Treating my Fibromyalgia with Iodine has allowed me to reclaim my life! My hope is that it could work for you too! To answer questions of what my personal Iodine supplement regimen looks like, I have outlined below how my treatment started and has since progressed. Please note that this is only what has had the best results for me personally, and does not constitute medical advice.
Weeks 1 & 2
Salt Loading – Twice a day for 2 weeks I drank ½ tsp of unrefined salt dissolved in about 300ml of water and did not take any Iodoral or companion supplements.
Week 3
Breakfast – With breakfast I took the following:
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- 12.5mg Iodoral
- 600mg calcium
- 200mcg selenium
- 100mg B2
- 500mg niacin (making sure it was no flush)
- 1000mg vitamin C
- One multivitamin pill
Lunch – With lunch I took the following:
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- 100mg B2
- 1000mg vitamin C
- 600mg magnesium citrate**
Supper – With supper I took the following for:
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- 100mg B2
- 500mg niacin (No Flush)
- 1000mg vitamin C
Ongoing
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- I continued to drink ½ tsp salt mixed in 300ml water, at least twice a day, typically having one glass between breakfast and lunch, another between lunch and supper, and often one more in the evening.
- If I was experiencing a fair bit of pain, or getting a runny nose (both indicators of detoxing), I'd often drink an additional glass or two of salt water throughout the day.
Week 4
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- I continued with all Week 3 supplements and added a second 12.5mg Iodoral dose with lunch. Increasing my total daily dosage to 25mg.
- I also added a 50mg dose of Chelated Zinc* with breakfast.
Week 5
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- Identical to Week 4, except that I began taking a third 12.5mg Iodoral dose at supper, increasing my total daily dosage to 37.5mg.
Week 6
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- Identical to Week 5, except that I began taking another 12.5mg Iodoral dose with breakfast, increasing my total daily dosage to 50mg.
- I continued this fourth dose for a few weeks, but I noticed that I wasn't feeling as well as I had previously, (which is commonly attributed to detoxing too quickly). So, I returned to taking 3 doses a day (37.5mg total) and felt considerably better within a few days.
Currently
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- I still take 37.5mg total of Iodoral per day
- I still take all the companion supplements that I started on Week 3
- I continued with the salt water regimen until about the 6 month mark and then stopped. I soon realized that I was still detoxing and needed the salt water, so I started drinking a glass or two of salt water every day and within a few days I was back to feeling better.
- Over a year later, I still find that I need to drink some salt water every few days due to detox. I don't use it every day, but when I'm not feeling quite right (meaning I've got a few extra aches and pains, or a bad sinus headache, or runny nose etc), a glass of salt water will very often get me feeling better. Dr. Brownstein suggests adopting this salt regimen as a lifetime therapy, but unfortunately, it's one thing that I tend to get away from.
- Periodically I have increased my Iodoral dose to 50mg per day as this is largely considered the optimum dose. However, I always end up returning to the 37.5mg dose. This just seems to work best for me right now.
- Some report that they prefer to take their Iodoral early in the day because it negatively affects their sleep if they take it later on. This hasn't been an issue for me so I take one dose with each meal.
- Along with this treatment I also try to follow a relatively clean diet. I make most of our meals from scratch and use fresh meats, fish, fruits and vegetables when possible.
* I found that my skin was breaking out slightly in the form of pimples on my face and arms. So as per a suggestion in The Iodine Crisis by Lynne Farrow, I began taking 50mg of zinc (I use chelated zinc) with my breakfast and this resolved the issue.
** Magnesium citrate - I was taking this on the advice of my Osteopath prior to starting Iodine. I was instructed to start at a low dose and work up to bowel tolerance. The instructions were to increase my dose until loose stools occurred then go back to the previous dose, this then became my optimum dose. For me this was 600mg.
My advice to those considering this treatment, is to give it some time to start working. My brain fog was gone within 24 hours, so I felt right away that something positive was happening, and it wasn't long before I was able to do things I hadn't done in years. The vast majority of the pain and fatigue that I associated with Fibromyalgia resolved within 4-6 months of supplementation.
Today, I've essentially picked my life up where I left off almost two decades ago. I'm back working as a CPA, cooking, house keeping, practicing yoga, tending a large vegetable garden, walking, running errands, going out with my husband, and really just enjoying life.
Obviously, I am unsure how many Fibromyalgia sufferers this treatment will help, but I am confident that it will help some. My experience has led me to believe, that at the very least, Iodine deficiency can be misdiagnosed as Fibromyalgia and I feel it would be very unusual for my situation to be unique.
My experience has also led me to question if:
- There may be multiple causes of Fibromyalgia, one of which is Iodine deficiency.
- That due to the reported prevalence of Iodine deficiency within the general population, this may be a leading cause of Fibromyalgia diagnosis/misdiagnosis.
Going forward, I am very interested in hearing from anyone who has tried The Iodine Protocol and what your results have been. Ultimately, I would like to use this information to help determine this treatment's potential effectiveness for fellow Fibromyalgia sufferers. Please contact me here to tell your story! Let's hope it's a positive one!