A Patient's Recovery with Iodine

[Last week I went into great length about the important health benefits of iodine. The following is a letter I received from someone who wanted to share her experience battling a protracted and mysterious health issue, until she read my discussion of iodine — and discovered her solution.]

Not Impossible After All!

For 26 years I was "the tough case" that no one seemed to know what to do with. My doctors would frown and shake their heads and offer little help when I told them how I had to stay on a high protein diet year-in and year-out to have any strength or be able to think. I couldn't eat any fresh produce without my blood pressure dropping too low and having trouble even absorbing my medications. Then there were the constant hot flashes several times a day and the massive amounts of even the right kind of estrogen that I had to take, and fight like a mother bear with my OB/GYN to give me, just to keep the depression from being entirely overwhelming. It had gradually gotten overwhelming anyway, despite all my efforts and high levels of medications.

The most insidious part was the way I was treated by my doctors. A pat on the shoulder was what I usually got from the sympathetic ones. The others would actually blame me and treat me like a neurotic. I was so miserable at times I thought I might die, and they had the nerve to ask if I really wanted to get well! I felt very much like the man who lay at the pool of Bethesda for 38 years, while people would come and ask me why in the world I didn't get up and put myself into the water. "Excuse me, haven't you noticed? I'm sick! If I were well enough, I would gladly put myself into the water and get well!" I seemed to know how to help other people get well with herbs, minerals and energy therapy from all the investigating I had to do into my illness. I also felt like Jacob's son Joseph, who could interpret the dreams of Pharaoh's servants, but he himself was still stuck in prison!

About a year ago I was combing the Internet, looking for clues on hormones, and came across Dr. Teitelbaum's site and writings. He respected Elizabeth Vliet's findings on female hormones, who had been one of the very few doctors I had seen in the past who had significantly helped me. Then five months ago my husband and I decided to bite the bullet and begin driving two hours away every two weeks or so to Cleveland to see Dr. Nosson Goldfarb because of his affiliation with Dr. Teitelbaum. Dr. Goldfarb admitted, "You're a complex case, but I've seen cases that were more complex. I think I can help you."

Week after week went by with honestly little help from the IVs, home injections, and supplements that I mostly found I couldn't take. I think I was even frustrating Dr. Goldfarb and making his assistants uncomfortable because nothing was helping, after all their efforts and mine. Then Dr. Goldfarb started me on a slow regimen of T3 despite my “normal” thyroid and iodine levels in my blood work. After a couple of weeks, I started to notice I had a little energy and could be creative and laugh and be funny. Insomnia was still a major problem despite high doses of two prescription sleep aids. I was also having to take magnesium very diligently within two hours of the T3, or I would get so extremely tired and my muscles would be so tense that I would have to go back to bed in the morning two or three times to rest before I could actually start the day. Then I read on Dr. Teitelbaum's site how important iodine was in producing thyroid and sex hormones. Could it be that I needed so much magnesium, iron, and — hey — estrogen because I was lacking another mineral all this time? I tried a skin-absorption method with iodine tincture that a friend had told me about many years before, and the very first night I got 9 hours of wonderful sleep instead of 6!

I was not led to this exciting discovery of the thyroid/iodine component so very long ago. And I have still had a few problems to work through. But the pieces are logically coming together and actually working this time. When you've been through major, sustained health issues for so many years, what might seem like serious adjustments to other people are only minor tweaks for you. Sorry, when you've been through the Rocky Mountains, the foothills just can't impress.

I happily express my gratefulness to Dr. Teitelbaum for his life's work and especially for making it available to so many suffering people. I cannot forget Dr. Goldfarb and his staff for their patience, hard work, and expertise, without which I could not be getting well. My friends and those few doctors who actually believed what I was telling them and encouraged me hold a dear place in my heart. And most of all, I am grateful to the God who does bind up the wounds of the brokenhearted and to my precious husband and brothers and sisters in the Lord who by means of fervent, persistent care and prayer on my behalf refused to allow any other avenue for me but restoration. In my situation, the earth says amen to the heavens!

TL