26 replies to this topic

[Mr Serendipity]

Ok guys, a little background info on me.

I'm 25 years old. I've been taking supplements since I was 16. I've always had problems going to the toilet (constipation). My problems with digestion have worsened the last few years, and I'm now lactose intolerant, and have problems digesting gluten. Even when I try to eat healthily, without anything I could be allergic too, I may still get constipated. I also suffer of ejaculator anhedonia (I don't orgasm when I ejaculate). I also suffer with peyronie's disease. I also suffer with sexual arousal with real women, compared to watching porn. Sometimes my libido goes for awhile, and I can't even get it up to porn. My sleeping pattern has always been screwed. I find it hard to wake up in the morning or early, and find it hard to fall alseep at night. Whether I am on or off supplements, I will suffer these various problems to different degrees.

So I've taken everything from A-Z to make me feel better. You name it. Multi-vitamins, Vitamin D, E, C, B Complex, Fish Oil, CoQ10, Grape Seed Extract, Various Amino Acids Tyrosine/Tryptophan/Taurine+ more, Rohdilia, Gotu Kola, Garlic Oil, Melatonin, Borage Oil, Bromain etc etc..

I've megadosed, I've taken sensible doses, I've removed and added to create different stacks.

I still have a staple of a mixture of these of what works for me best, without effecting my sleep or digestion negativly. However there isn't really any obvious effects it has on my body, other than I know it's doing me good in the background.

Anyway here comes Potassium Iodide. 28 x 130mg pills, roughly a months supply, cost me £6. I buy life extension.
http://www.iherb.com...14-Tablets/4402

Now from what I understand. 130mg of Potassium Iodide, is to be used for emergency purposes, for when their is Nuclear Fallout, and people are exposed to radiation that then causes thyroid cancer. By taking 1 of these pills, your thyroid will be full of Potassium Iodide, so that no radioactive iodine can latch on, or something like that.

You may ask me why have I gone for something so extreme, in a high dose. A few reasons.

1. I have a megadose mentality disposition when it comes to supplements, even though I try not to have sometimes.

2. By my logic, having my thyroid full to the brim of Iodide, is better than having anything else that could attached itself in there, such as flouride, chloride, and bromine. And that I think my thyroid should be full to the brim.

3. A lot of it goes to other parts of the body, especially the reproductive organs. So this might actually not be the largest dose you can safely take, but just the minimum you can take for thyroid health in a nuclear fallout. Or maybe it is the maximum dose, enough goes to your reproductive organs, and the rest to your thyroid and they both are full.

4. It's iodide, and I knew already scientific research done with the chenobyl disaster, that it is effective preventing thyroid cancer. So I assumed it would be effective keeping the thyroid healthy as a supplement.

5. It was pure curiosity, a test, a new thing I wanted to try. Like I said, 1 month cost me £6, but since I was shipping it to the UK, I got 2 months supply, and still avoided customs fee because it was under £15. Obviously I bought more to save the shipping cost from America.

6. It's very cheap, for the high dosage.

7. Convinience. It's a pill, just take it. I didn't want to mess around with putting so many drops in water.

Now some of my points or logic may be invalid, so don't use it. These were my personal reasons.

Anyway the results.

Things I noticed the first week:

1. Brain fog.
2. Bad Breath (lasted 4 days).
3. Swollen glans right of my thyroid.
4. Excessive thirst, I was drinking so much water, but still thirsty. And it felt like I was hardly peeing.
5. Tiredness.
6. Body odor worsens.

Lol not great huh. Well I with my flawed logic (don't go on it), assumed I was detoxing, and had to get through the worst before I got the best. Plus it wasn't that bad, I think the fact that I'm still on my other supplement regime, which includes high doeses of CoQ10 (1200mg), and God know what Grape Seed Extract (I capped them myself, take 3 a day), helps detox me quicker, so it didn't feel that bad. But yes for the first 3 days the bad breath, ieee, something must have been dying off in me.

Anyway the positives I noticed, and please note, even though I was getting the negatives, some of these positives happened during the first week too.

Let's start sexual health:

1. Very hard erections. I've taken viagra, cialis, and citrulline recreationly before. However potassium Iodide, gave me MUCH better erections.

2. Increased libido. It was hard to go 2 days without masturbating.

3. The biggest and most obvious effect, EASY AROUSAL. Like super easy. Have problems getting it up, with Iodide you won't. No need to work up anything with iodide, you'll have trouble keeping it down. Your penis becomes very responsive.

4. Sensitivity. You're penis becomes more sensitive, so more likely to cause premature ejaculation. However I welcome this, as I suffer from a lack of sensitivity and find it hard to ejaculate.

4a. Penis feels more healthy and soft.

5. Though I didn't take note. I'm pretty sure I remember thinking how thick the ejaculation was. However don't quote me on this, as I didn't take note. And I've controlled my urge to masturbate the last 6 days, that's why I can't tell you.

Then digestion, appetite, weight:

6. Going to the toilet is MUCH better. Much better than all the times I've taken supplements for that, probiotics, super enzymes.

7. I actually feel my appetite is less.

8. However it feels like my weight is harder to lose, even though I've been dieting. < This is really a negative.

Now all so far happened during the first week, while having the negative symptoms. The next is after the first week.

9. Brain is starting to clear.

10. Finding it easier waking up.

11. Don't feel tired, or feel like shit like I did the first week.

12. Motivation feels much higher, probably due to more energy. I seem to write a lot.

13. Yesterday. I took a teaspoon of tyrosine with my iodide in the morning, and I had very good verbal fluency toward the end of the day. During the actual day, I felt a bit out there, like when driving, I could drive, but I would get lost in my mind, and 5 minutes later see how much further down the road I was. This happens with tyrosine alone as well, anything that gives me a dopamine boost.

So there you have it. I haven't took any today, as I have a very important meeting, and still haven't reached perfect equilibriam. However commencing tomorrow I will continue.

I think iodide and tyrosine will be my staples in the morning, above any other drug.

When it comes to my sex health. Beyond any doubt, iodide has had a better effect than any other thing I've taken. Including viagra, cialis, cabergoline, selegiline, citrulline, tyrosine.

When it comes to mental health. I cannot be sure. I feels as though either I need a lower dose, or I need time for my body to adjust. Will continue experience tomorrow.

For my physical health. I believe it helped, but how the hell can I tell, other than my sexual and mental health, and the fact the so called detox symptoms subsided (especially bad breath), while some others haven't yet.

But I am positive I've found one of the best pills for my health.

I even typed Orgams and Iodine and found a page where someone talked about it making their orgams more intense. I think this was the page:

http://www.godlikepr...sage1897520/pg1

However I can't get on it as it somereason says my IP is banned. Anyway I remember someone else quoting some medical reference, that when the thyroid is sluggish at converting tyrosine to thyroid hormones, that it also downregulates tyrosines conversion to dopamine.

Maybe this is the reason I haven't had an orgasm since I was 16? Before I ever took supplements.

I'd like to point out my problems started before the Fukishima disaster. So even though it may contribute to worsened thyroid health, I believe my thyroid, or body was lacking in iodine or iodide way before that.

Anyway thats all folk, my writing may be erronous in grammar and spelling. I've written this quick because I have to go to a meeting soon, and my thinkings not as clear because I took 10mg of melatonin, and a teaspoon of tyrosine last night to help me get to sleep, and I woke up after 6 hours, so I'm still tired.

[Mr Serendipity]

Oh I forgot to add.

Do I recommend you try it?

Yes from a personal point of view. Because it's cheap, and the positive effects it had on me. So buy 1 pack, try it for 2 weeks. Or buy 2 packs and try it for a month. Even if you take half the pill, which they've ingrained a line for easy splitting.

Medically?

No, as I'm not a qualified physician, and don't want to be sued. Also many will, and wholeheartdly agree, will say this is a large dose, and I still haven't decided whether the large dose is necessary. But the negative effects have lessened, some have gone, and so I want to ride them out for a month personally.

[pamojja]

Well worth reading this current thread about high-dose iodine:

http://www.longecity...ted-supplement/

Note all the nutrients needed to make iodide work (not for you, since you're mega-dosing everything already - but for someone else wanting to duplicate your experience).

Personally, I would monitor thyroid hormones (free T3, free T4, TSH, antibodies..) and thyroid volume, to gain more data from such an experiment.

[BioFreak]

Great you're having a good time with high dose iodine. However, there are some things you should be aware of with high dose iodine:

Please supplement with selenium (200-400mcg a day, but NOT more) otherwise you risk inducing damage to your thyroid. Do that ASAP. You do not want to get hashimoto's or graves disease. The risk is small, but it is very real for some people, and you can't know if you are one of them.

Also, most if not all of the negatives may be because of detoxing, so follow the salt loading protocol (I've written a post about salt loading in the brain health forum, but you can also google iodine salt loading) to increase your excretion of bromide.

Also, if you want additional effects of iodine, you should combine potassium iodide, elemental iodine, and iodide ion, because they each work in different cell types (i.e. cancer prevention). I'm still skeptical on elemental iodine unless there is an actual existing cancer, though. Keep in mind however, that potassium iodide is the most harmless version of iodine, while iodide ion is not as harmless (meaning lower dosages) and elemental iodine is very reactive, meaning even more lower dosages.

Maybe I'll try just high dose potassium iodide one day too(I've been using lugols ever since.). It all started with a 1,5mg potassium iodide pill for me, that made me thinking positive.

Edited by BioFreak, 19 December 2013 - 01:29 PM.

[Mr Serendipity]

I was meant to reply yesterday, I'm on my phone ATM, at work so this will be quick.

I started iodine again yesterday, all noted negative symptoms have gone. No tiredness or brain fog, or sore throat/swollen gland, literally all gone. I feel normal, but have noted 2 more symptoms. 1. I believe my appetite has increased. 2. Yesterday, but not today, I felt like I couldn't make good eye contact with people.

Otherwise my body has adapted/detoxes. I was eating some Brazil nuts for my selenium, but don't believe I need to supplement it as there is another thread here saying we get a lot anyway.

I've also been taking tyrosine 1 tsp in the morning with it. I do believe my detox was fast, mainly due to my others supps, I'll write more later in the experiment.

[BioFreak]

Otherwise my body has adapted/detoxes. I was eating some Brazil nuts for my selenium, but don't believe I need to supplement it as there is another thread here saying we get a lot anyway.

Depending on the area you live in, you may be getting less then you think. Once you have a autoimmune disorder, it is irreversible. You have been warned.

Also, brazil nuts are not standardized for selenium which means, you could get less then you wanted, or too much - in which case you enter selenium toxicity land. Both will decrease the positive effects you get from iodine.

[Mr Serendipity]

Well I'm not too concerned, if anything my allergies have been eliminated, where as before lots of food or alcohol caused blocked nose, like crazy blocked nose and also mucus production. However a lot of the time I just couldn't breath through my nose, even when there was no mucus.
I'm still at work typing on my phone btw.

Also I ate a cheap ready meal lasagna the other day, with lots of wheat slices hardly any meat, and i didn't have a problem digesting it or going to the toilet.

But anyway thanks for your concern, I should be getting small amounts of selenium from my multi vitamin anyway, but a warning non the less to warn others. Also I'm only in m2nd week, so still very early stage, things might go wrong.

Lastly I will say I think this is still my best supplement so far, but time will tell, ATM the effects feel tapered off, so either my bodies detoxed and I got use to it, or its not doing anything, but I can't see that dose being excreted, and like I said, my digestion is still working well.

I should note I meant lots of different food, not quantity.

[OhmAigawd]

So that's good. After the end of the world we will need to repopulate the earth, anyway, so that's already covered!

Sorry, couldn't resist a little levity , and I am glad it's helping you. I would like to know what the long term effects of continual dosing would be if the literature is available.

But seriously that's a lot cheaper than the erection drugs and I find it fascinating how positive side effects can help us directly sometimes.

Edited by OhmAigawd, 20 December 2013 - 04:47 AM.

[Mr Serendipity]

Just a quick update. Iodide is making me put on weight, well really I'm eating much more because of it, I have increased appetite, which is not a good thing as I was losing weight through 24 hour IF, and now I can't seem to make it to when my fasts end, while before I had gotten used to it.

Other than that, all other bad side effects have gone.

I also forgot to mention in my original post, that in the first week I had the side effect of metal taste in my mouth, which went after the 1st week, along with excessive thirst.

Also I must have been on iodide for 15 days now, over 2 weeks, because my packet ran out yesterday, and they come in packs of 14.

However the major thing I need to tackel is increased appetite and get back into IF.

[3AlarmLampscooter]

Have you been tested for Celiac disease and accompanying thyroid disease from selenium deficiency?

I suspect this is your real problem, and you need to cut gluten out of your diet altogether and start taking more Selenium, plus Levothyroxine, not tons of iodine. http://www.iss.it/bi...NN_10_04_06.pdf

[eon]

interesting thread. I had been supplementing with potassium citrate. Not sure if this is NOTHING like potassium iodide. I don't "feel" anything with this, maybe it's subtle? I only take a 99mg pill 2x daily.

My selenium source is brazil nuts.

Edited by eon, 23 December 2013 - 11:18 AM.

[3AlarmLampscooter]

interesting thread. I had been supplementing with potassium citrate. Not sure if this is NOTHING like potassium iodide.

Yup, they are both _Kazakhstan potassium sources and that's about all they have in common.

[eon]

But is potassium iodide any better than potassium citrate? I take an iodine supplement which has potassium iodide and potassium benzoate as its ingredients. It has 150 mcg of iodine, which is from fucus vesiculosus (Kelp). A serving is about four drops which is 100% daily value (150 mcg). I notice that my cold hands and feet had become warmer in the last few weeks I had taken this. Cold hands and feet are said to be a sign of hypothyroidism. Should I double the amount I'm taking split 2x a day? I still have cold feet at times but not as bad as before. Before I didn't know why I had cold hands and feet, even during warm weather days.

[3AlarmLampscooter]

But is potassium iodide any better than potassium citrate? I take an iodine supplement which has potassium iodide and potassium benzoate as its ingredients. It has 150 mcg of iodine, which is from fucus vesiculosus (Kelp). A serving is about four drops which is 100% daily value (150 mcg). I notice that my cold hands and feet had become warmer in the last few weeks I had taken this. Cold hands and feet are said to be a sign of hypothyroidism. Should I double the amount I'm taking split 2x a day? I still have cold feet at times but not as bad as before. Before I didn't know why I had cold hands and feet, even during warm weather days.

It depends on whether you are actually deficient in iodine or not. Assuming you are, then obviously taking the potassium iodine is going to help. Potassium citrate is going to be helpful if you've got a lower blood pH, or to a lower degree hypokalemia; but other than that not very helpful, you also have to watch out for not getting hyperkalemia!

I'd recommend that anyone who is displaying symptoms of probable thyroid disease get their levels tested and if any GI symptoms are present, tested for celiac disease also. The exact link between these two conditions has just started to come out recently, along with selenium deficiency being a likely underlying culprit. I think in a few years you'll see the RDA of selenium for thyroid and celiac patients at 200micrograms/day, if not for everyone.

[BioFreak]

But is potassium iodide any better than potassium citrate? I take an iodine supplement which has potassium iodide and potassium benzoate as its ingredients. It has 150 mcg of iodine, which is from fucus vesiculosus (Kelp). A serving is about four drops which is 100% daily value (150 mcg). I notice that my cold hands and feet had become warmer in the last few weeks I had taken this. Cold hands and feet are said to be a sign of hypothyroidism. Should I double the amount I'm taking split 2x a day? I still have cold feet at times but not as bad as before. Before I didn't know why I had cold hands and feet, even during warm weather days.

Potassium iodide is mainly a source of iodine, not potassium (because the quantities are simply too low). So when someone is talking about potassium iodide, they talk about iodine.

check out the iodine thread in the supplement forum, but one advice ahead: always take iodine with selenium(no matter what dose of iodine you are taking, as long as you are taking iodine), to make sure your thyroid can handle the iodine.

[3AlarmLampscooter]

check out the iodine thread in the supplement forum, but one advice ahead: always take iodine with selenium(no matter what dose of iodine you are taking, as long as you are taking iodine), to make sure your thyroid can handle the iodine.

And my unofficial advice to everyone is just generally take more selenium (as long as you are not regularly exceeding the FDA's 400micrograms/day limit, although you still have to get to at least double this before actual negative effects start). I think selenium deficiency is greatly under-recognized as a widespread cause of health problems, usually thyroid related. Especially in people with undiagnosed celiac disease, or other gastroenterological problems impairing trace nutrient absorption.

Edit:
I'd like to add I see the fact that 200mcg/day supplemental selenium is not indicated in thyroid diseases as a real failure of the evidence based medicine model; while it hasn't been proven as an effective treatment yet, it costs so little and has a such an amazingly low chance of causing adverse effects that I think the probability of it helping (even offset by cost) far outweighs the probability of it hurting. I wish clinical guidelines were based more off of probabilities of expected marginal utility and ultimate outcome versus cost, and not just off of treatments that have been rigorously proven through three phases of clinical trials. Low cost, low risk interventions are definitely worth it if they are highly probable to work, even if thusfar unproven. The evidence based medicine model was introduced largely to offset quackery, and I fear now that research has advanced so much faster than drug approval that it is in fact depriving people of probably effective treatments, and in many cases promoting them to turn to actual quackery... just my little rant on how clinical trials are broken.

Edited by 3AlarmLampscooter, 24 December 2013 - 10:26 AM.

[BioFreak]

Supplementing with selenium will pretty reliably result in hypothyroid in iodine deficient individuals. So if you supplement with selenium, make sure you supplement with iodine too.

And because of the small therapeutic window, 400mcg might be too much for some that already have enough selenium in their diet.

[eon]

someone mentioned in another forum about selenium having to do with thyroid as being "new". When I take my iodine 150 mcg, I eat a brazil nut for my selenium source.

How does selenium support health? According to a supplement seller it is an: Important free radical scavenger • Supports the cardiovascular system • Maintains a healthy immune system • Supports the health of the thyroid gland • Functions in a number of antioxidant enzyme systems in the body such as glutathione peroxidase (GPx), thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) and iodothyronine deiodinases (IDD).

Edited by eon, 24 December 2013 - 11:49 AM.

[BioFreak]

It isn't new. Check the iodine thread in the supplement forum, the studies/links are posted there.

[macropsia]

manny, have you had your thyroid levels checked? Since iodine is used primarily (solely?) by the thyroid, it seems like a strong reaction to iodine would point to some sort of thyroid dysfunction (as well as the gastrointestinal issues). This may sound sort of obvious I guess, but it hadn't been explicitly mentioned..

[BioFreak]

Since iodine is used primarily (solely?) by the thyroid

Common mistake, iodine in its various forms is being used by many cell types (and if you think about it that most cells gain iodine by converting t4 into t3, it just makes sense that iodine by itself has important functions)

look at iodineresearch.com for starters, under research.

[macropsia]

...like what specific functions. ... I get that there are iodine/iodide transporters expressed elsewhere, and that some thyroid-type hormone is made outside of the thyroid, but are you aware of any specifically? The research section still mostly pertains to thyroid hormone issues...

[BioFreak]

It seems like some tissues have a NIS, others don't, but they still seem to be able to use elemental iodine as i² for example. Look at the iodine thread in the supplement forum. I've posted lots of research there. Uses outside the thyroid are at least anti cancer specific, in breast or prostate tissue. In the breast for example, iodide is only being taken up during lactation, while iodine can be absorbed by it at any time to induce apoptosis in cancer cells.

Don't forget that part of thyroid hormone function may be simply to deliver iodine into the cell. Within the cell iodine can for example bind to lipids to make them more stable against oxidation.

Iodine also plays a role in psychological wellbeing. If it is just because of thyroid hormones - I don't know, but people report that at dosages much higher then the minimum necessary for thyroid hormone production which would indicate that iodine plays its own role there, too.

Also iodine can work as a detoxifying agent, removing halides and heavy metals from the cells into the bloodstream.

Iodide also plays a role in the immune system. For example it can be used in an anti-mircobial process that kills off bacteria, fungi, and viruses. I've used it for this purpose too. For example, the sideeffects from a flu were greatly reduced by high dose lugols.

Iodine is also found in the skin, ovaries, stomach, eye, salivary gland, affects estrogen metabolism, increases the antioxidant capability in the body(apart from its effects on lipids it seems), etc. Maybe you should take a closer look at that website, but I agree, there is not that much research on it - the old version had much more information, but for whatever reason they decided to redo it, badly.

Iodine is actually a HUGE topic, if you keep digging, you can find out a lot more then just it's use in the thyroid.

Edited by BioFreak, 27 December 2013 - 09:13 AM.

[Mr Serendipity]

I've cut down on the iodide to 1/2 a pill starting today, new years day 2014.

Even though my arousal was still high and easy, my erection hardness had gone down dramatically. Also I believe it was making my peyronie's worse, which happened before when I took high doses of cytomel 3 years back. I also started suffering with post nasal drip, where going to sleep at night was a pain, my throat would tickle, and I would cough as muscus built up on the back of my throat; I would also have a sore throat in the morning. I think this dose of iodide was causing post nasal drip/excessive music. However my main concern is still peyronie's disease.

If I wasn't seeing these problems, I would still supplement with this dose. But now I think it's time to lower it, and lower it even more if these problems don't subside with half a tablet.

[BioFreak]

Consider that iodine's detoxifying effects(halides, heavy metals) are a possible cause for this. Cutting back is always a good idea because it will decrease the supply of toxins from the cells into the blood - giving the body time to excrete whats already in the bloodstream.
Try experimenting with 200mcg selenium, if your multi does only contain small amounts of it.

If bromide is the cause, salt loading might be worth a try to lower blood levels quick.

Edited by BioFreak, 01 January 2014 - 11:29 AM.

[Mr Serendipity]

l-phenylalanine --> l-tyrosine.
From there if you take iodine, it makes
3-iodotyrosine, a precursor for thyroid hormones. When your thyroid is satisfied and operates normally, body will give a signal not to make the 3-iodotyrosine anymore and it will produce more l-dopamine.

It seems that without sufficient iodine, the phenylalanine won't even hydrolyse to tyrosine nor to the dopamine.

I read this on another forum. Do you think there is any scientific basis for this?

[BioFreak]

I don't think that this is of real concern. see, the rate limiting step is tyrosine->l-dopa, not phenylalanine->tyrosine.
Or they mean that more tyrosine is available because less is used for the production of 3-iodotyrosine.

So if I interpret this quote right, the quote claims that more tyrosine would be available, and therefore dopamine, but that, if true, would only be of short term value, since tyrosine hydroxylase gets downregulated pretty fast, within 6 weeks.