Lugol's Iodine is a 200 year old recipe containing elemental iodine and potassium iodide. It has thousands of uses, but is most popular for thyroid function support, skin treatment, and water disinfection. The thyroid gland uses iodine to synthesize thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3), two hormones that regulate metabolism, growth, and development.
Iodine plays a crucial role in the body’s elimination system by inducing apoptosis, or what is called programmed cell death, and this is vital because this process is essential to growth and development and for destroying cells that represent a threat to the integrity of the organism, like cancer cells and cells infected with viruses.
It has very specific protective effects against several common poisons like fluoride, bromide, and to a lesser extent it helps eliminate lead and mercury from the body. Dr. Sebastiano Venturi, in Evolution of Dietary Antioxidants: Role of Iodine, makes it clear that iodine is a crucial antioxidant and apoptosis-inductor with anti-tumoral and anti-atherosclerotic activity. When we supplement with iodine we will see increased antioxidant activity and immune system function.
In the words of Dr. David Derry, "Iodine is by far the best antiobiotic, antiviral, and antiseptic of all time."
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