Why can Iodine Deficiency become Fatal for you?

Iodine is very important for our body, though we rarely value it. It plays a special role in thyroid hormone and digestive activities.

If there is a lack of iodine, it has a major effect on physical growth or structure.

But many of us do not know how much iodine we need or in what kind of food it can be found?

After research, Professor Margaret Rayman of Surrey University has found that there is a shortage of iodine in many modern healthy foods which can create serious health issues especially for pregnant women.

Why do we need iodine?

Thyroid hormone plays a key role in digestion and body growth and iodine is an important part of this hormone.

“The lack of iodine is the main cause of the lack of human intelligence or lack of learning, which can be prevented,” says Professor Rayman.

“If pregnant women do not get enough iodine, their children may be born with intellectual disabilities or hormonal problems.” She said.

Iodine problem lies in many neighborhoods near the Alps. There is also a large number of thyroid gland swelling in the neck. Large swelling thyroid glands are also seen in their throat.

Professor Rayman says, now we know it is a visible sample of iodine deficiency. Thyroid glands may swell excessively as it tries to store iodine from blood.

Healthy Food Risks

Among the foods all over the world, probably the main source of iodine is white fish and eggs.

Iodine is also mixed with food-salt in most countries.

In many countries like the UK, people get iodine directly from milk and dairy products, because iodine is added to the diet of cows.

But in industrialized countries too, iodine deficiency is seen among many people. There is a lack of iodine in food, that is not because of that. The main reason, they do not want to eat these foods.

The most vegetarians are in this group who do not have meat in their food menu. The number of these teams is increasing day by day.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health has done a recent study on people of different ages, there were also pregnant women among them.

The organization has found that iodine acceptance rate among vegetarians is very low.

Professor Rayman has also found that vegetarians and those who do not eat meat, such pregnant women also have iodine problems in their children.

In the 1990s, Professor Rayman collected samples from more than 14,000 pregnant women. Then she kept observing the health and growth of them and their children.

Especially they closely monitored the power of children's education and their intellectual capacity. They analyzed their data.

They found that women who had iodine problems, their children received fewer marks in the oral intelligence test at the age of eight. At the age of nine too, they had less capacity for their studies. They have seen this test, the problems of the mother have affected their children.

But the most worrying thing is that those who had a little iodine deficiency, this problem was also strong among them.

Where is iodine available?

The world's largest source of iodine is the ocean.

Iodine comes into human body by consuming plants or animal meat which comes through food cycle from the sea to the sky, the environment, the rain etc.

But there is no sea-touched rain in landed areas at all times. Again, those who are dependent on locally produced food also do not get iodine in all foods. These events occur in the Alps, in remote areas of Pakistan or in mountainous areas of Italy, Russia and Central Africa.

Iodine deficiency is also seen in flood prone areas like Bangladesh. Because flood water washes away iodine from the soil.

How much iodine is needed every day?

Experts suggest that one woman should have 150 to 300 micrograms of iodine in their food per day. But iodine levels are different in each meal. So it is difficult to say how much iodine one can get in the amount of food one eats.

However, oily fish does not contain the same amount of iodine that white fish contains. There is more iodine in cold milk.

There is also considerable iodine in milk that is not organic. Due to the regulations what have to be fed to the farm cows, this milk becomes iodine-rich.

Best of all, eating different types of food. Do not completely remove the type of food like meat, unless the doctor has a restriction.

source of Info: bbc.com/bengali