Generally all is going well with the iodine experiment.  This week I got a blister on my index finger on the inside of the finger between the  second and 3'rd knuckle next to the 3rd finger.  There was no explanation for this other than it might be a detox reaction from the iodine.  I went to bed one night and when I woke up in the morning the blister was there and it was itching worse than a mosquito bite.  Very annoying.  The blister popped the same day and it has been red and tender for the last 3 days.  So far, that is the only thing out of the ordinary.

Basal temp was still 97 +- 0.5 degF all week so no change there.

Most nights I was up 3-4 times but twice this week I only got up once.

I also notice that the amount of urine released seems to be increasing.  Might be my imagination but I think I'll start measuring it to see if it is real or just wishful thinking.

Lex

One of the few questions I occasionally ponder re: your experience, Lex, is that it seems that nature does not care much for consistency. It seems to more favor random variation, fractals, power laws, seasonality, feast and famine, and so forth, but I am rather ignorant on such matters.

Can't say that I have anything other than observations and anecdotal evidence, but it does seem that cyclical or frequent but random stress creates a more robust entity.  In the plant world the ancient Bristlecone Pine lives at 12,000-14,000 ft in rocks and cracks and it tenuously survives for 4,000 years or longer.  Plants that have been pampered in a green house often die of shock when moved outdoors even in a mild climate. (I pursued a degree in Ornamental Horticulture for several years and had to study this stuff.)

My dad also echoed something similar when we were kids.  We used to have several pets and my dad would insist that they spend the night outdoors all year around.  He said that keeping the dogs, cats, and other critters indoors would compromise their health and shorten their life.  As an example, my grandfather came to live with us and brought his little lap dog (pekingese and pomeranian mix)  it was sickly with watery eyes, runny nose, and was taking heart and kidney medications.  My dad threw the dog outside and stopped the meds.  The dog got better and outlived granddad.

Lex

i'm pretty sure it reduces blood sugar because it a) increases insulin sensitivity (possibly) and b) increases metabolic rate so more sugar is burned or rather, the available sugar is burned faster (very likely).

this could be the reason why many overweight people lose weight simply by taking lugol's. obesity is often caused by a sluggish thyroid because that inevitably decreases metabolic rate.

also, since there supposedly are iodine receptors on all cells of the body and several or all glands require certain amounts of iodine to function properly, the cells may get more sensitive to glucose when iodine occupies its receptors instead of bromide or fluoride and the entire endocrine system may also benefit from the higher iodine intake. the hormones then could help to improve the use of blood glucose, among other things.

Not sure how accurate any of this thinking is.  I've been monitoring my BG for the last couple of days and it has risen an average of about 10 points throughout the day.  Just had my labs completed before starting this iodine adventure and my fasting glucose was in the low 80s.  This year's labs were taken just before eating my daily meal which is why it was 10-15 points lower than other labs.  Normal morning fasting BG is usually right around 99-100, and BG stays around 100 most of the day except right before my daily meal at which point it drops 10 points or so, and then rises above 100 for a few hours directly after eating before dropping back to around 100 in the evening and stays there until the cycle starts over again.

Since PhilB suggested that I check BG a couple of days ago, with the expectation that it would probably drop a little, every time I've checked it over the last 2 days it has been 10 points or so higher than my previous normal. 

Evening of 10/9  - 113 mg/dl
Morning of 10/10 - 110 mg/dl
Evening of 10/10 -  111 mg/dl
Morning of 10/11 - 113/mg/dl

Can't say this is good or bad, only that this is what I'm measuring.

Lex

Lex, by morning basal temp, do you mean armpit temp? Just want to make sure I understand you, thanks.

I take normal oral temperature under the tongue.  Never understood the benefit of taking armpit temp.

I bring this up to see whether you might not be inclined to start monitoring your blood glucose again (assuming, of course, you currently aren't).

I hadn't thought of this.  I haven't measured my BG for a long time as it has been stable for so many years.  Since iodine is supposed to support an increased metabolism it probably makes sense to start measuring it again.

@Bio-shell - thanks for giving us more detail.  I was curious as were others. Information like this is helpful to those trying to decide if something like this is worthwhile for them.

@Tyler - I used to do the apple cider vinegar thing years ago.   Back in the 60s and 70s it was in vogue mostly started by Dr Jarvis in his book "Vermont Folk Medicine" published in the late 1950s I think.  As I remember he mentioned iodine as well, but that never caught on.   Natural Hygienist Paul Bragg picked up on the ACV thing and published a book dedicated to the subject as well has creating his own brand of ACV still available in health-food stores today.  During my vegetarian/vegan years I used to drink a quart of water mixed with apple cider vinegar and honey everyday.  I enjoyed it but can't say that I ever noticed any benefit from it.  I continued to drink it because all the gurus said it was the thing to do and I liked the taste.

Lex

Phil,
We're generally on the same page and often seem to complete the other's thoughts.  In my case that's very helpful as I often don't express my thoughts as well as I would like.

Tyler,
Unfortunately it has been shown that just because there is general consensus on something that doesn't make it true.  There has been general consensus on just about every medical boondoggle throughout history.  If anything, this forum is anti-consensus - and that is what makes it valuable.

GS,
I must not be as sensitive as many on this forum.  I eat a cooked steak meal as my only food about 3 days out of the month.  I've never felt any different on the cooked days from the days that I eat completely raw.  Maybe it's because I don't have super powers to start with so there's nothing to lose... 
Lex

The info linking AGEs to accelerated aging in humans is not "theory". Indeed, the scientific data on accelerated aging linked to  nondiabetic people eating real-world diets is  negligible by comparison.

Tyler,
I guess I was unclear.  Paleo Phil understood my meaning.

AGEs, free radicals, CRP,  etc. certainly have a scientific basis, and I never said that they didn't.  AGE damage to tendon tissue is often used to determine the chronological age of an animal in the wild.  I fully understand this.  The "practical implications" as Phil so eloquently put it, is that regardless of what we consume, AGE, free radical, and other damage will accumulate.  It is just part of being a carbon based lifeform that oxidizes its fuel to create energy.  I'm just not convinced that some dietary consumption of things like AGEs makes much difference. You of course may feel otherwise and that is fine with me.

I look at the situation much like the cholesterol hysteria over the last 40 years.  Scientists had us terrified to eat eggs, red meat, and other dietary sources of cholesterol as they were convinced that dietary cholesterol was what was raising blood cholesterol to pathological levels creating heart and artery disease.  We now know that this is not true. The problem is that it has taken us 40 years to figure this out and it's still mainstream thinking to shun cholesterol containing foods.

I place AGEs, free radicals, and other such compounds in the same category as cholesterol 30-40 years ago.  They are the "new" cholesterol bogey man.  We know they exist, we know tissue damage occurs, we may even know the biochemical mechanism by which the damage is created.  What we don't know is how much impact dietary sources of these compounds contribute to our overall aging and degeneration.  We do know that aging and degeneration will happen from AGEs, free radicals and the like even if we consume none of them in our diet.  Our body creates them as part of the life process and there is absolutely nothing you or I can do about that.  I'm not even sure that if I could, that I would do something about it.  I've seen the mess we've made of people's lives by artificially manipulating blood cholesterol levels and other things that we don't fully understand.

If you choose to believe that these things are important and you derive great joy from worrying over them, then by all means continue to enjoy yourself.  As for me, I find it tedious to dwell on things that I have little control over, especially when practical implications to my daily life are tenuous at best.

Lex

@ Lex... I see.. I just hope you are not falling into false assumptions, there are no inflammation going on because of your low CRP.. because there could very well be... and that would be so important to know for someone with cancer risk. And how one could lower the inflammation too.

I assure you that I'm not falling into making false assumptions.  You see, I fully understand that my body is filled with inflammation.  Normal metabolic functions required for living create all sorts of inflammation.  Just breathing and processing oxygen creates large amounts of free radicals.  I could significantly slow the productions of free radicals if I stop breathing but the consequences of that would be to rapidly accelerate my death to occur in about 6 minutes.  Not a great trade-off in my estimation.  Therefore, I accept that things like free radicals and low levels of CRP inflammation exist, understand that there is little in the way of practical intervention that I can take, and spend my time pursuing more fruitful endeavors.

My goal is to have the best quality of life that I can while I'm here and my idea of quality is not spending what little time I have left on this earth agonizing over CRP, free radicals, AGES or the host of other minutiae that I have little or no control over.  Most of this stuff is theory and from what I can determine no one really knows what the practical implications are to everyday living.  I know what the current conventional wisdom is, but conventional wisdom hasn't had a real good trackrecord and it is a constantly moving target.

Assume I dedicate my time to trying to lower my already low CRP number, agonize over free radicals, and diligently track AGE consumption.  No matter how successful I am in these pursuits, I'm going to die, and I can't think of a bigger waste of the precious little time I have left on this earth.  I'd much rather spend my time doing things that bring joy to my life. 

Lex

It occurs to me that the ZC warnings did prove true for others, according to their reports, and they might have done better if they had done some more research first and listened to others like you instead of just Charles W. and included organs and raw foods in their diets. Commendably, it sounds like you took the precaution of researching the iodine protocol pretty thoroughly.

This is one of the reasons that I try very hard to be thorough in my descriptions of exactly what I'm doing.  It is also the reason that I don't try to prescribe for others.  There is really no way for me or them to know if they are actually doing what I'm doing, and it might be some seemingly insignificant little detail that makes me successful and them not so much.

I remember my Aunt called me up one time and asked for my recipe for carrot cake.  She had heard that it was really good and she had some special guests coming for dinner and wanted to impress them.  I gave her the recipe but was surprised when I didn't hear from her again.  Curious about how her dinner went,  I finally called her up and asked her if the cake was a success.  She said that it was very disappointing.  I was shocked.  Everyone loves my carrot cake and I expected her and her guests to like it as well.

After talking to her for a while she finally admitted that she didn't have as many eggs as the recipe called for so she substituted cornstarch mixed with water for the missing eggs.  Then she said she didn't have any raisins to make the raisin paste called for in the recipe so she used molasses instead.  Finally, she didn't have the cream cheese called for in the topping so she used cottage cheese.  Any one of these substitutions will create a significantly different cake both in taste and texture from the recipe I gave her.  I can just imagine how bad the result was with all three substitutions. 

The interesting thing is that in her mind she was convinced that she was following my recipe and it just wasn't that good!  I've found this to be true over and over.  People think that they are following my recommendations or doing exactly what I'm doing, but upon close examination, they've more often than not, made significant deviations - sometimes unconciously, and sometimes knowingly.  Regardless, they are usually convinced that they're following my protocol to the letter and it just doesn't work.

Lex

Day 7 - It's been a full week now and still no detox symptoms from taking 50mg of iodine per day in the form of 8 drops of 5% Lugol's solution added to my daily drinking water, along with all the recommended supplements.

I usually take my morning temperature first thing when I get up and that is the temperature I report.  This morning I awoke at 4:30am as all I had was a sheet over me and the window over the bed was open and I was a little chilly.  The chill is what woke me up.  I decided to take my temperature and it was 96.4.  I pulled a light blanket over me and went back to sleep for 2 hours and woke up feeling comfortably warm about 6:30 which is when I normally get up.  I again took my temperature and this time it was 97.5, almost a full degree higher.  Now I'm wondering how much things like how well I'm covered and what the room temperature is effect my early morning temperature.  This might be a useless measurement.  Thoughts anyone?

Was up 4 times last night.

Also did a patch test.  This is admittedly not very accurate, but does apparently show in a general way how well saturated your body is with iodine.  The theory is that if the patch disappears within 4 hours then you are highly deficient, if it lasts 4- 8 hours then you are high-moderate deficient, if it lasts 8-12 hours then you are moderately deficient, 12-18 hours light to moderately deficient, and 18-24 hours you are lightly deficient, and anything over 24 hours means your tissues are probably pretty saturated.  Some think this test is totally useless but I thought I'd try it anyway and see what happens.

I put one drop of 5% Lugol's on my forearm and spread it around about the size of a quarter and let it dry.  This was about 4:30pm.  I went to bed 7 hours later at 11:30 and the patch had faded a lot but was still visible.  It was gone when I woke up at 4:30 to make a bathroom call and put on a blanket.  From the best I can tell with this first test I'm probably in the 8-12 hour range.  Wish I had done this before starting the protocol, but I didn't so I'll just have to go on from here.   

Lex

However, Iwakura warns about the Risks of quickly going to high-dose iodine supplementation, instead of gradually building up to it:If you have a chance to peruse it, what do you think about the key points in the article?

Phil,
My comments on the article are just my thoughts as I have no actual facts.  There are always those that point out every possible issue that may arise and then sternly warn against taking unapproved actions.  I've read hundreds of pages of information from "professionals" and their stern warnings, to laymen like myself that took bold steps and had no problems at all, to still others that experienced issues but worked through them.  I took all of this into account before choosing the protocol I was going to follow and decided that the risk was acceptable.

I also considered that I had a well defined medical problem that could turn ugly.  Let's suppose it did turn into cancer.  Do you think those same professionals that are so concerned that I might suffer temporary hyper/hypo thyroid problems and caution me to spend months or years working up to an effective dose will warn me that the chemo and radiation treatments that they are pushing me to take are so toxic that they recommend that I work up slowly so that it takes a year before I'm at full dose?

From what I've read, it takes a 50mg-100mg dose of iodine over a period of several months to get the effects that I hope to achieve.  Some doctors that are on the iodine bandwagon are using doses as high as 300mg/a day to treat cancer.  I assure you, they didn't spend years working up to this dose starting from a few hundred micrograms.  If it takes a 100mg daily dose of iodine over several months to show a positive effect on BPH symptoms, then I want get to that dose as fast as possible and then remain there as long as necessary to either show beneficial effect or show that it didn't work. 

Do you remember all the warnings I was given about going ZC?  None of the horrible concequences that were predicited ever materialized.  Remember I'm all about what works.  There is no one forcing me to continue to do something that is creating worse problems.  If I encounter issues that I feel are a major problem then I'll make a change.  I just choose to wait until the problem occurs rather than worry over something that most likely won't happen.

Lex 

Day 5 came and went without incident.  No sign of detox symptoms

Basal temp was 97.4 this morning.

Was up 3 times last night.

Lex

I don't know if I have mentioned this to you but my teacher makes his own TREE IODINE supplements.  This iodine is herbal / organic / wild crafted instead of CHEMICAL.  Iodine from trees instead of the ocean.

We stock some at home.  And he is very much aware about the iodine deficiencies epidemic.

See http://www.barefootherbalistmh.com ask him about it.  Ask him about his iodine book.

GS, I'll look into this but from what I've read, if I have a deficiency that is severe enough to cause things like BPH, Fibroids, and other bad things, then none of the forms available from plant/animal sources in their natural state would be concentrated enough to do any good.  Many others have tried this approach and failed.  It seems that once most of your tissues are iodine sufficient then you may be able to sustain that condition from natural sources, but you just can't make up the huge deficit fast enough from these sources.  Remember, I'm taking 50milligrams/day and at that rate it could take up to a year to restore iodine levels.  Natural dietary sources are in micrograms which is 1,000 times less.  According to what I've read in the blogs and news groups, people taking less than 12mg/day seldom achieve success.

The protocol I'm trying is the one that most people have been successful with.  I will stick with that for at least 6 months and then re-evaluate based on symptoms and an updated PSA test.

Lex

Hmm, I'm sceptical of the iodine protocol, but then almost all my alternative and conventional medicine approaches failed miserably pre-RPD diet. Still, if it works, that's great.Have you tried herbal medicine yet or homeopathy for this prostate(?) problem?

Hi Tyler,
I'm in the same camp as you are regarding alternative as well as most conventional medical interventions.  I've had no success at all with herbal or homeopathic remedies and I've tried several.  The Doxasozin (Alpha-Blocker) that I take does ease urination a bit, but it has no effect whatever on solving the core problem.  All it does is temporarily ease the symptoms.

My rising PSA has me seriously looking for a solution.  My doctor(s) say that this is just a normal part of male aging, but I'm not convinced.  I don't remember hearing much about enlarged prostate problems or prostate cancer in the 50s and 60s when I was growing up.  It was much like diabetes.  You occasionally heard about someone that suffered from the problem, but it was rare.  Now the medical profession is saying that 50% of men aged 45 now have symptoms of BPH and the general consensus is that every male, if they live long enough, will ultimately get prostate cancer, just as most people are expected to get Type II Diabetes.  It's now considered part of "normal" aging.

Just simple observation tends to make me believe something has changed in the last 50 years to make these problems so much more prevalent.  Diet seems to be a likely culprit so I changed my diet.  This helped a host of problems but, unfortunately, didn't solve the BPH/PSA problem.  There is now some evidence that iodine deficiency can be at the root of several aging problems.  Not that having sufficient iodine will let you live forever, but that iodine deficiency could be the source of some of these "quality of life" issues like BPH.

In reading information on the various blogs and news groups, it could be that iodine itself is not the problem, but some of the chemicals like other halides such as bromide have found their way into our modern daily lives in huge and unnatural proportions.  These chemicals supposedly displace iodine and disrupt normal cellular function especially in the thyroid, female breast tissue, ovaries, prostate, and testes causing swelling, fibroid, and other abnormal conditions as well as leading ultimately to cancer - at least that is the theory.

There is some evidence that if enough iodine is taken it will overwhelm and displace the other halides and the body will begin to repair the abnormal conditions they caused.  There is some research but most of what is available is anecdotal evidence.  Since I have one of the conditions that is supposedly caused by this bromide/halide problem, it seems reasonable to give the iodine protocol a try to see if there is any benefit.  All other interventions that I've tried, both homeopathic and medical have not worked and there seems little to lose in trying the iodine protocol. 

This also seemed like ripe fodder for my journal as I have several years of labs clearly showing the continual rise in PSA.  If the iodine protocol actually works, then this number should stop its advance and either hold steady or start to drop.  I think this is more useful than just the anecdotal evidence that is found on most blogs and news groups.

Lex