development among others.  Our body does not make iodine, so it is essential that we intake iodine regularly in order to keep up the stores needed.
If you look on a periodic chart of elements ( i know back to chemistry days), iodine is one of the halogens.
Element 53.
The other halogens include, fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and astatine.

What’s important to note here is that bromine and chlorine mimic iodine.  See, iodine is NEEDED in the thyroid, while bromine and chlorine are not.  So, when we are exposed to these substances a lot, the receptors in the thyroid compete, and usually iodine is knocked out.

This is why we see a huge iodine deficiency in our population.  Thyroid conditions are extremely common.  

But where do we get exposed to bromine and chlorine?

Well, for one… swimming pools. …

Bromine and chlorine are added chemicals to pools in order to decrease microbes.  However, in the CDC report in 2012, commercial “pool additives are easily mishandled, caustic to the human body, and capable of turning basic pool water into a toxic bath. ”
They may enter the body simply through a simple swim, since we know that our SKIN is the biggest organ that we have, and absorbs whatever we come in contact with.  

Bromine also occurs in other areas as well, not just swimming pools.
It’s in our municipal water… In fact a HOT shower can actually cause chlorine gas, that we breathe in… not good!

Brominated vegetable oils are common additive to processed foods and sports drinks ( Gatorade, powerade, ect.)

Methyl bromide pesticides taint commercially grown crops like strawberries

Potassium bromate is found in bread products

Plastics.

Medications such as Atrovent Inhaler, Atrovent Nasal Spray, Pro-Banthine (for ulcers), and anesthesia agents

Fire retardants (common one is polybromo diphenyl ethers or PBDEs) used in fabrics, carpets, upholstery, and mattresses.

So, knowing this.. it’s safe to say most all of us are pretty iodine deficient.  Increasing your intake of iodine rich foods are a great add on to creating a well balanced lifestyle.

Iodine rich foods include:
(iodine salt is NOT one!)

“The intentions of iodizing salt originally was to prevent deficiencies, so in the U.S. manufacturers started adding iodine to table salt in the 1920s.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves potassium iodide and cuprous iodide for salt iodization, and the World Health Organization recommends the use of potassium iodate due to its greater stability. On average, about 45 micrograms of iodine can be found in each eighth of a teaspoon of iodized salt in the U.S. By law, food manufacturers almost always use noniodized salt in processed foods and list salt as iodized in the ingredient list on foods that use iodized salt. The reason is to prevent very high intakes of iodine, considering the majority of salt intake in the United States comes from processed foods.

I always recommend consuming real salt, either Himalayan or Celtic sea salt as opposed to iodized table salt. Sea salt contains more than 60 trace minerals and doesn’t pose a risk for overconsuming iodine like table salt does. It’s also much more natural, beneficial and tastes better”

1. Seaweed- dried kelp
2. Wild caught cod
3. organic, grass fed raw yogart
4. raw milk
5. eggs
6. Tuna
7. Lima beans
8. Corn
9. Prunes
10. Green peas

———-

An alternative to chlorine pools???

“A more natural alternative to chlorine and bromine chemical-treated pools is a method of ionization that uses copper and silver to kill bacteria, viruses and algae. This method reduces the amount of total chlorine used, limiting toxic exposure. This sanitation method must also be monitored carefully and copper levels measured appropriately.”

Salt water pools now are also very common in many places, and one I recommend.

.– Some information (“) taken from Natural News.