What is the Link between Iodine and Women’s Health?

The importance of iodine for breast health cannot be understated. Iodine is a unique and extremely complex nutrient, and the amounts needed in the body need to be carefully regulated – or else you might run the risk of causing some serious damage.

In this article, we will talk a bit more about the link between iodine and women’s health and, more specifically, iodine for breast health. And, in general, why a low-iodine diet does not raise the overall risk of breast disease. I hope you look forward to joining me on this journey!

Product Recommendation:  The Daily Reset Bundle. All your Daily Thyroid Nutrients in a one stop bundle. Doctor Formulated, Thyroid Focused nutraceuticals that not only help boost your thyroid output but also assists in maintaining a thriving thyroid. This bundle contains ALL your essential micronutrients, healthy omega fatty acids, Vitamin D, Calcium and Magnesium. Specifically designed for those with Hashimoto’s, Hypothyroid and Hyperthyroid Disease. Click Here

Table of Contents

What is Iodine?
The Effects of Iodine on Breast Health
Iodine & Producing Breast Milk
The Effect of Iodine on Breast Disease
How the Body Regulates Iodine
Discover The Thyroid Reset Diet Today

What is Iodine?

Iodine is a trace mineral and is considered essential for your body. Your body needs it for maintaining normal thyroid hormone output. We can find iodine mainly in foods that are found in the ocean or in soil that has iodine mixed into it from ocean-based sources.

In short, the way iodine works is that we consume it, absorb it, and it is ultimately concentrated in our thyroid. This is where it plays its key role in making thyroid hormones.

The thing that I want you to know about iodine is that you can’t really avoid it entirely, and going “iodine-free” isn’t an advisable thing to do anyway. But, you can get too much of it, and many people unfortunately do. But, for today’s discussion, we’ll focus specifically on iodine and breast health…

The Effects of Iodine on Breast Health

So, what exactly is the connection that exists between iodine and breast health? It starts by understanding how iodine is treated in our system – through the use of the sodium iodide symporter (otherwise known as an NIS). The reality is that the same pump we can find in the thyroid is also in the breast tissue.

But, why? Part of this comes down to chance. The tissues that form the thyroid end up being similar to the tissues that form the:

• Intestinal tract
• Breast tissue
• Prostate

There’s a lot of overlap where these same precursor cells went into developing multiple things throughout the body. This means that they have shared origins.

The other connection is that this same pump is used for forming healthy, nutritious breast milk. Let’s talk a bit more about how that works…

Iodine & Producing Breast Milk

Iodine for breast health is just as much connected to iodine’s role in breast milk, in general. That iodine pump that we mentioned earlier, the NIS, remains dormant when women are not lactating.

So, it is more active when they are making milk.

That said, it is not perfect. Sometimes, when that pump in the breast tissue (the same that we might find in the thyroid) does not work correctly, it pulls in more iodine than it should.

When this happens, the extra iodine creates free radical damage. It can also cause far too much fluid to enter the breast cells. This is the beginning of our cause for concern.

After all, free radical damage can alter one’s DNA, which leads to breast cancer. Too much fluid can also create swelling and pressure leading to fibrocystic changes or fibroadenomas. This was formerly known as fibrocystic breast disease.

The same pump that we mentioned before can both pull in iodine or block iodine from entering. In the case of thyroid function, this means that a high dose of iodine stops the thyroid from absorbing more iodine (and subsequently from making thyroid hormone).

Essentially, a megadose of iodine can cause the exact same effect as a severe deficiency of iodine. It really shows how you need to get things just right!

The Effect of Iodine on Breast Disease

Fibrocystic breast changes are no joke. They can be extremely painful as tissues swell throughout the course of the menstrual cycle. It is not something anyone should want to experience.

This swelling relates to fluid buildup and damage from iodine. But, it may surprise you to hear that iodine has played a role in “helping” those with fibrocystic breast disease in the past.

Past research suggested that high-dose iodine may reduce the symptoms related to fibrocystic breast disease in about 50-60% of women of a certain age.

Let’s make a few things clear, though. This didn’t help everyone at all times, but it did lessen the effects of some of the symptoms, in some people, for a brief period of time.

But, this isn’t something that we would want to pursue today.

When it comes to iodine for breast health, there’s a confusing mix at play. It’s that nutrients, like iodine, can sometimes be used as nutrients – and, sometimes used as drugs.

You may know that iodine can be used on cuts and scrapes. But, if you used it, and it worked, would that mean you are deficient in iodine? No, because the two are unrelated.

The same was true for the study I mentioned above. While the iodine helped the symptoms, it wasn’t because these patients were deficient in iodine. It helped because it blocked their iodine.

The Japanese Paradox

People have often thought about “the Japanese paradox” – where the Japanese population has lower rates of breast cancer, and yet they have a higher intake of iodine.

The fact is that both of those things are true, but is it true that the iodine caused them to have less breast cancer? That is a bit more complicated.

We have learned that, in Japanese women, the overall diet (one that is high in dietary soy) is a much more influential factor – because, if you isolate simply for iodine levels, the highest levels still have more instances of breast cancer, on average, the same as we might find at home.

Radioactive Iodine

Since iodine seems to be present in high amounts of cancerous tissue and cancerous tissues aggressively absorb iodine, studies are underway to see if radioactive iodine could be used to target certain cancers. I have written about this subject before if you want to hear my take on the matter.

This risk here may not be limited to breast cancer. Other studies have shown that on a population-wide level, the total cancer death risk is higher in those with the highest iodine intake.

How the Body Regulates Iodine

Let’s circle back and talk about the role iodine plays in breast health. As we learned, the breast tissue has an iodine pump of its own – and that pump is pretty well “shut off” when not lactating.

For some women, there is a “glitch” in the pump. When they are not lactating, they are still pumping a lot of extra iodine (even more than if they were lactating). This can result in fibrocystic breast disease.

If that same problem is worse or goes on for longer, those changes may lead to breast cancer.

When it comes to iodine for breast health, keep this in mind: iodine is not inherently bad for you. The breast tissue, your thyroid, these things need iodine. They rely on it.

But, we are at our healthiest when our iodine is in balance. That doesn’t mean going on an iodine-free diet of any kind, but a low-iodine diet that really concentrates the amount you need to function properly.

If you are concerned about your breast health, really focusing on your iodine consumption – and making sure you have a little, but not a lot, can be a great step to cutting your risk of both breast cancer and fibrocystic breast disease.

In short: High-dose iodine may relieve symptoms, but it does not treat the root cause. The more effective way to handle the topic of iodine for breast health is to not consume too much. In this case, less (but not none) is truly more!

Discover The Thyroid Reset Diet Today

When I was writing “The Thyroid Reset Diet” I spent a lot of time digging into the various levels of iodine for a variety of foods. What I found was shocking, mainly because it showed how some foods truly can have such a range of iodine in them.

There’s no need to avoid iodine in your diet completely because we need it. But there is a need to regulate it, keep an eye on it, and avoid the foods which are high in it – and may throw us off balance. I hope you will take a dive into The Thyroid Reset Diet to learn more today.

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here is how I can help you now:

1. Schedule a Thyroid Second Opinion with me, Dr. C, Click Here for Details
2. Need A Thyroid Supplement Recommendation? Take My Thyroid Specific Formulations Quiz Now
3. Need a Personalized Supplement? Check out My Thyroid Specific Formulations
4. Download and use my Favorite Recipes Cookbook Here
5. Check out my podcast Medical Myths, Legends, and Fairytales Here

Dr. Alan Glen Christianson (Dr. C) is a Naturopathic Endocrinologist and the author of The NY Times bestselling Adrenal Reset Diet, The Metabolism Reset Diet and The Thyroid Reset Diet.

Dr. C’s gift for figuring out what really works has helped hundreds of thousands of people reverse thyroid disease, lose weight, diabetes, and regain energy. Learn more about the surprising story that started his quest.