Effectiveness of LID

Baldy said:

Effectiveness of LID
Hello again,

Little did I know when I chose the title for my first post it would be doubly significant.

I just talked to my endocrinologist, he surprised me greatly by saying it is not certain a Low Iodine Diet increases the efficacy of Radioactive Iodine Therapy!!!

This got me googling. And I found a study for just this subject. Here is the conclusion.

"Given that LIDs reduce urinary iodine measurements, increase I-131 uptake, and possibly improve efficacy of I-131 treatment, we currently favor the use of a 1-2-week LID before I-131 therapy or scanning. However, more research is needed to clarify the role of this dietary intervention."

And here is the link ... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20860420

Perhaps this is why no one has had a urinary iodine level before RAI.

I'll continue to follow my LID as strictly as I can. There is still a very good possiblity it will be beneficial.

Alan

Baldy said:

LID
Hi Lynne,

Yes, my reading of the conclusion is that everything that can be measured indicates LID is beneficial ... BUT ... there is no direct evidence.

I don't know if you have been on a LID before, but after one week I'm not having many problems. The biggest issue is finding high fiber foods. I've doubled my salad input and am having oatmeal for breakfast every day but my digestive track seems to rely on high quantities of grain fiber. I used to get most of my fiber from high fiber breads {12%, 16% or 20% rda per serving}. Oh well, two more weeks isn't that long. I think I'm going to extend mine another day or two to reduce the RAI's competition. This seems right to me, even if it isn't on the list of things to do.

I've also found not all vegetables are OK. Some are high in iodine and a few block iodine uptake. Here's the web site where I found this ....

http://www.naturalhealthtechniques.com/diet_nutrition/iodine.htm

I guess it's accurate, with the internet you can't be sure.

Alan

LBlackman said:

LID
Thanks Alan! I will definately check out the website. I know I will go crazy on the diet as I will have to fix special foods for me, then a different meal for my parents, whom I care for, so I want to be as prepared as I can. At least I can stay on synthroid until the day before I start the thyrogen injections. My Dr. has never recommended the LID, I am taking it upon myself to do it. I had been on the Atkins prior to my scans and have figured out that it may have masked some remaining cancer cells so I am doing a regular diet up until a week and a half before the scan starts. Any tips are very much appreciated.
Lynne

LBlackman said:

LID
I have been using non-iodized salt, I guess it's my cooking...lol My understanding is that you have to prepare everything even your own bread. Monday I made the fruit shake for breakfast, ate the lunch in tin foil (thyca.org) and had indian meat for dinner. I am using the salt, just eating more fruit in my diet. I don't know what I am doing wrong unless it's the fruit. I actually didn't mind the "taste" of the foods, it just upset my stomach so badly.

Baldy said:

Cookbook
I didn't use the thyca cookbook at all. I used all fresh vegetables, I never knew frozen vegetables had salt in them until this. Luckily my sister enjoys baking bread and I asked her to bake some for me using uniodized salt. I stayed away from a lot of stuff I would normally eat {dairy, eggs, sauerkraut, etc}. I ate more fruits and vegetables than normal. I probably ate more meat {chicken & pork} than I should've, but I think I compensated in other areas, some of the stuff I cut out all together was on the limit list with meat {dairy for instance.} Vinegar, olive oil & spices for salad dressing. Oatmeal everyday for beakfast, this might be your problem, oatmeal sometimes gives me a mild upset stomach {sort of a sour stomach.} Since I couldn't mix it with milk, I was adding a little honey and didn't have any upset stomachs from it. Normally I have oatmeal once or twice a week anyway.

I could tell if a pre-packaged food had any salt in it from the sodium content. If there was any sodium at all on the label, no good. There were some foods that had no salt in the ingredients list but still had sodium, I stayed away from those as well. The FDA may not have heard of low iodine diets, but they know about low sodium diets. Almost all of the pre-packaged stuff has at least some salt in it.

I think it's important to remember, this is a LOW iodine diet not a NO iodine diet, be as careful as you can but don't imbalance your diet. I paid very close attention to the lists of foods {both my doctor's and thyca's} and prepared stuff the way I liked it as much as possible.

I definately had lack of fiber problems. I was mildly to moderately crampy at times and slower than my normally slow self. I tried compensating with wheat germ {not as good a source as fiber enriched bread, but store bought bread's a no no} and twice the salad and fruit input as normal. Still it wasn't enough, my LID ended 4/14 and I'm still not back to normal, I'm getting closer {I'll skip the details on this.} I've never counted it up, but I think I get about twice the RDA of fiber to keep me something close to regular.

Alan

LBlackman said:

diet
My Dr. gave me no recommendations for the diet, so of course no guidelines. I just pulled recipes from the thyca.org cookbook and I have no energy anyway when I get home to cook or do anything else. I tried it, but ended up in the bathroom all night and barely made it home from work to the bathroom yesterday. I usually care for my parents who are in their 80's and my 11 year old son, but haven't been able to do anything lately.