About the benefits of iodized salt
Iodine deficiency: a history with geography
Copper news
In Russia, since 1995, there has been a National program for screening, monitoring and prevention of iodine deficiency conditions. However, according to the scientific director of the program, Director of the Institute of Clinical Endocrinology of the Federal State University of Endocrinology Research Center of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Academician Galina Melnichenko, the problem of iodine deficiency in the Russian population has not yet been solved. According to Galina Afanasyevna, the country urgently needs a law on the use of iodized salt as the main method of preventing iodine deficiency conditions. Academician Melnichenko told the media about the history of the issue and the consequences of iodine deficiency of various degrees of severity (Marina Astvatsaturyan talked).
Historically, the situation is extremely instructive. The problem of iodine deficiency as a completely correctable condition became known to mankind in the late XIX– early XX century. And the idea of using iodized salt as a way to prevent a colossal series of diseases: goiter, mental retardation, fertility disorders in women, and many other problems – was also formulated at the beginning of the XX century. The USA, Switzerland, and Austria quickly began work on tracking and correcting iodine deficiency conditions.
Amazingly, young Soviet Russia was one of the first to join this program. Already in 1927, the first studies on iodine deficiency in our country began, and quickly enough regions with the degree of iodine deficiency, which we now call severe iodine deficiency, began to receive iodized salt. This is amazing, but despite the annexation of regions with severe iodine deficiency (Western Ukraine), in 1957, less than five percent of the population had palpable goiter. The war ended, colossal territories with a huge iodine deficiency joined, but the issue was resolved, a resolution was adopted in 1953, and in all regions with iodine deficiency, iodized salt was. And at the same time there was a certain system of prevention of children, albeit imperfect.
By the 1970s, it became clear to doctors and health care organizers that the iodine deficiency had been eliminated. Well, there are no goiters, what's the problem? And at this time in the world (first of all, in Europe) put the question differently. We know what happens if iodine deficiency is severe. And if the iodine deficiency is mild? And if he is of moderate severity, what happens then? Until the 1970s, we estimated iodine deficiency by the presence of iodine deficiency in the soil, in water. But we don't eat potatoes grown in the Alexander Garden. So, there must be some other criteria for assessing iodine deficiency, because we get food from different sources. And in Europe, fundamentally new approaches have emerged to assess the fact of iodine deficiency and to eliminate it. And by this time, in general, we have eliminated the iodine deficiency.
And, probably, relaxed?Yes, we relaxed.
And Europe has learned that: there is a mild iodine deficiency, which leads to a decrease in cognitive abilities in children by about 10 points in IQ, and then you can't catch up. At the same time, there are quite a lot of more serious problems: deviant behaviors, the formation of thyroid nodes in old age – this is also associated with iodine deficiency.
That is, even with a slight iodine deficiency?Even with a light one.
It was an amazing discovery. And the fact of iodine deficiency itself should be assessed by examining large cohorts of the population for ioduria. That is, it is important how much iodine was in me, and not how much iodine was in the river that I walk past. And so, in 1990, the World Health Organization – it would seem that much higher – decided on the need to eliminate iodine deficiency, and everyone was convinced that by 2000 the iodine deficiency would be eliminated.
Moreover, it so happened that our country became the discoverer of another tragic, fatal situation related to iodine deficiency. When Chernobyl struck, the children's thyroid glands, which lacked iodine, received a colossal amount of radioactive iodine (the thyroid gland did not care what kind of iodine to receive, stable, radioactive – there was not enough stable, they received radioactive). And a colossal dose of radiation was received per unit surface area of the thyroid gland. The rapid appearance of thyroid cancers after Chernobyl was completely unexpected for humanity, there was no such thing. Even after the explosions that took place in Hiroshima, crayfish did not appear so quickly! And then there was another line in our line about iodine deficiency diseases: "Rapid development of thyroid cancer and its high frequency in children after radioactive disasters."
Immediately after that, at the Institute of Endocrinology, under the leadership of the current president of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, and then only Director Ivan Dedov, Professor Grigory Gerasimov, who now works for UNICEF and the Association for the Study of Iodine Deficiency, began work on tracking iodine deficiency in the country. Specialists began to travel around Russia and assess the degree of iodine deficiency according to new standards. And it turned out that in almost all regions of Russia – it was also amazing – there is one or another degree of iodine deficiency, most of all – mild and moderate severity.
We knew about Moscow, the Moscow region, but it turns out that the whole of Russia is a risk zone?Yes, the whole of Russia has one degree or another of severity.
And even Primorye?Even Primorye.
This is due to the fact that it seems to us that we get a huge amount of algae, fish, and so on. In fact, they do not form the basis of the diet, not everyone gets and not all are kids who continuously run near the sea. And, for example, a pregnant woman should practically double the production of thyroid hormones in the first trimester in order to ensure the normal development of the child's brain and nervous system. One of the components of these hormones is iodine. Its lack, even weak, leads to the fact that these thyroid hormones, necessary for the development of the child's nervous system, becomes a little less. And then the child's intelligence will be slightly lower than the one given to him genetically.
Are there any regions of our country that do not have such a problem?When they started traveling with a Tire car in 1995 and assessing the median of ioduria, the frequency of goiter in the regions, it turned out that there were practically no regions without iodine deficiency.
Despite the seeming impossibility of such in Primorye. You can find some narrow local points where for some reason there is no iodine deficiency, but this is not a reason to abandon the model of universal prevention of iodine deficiency. Iodized salt is a model adopted by 113 countries of the world to eliminate iodine deficiency. 113! In 13 countries of the world there is no such model and there is a model of voluntary use of iodized salt. That is, iodized salt is a kind of object that you need to think about, which you need to buy separately, there is non–iodized salt next to it, but if iodized salt is some kind of, so to speak, a chip, then the manufacturer can make it much more expensive than it really is. It is estimated that the mandatory, basic use of iodized salt will increase the family's food costs by a ruble per year. Just one ruble!
Is there a population of people with thyroid diseases who are contraindicated in iodized salt?Good question.
If a person has been treated for thyroid cancer (agree, it doesn't happen every day), he is preparing for additional therapy with radioactive iodine, then in this case he follows an iodine-free diet, and he does not need iodized salt. And he can, from the point of view of common sense, buy non-iodized salt in a pharmacy. That's all. If the non–iodized salt is in the pharmacy, and the iodized salt is everywhere, the situation will be simpler. Usually these questions are supplemented by the following: "Do I have an allergy to iodine?" The fact is that there is no allergy to iodine. There is an idiosyncrasy on iodine. That is, intolerance to pharmacological doses of iodine. Physiologically, iodine doses are micrograms. Pharmacological – milligram.
That is, you can't breathe iodine, you can't smear it on your hand, but you can take it inside?And take microgram quantities.
Moreover, it will be a silent acceptance within the framework of taking iodized salt.
Earlier you touched upon the problem of iodine deficiency during pregnancy. Is there no need for all pregnant women to prescribe iodine preparations when registering (more often it is the first trimester)? If we had had universal use of iodized salt a long time ago, then the question of pregnant women would not have arisen separately.
They would have eaten food cooked with iodized salt from birth, they would have had enough iodine, and during pregnancy they would have secreted enough thyroid hormones, because they always received enough iodine. For those countries in which iodine deficiency persists or in which the elimination of iodine deficiency occurred relatively recently, no more than ten years (salt is a long–lasting product, and it is quite possible that there are still stocks from the 13th year of the last century!), a model of individual iodine prevention has been adopted. This model includes delivery of 200 micrograms of potassium iodide to pregnant women. Because pregnant women are the most threatened contingent. We want to get at least children who will then adopt a law on universal salt iodization (they will grow up, they will be smarter, they will have a higher IQ).
In general, the very formulation of the question "Is there an iodine deficiency in Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov?" meaningless. Because Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov can be invited to a restaurant today, fed lobsters, and then he will have a lot of iodine in his urine, and tomorrow or the day after tomorrow he will eat pasta with potatoes with non-iodized salt. Iodine deficiency is an epidemiological concept related to the region, to the population. The entire population living in Russia is under threat of iodine deficiency.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru12.04.2013