1. Anxiety and the Iodine Intervention

Anxiety has been an acquaintance of mine for longer than I care to remember. Always high-strung, intense, and introverted, I found motherhood a shock to the system. By the time our fourth child was six months old, I had crashed and burned in a nervous breakdown. 

 

My local GP prescribed Ativan with the rather insensitive comment, “Come back when you run out. You’re probably going to be on this the rest of your life. You’re just that kind of personality.” 

 

Thanks, buddy. 

 

Not only did his summary dismissal discourage me greatly, condemning me to my neurosis, the drug actually made me feel even more uneasy than I already did. Happily, my pastor referred me to a Christian doctor in Edmonton, who treated me with the presumption that I was going to get well. It was a long, slow road, but get well I did, improving greatly over the first year. He had me on a different anti-anxiety medication that really helped my symptoms, and an antidepressant as well. 

 

Now, please understand: I hate drugs; I don’t even use Tylenol once in an average year, but I had to do what I had to do to survive. Fast-forward eighteen years to the fall of 2009. Clonzapam is always in my bedside drawer. Sometimes I’ve gone maybe three months without needing any; then life goes crazy for a while; I get over-stimulated and can’t sleep; then I get progressively more strung out. A dose of this anti-anxiety medication will break the vicious cycle; sleep and restoration follow. Sometimes it takes several doses over a couple of days, but it works and I’ve been grateful. What used to be a one-month supply (back when I was very ill) would now last a year and a half or more. I wish that I didn’t need it at all, but I’ve been glad for the relief. 

 

 Now for the past six months my new hormone doctor had been telling me that my thyroid is low and that she wants to put me on medication. I’ve been putting her off, stalling, wondering what to do, not wanting to go this route. My anxiety is getting worse and worse. I’m in the middle of a recording project, enjoying it immensely, embracing the challenge, and life is good. But sitting at the computer by the hour, my body is constantly in fight-or-flight mode. My heart races, and I can feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins. I know this state of stress is terrible for my health, but I can’t change it. I’m using my medication way more than usual, yet I feel like I need more. 

 

Sitting there one day audio-editing on my screen, wondering if my thyroid issues are contributing to this distress, I sense the Lord prodding me with a thought: Go to Google and check symptoms of iodine deficiency. (Yes, God knows about Google and sometimes uses it.) I suppose the mental connection came from the knowledge, from back in school years, that iodine is crucial to thyroid health, something that the medical profession seems to overlook today. So the “prod from God” could be broken down into this sequence: Anxiety. Thyroid. Iodine. Deficiency? 

 

 Well, Google told me, through various sites, that anxiety was indeed one of many symptoms of lack of this vital trace mineral. Much reading later, I ordered some Lugol’s Solution (invented in 1829) from my local pharmacy and days later began on a stout dose. Sit down before you read this if you have any medical background: I started at 25 mg per day, 160 times the Recommended Daily Allowance. 

 

 It took six weeks for the full benefit of the iodine to be felt by my nervous system; now it was the first week of January 2010. In the preceding six months I had consumed 60 doses of Clonzepam. I returned to my doctor that week to refill my prescription; two days later I used a single dose. I have not had one since—have had no need or desire, and that is now over fifteen months ago. I can’t adequately express how grateful I am to be free of this medication and enjoying the benefits of a greatly rejuvenated nervous system. 

 

 There are many more benefits to this wonderful element, some of which I’ll address in future articles. There are a few cautions as well, which we’ll look at too. Meanwhile, I invite your questions and comments.