Why You Need Iodine for Breast Health and Overall Health

Today’s article is  about a very important topic and was submitted by Yvette Benoit, a student in my Energy Recharge Practitioner Certification Program. I’ve written about te importance of iodine for thyroid health.  This article reviews the importance of iodine for breast health.

Why You Need Iodine for Breast Health and Overall Health

By Yvette Benoit

When most people think of iodine, they think of the thyroid gland.  And about how you need enough iodine for your thyroid gland to prevent developing a goiter, a very enlarged thyroid gland.  What very few people know is that you also need iodine for healthy breast tissue.  And even fewer people know that you need much, much more iodine for maintaining healthy breast tissue than you do for preventing a goiter!

Until last year, I didn’t know about this either.  You see, I had to learn about the importance of iodine for breast health the very hard and painful way.

In 2011, my mother died of breast cancer that metastasized to the spine.  I was her primary and sole caregiver, and took the task very seriously, especially in researching how to heal breast cancer through natural health and natural medicine.  The answers did come, but too late to help my mother.  Many answers came in the year of grieving following her death.  In her honor and as a tribute to her life and to her love and devotion as a mother, I want to share with you some of the most important things I learned through my mother’s ordeal and on my ongoing healing journey.

In the summer of 2011 following my mother’s death, I began having debilitating pain in my breasts in addition to what was becoming incapacitating exhaustion — which I soon learned was extreme adrenal fatigue.  In desperately seeking the answers to keep my health from completely collapsing, I very fortunately came across Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo and her website.

I immediately enrolled in her group online nutrition and lifestyle coaching program called “B4 Be Gone” for overcoming insulin resistance and fatigue.  The program was a godsend that brought me back from the brink of total collapse, by bringing my blood sugar levels under control and improving my level of energy.

What didn’t resolve was the pain in my breasts.  The pain diminished to manageable for awhile.  But in March 2012, I noticed a large, fast-growing lump about the size of a golf ball in my right breast.  And also hardening of the tissue in my right breast.  In alarm because of my family history of breast cancer,  I contacted Dr. Ritamarie to ask for her help and advice.

She suggested that I have a breast thermography study done.  And she very graciously put me in contact with colleagues of hers that had helped women with breast cancer.  One of those colleagues strongly recommended that I call in to Dr. Jonathan Wright’s Green Medicine radio show the following Saturday afternoon.  I got on the line early and was the first caller he talked to that day.  After describing my symptoms to him, Dr. Wright thought I needed to see a cancer doctor right away to get diagnosed.  And then, he talked about the importance of therapeutically dosing with iodine for preventing and reversing breast cancer, and for overcoming estrogen dominance and creating hormonal balance.

At Dr. Ritamarie’s strong urging, I then went to the clinic of Dr. Thomas Lodi in Mesa, AZ, called An Oasis of Healing, where they work with patients on healing cancer naturally.  I got a PET scan which showed that I did not have breast cancer.  But showed that I did have severe Fibrocystic Disease or the Breast (or FDB; also called “fibrocystic breast disease”), which many doctors consider to be a pre-cancerous condition.

Between the time I talked with Dr. Wright on his radio show and went to Dr. Lodi’s clinic, I found an iodine protocol on the Web for preventing and reversing breast cancer and FDB that was developed mainly by Dr. David Brownstein, Dr. Guy Abraham, and Dr. Jorge Flechas — along with some of their associates.

These conventionally trained medical doctors are key members of a group of doctors referred to as “the iodine doctors”.  They are world renowned experts in medical research on and clinical use of iodine as a natural medicine and nutrient for overcoming disease.

“People in the U.S. consume an average 240 micrograms (µg) of iodine a day. In contrast, people in Japan consume more than 12 milligrams (mg) of iodine a day (12,000 µg), a 50-fold greater amount…

Health comparisons between the two countries are disturbing. The incidence of breast cancer in the U.S. is the highest in the world, and in Japan, until recently, the lowest.”

– excerpt from Iodine for Health, by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD

What really got my attention is the stunning results — documented with PET scans — obtained by Dr. David Brownstein in his clinical practice.  In articles and books he’s written (for instance, in his book Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can’t Live Without It) he’s shared case studies of patients with breast cancer that he helped heal.  These patients were following Dr. Brownstein’s iodine protocol for reversing breast cancer.  Very remarkably,  over a period of several months to a couple of years their tumors shrunk to nearly undetectable and their cancer went into remission.

This same iodine protocol — presented at the Iodine Conference held in October 2007 — also works for preventing and reversing FDB (Fibrocystic Disease of the Breast).  Because of the urgency of my condition, I didn’t waste a moment getting started on the protocol myself.  What I can tell you about my case of FDB is that the pain in my breasts decreased very significantly to almost unnoticeable within less than a week of starting on the iodine protocol.

And then very slowly and gradually, over the past ten months (June 2012 – April 2013), the lump in my right breast has shrunk to less than the size of a pea.  And the tissue in my right breast has become much softer and more pliable, like the texture normal breast tissue should be.

“Iodine is needed in microgram amounts for the thyroid,
milligram amounts for breast and other tissues,
and can be used therapeutically in gram amounts.”
– Dr. David Miller

The single most important fact I’ve learned so far on this odyssey is about the critical importance of iodine as a nutrient that every cell in our body needs — not only the cells in our thyroid glands and breasts.  And that taking iodine in large maintenance doses or even larger therapeutic doses consistently for a long time — preferably with the guidance of of a qualified health practitioner — can help prevent and reverse many diseases.  Including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease — three degenerative diseases that have reached epidemic proportions in our modern world.  Here’s a very startling fact about breast cancer:

Every 23 seconds, another woman is diagnosed with breast cancer.

And an even more startling indicator of iodine deficiency in the US, based on a large sample of iodine test results in the clinical practice of David Brownstein, MD:

“After testing over 500 patients, I found that 94.7% of my patients are deficient in inorganic iodine.” – Dr. David Brownstein

Combined with the assertion by Donald Miller, Jr., MD that low iodine intake increases the incidence of breast cancer:

“Women with goiters (a visible, non-cancerous enlargement of the thyroid gland) owing to iodine deficiency have been found to have a three times greater incidence of breast cancer. A high intake of iodine is associated with a low incidence breast cancer, and a low intake with a high incidence of breast cancer.  Animal studies show that iodine prevents breast cancer, arguing for a causal association in these epidemiological findings.”
– Dr. Donald Miller, Jr.

The single most important concept I’ve grasped on the path to vibrant, optimal health is the difference having a great health coach can make in finding the health answers you need when you need them.  And and the difference a great health coach can make in guiding you on the most direct course to reaching your health goals.  For me, Dr. Ritamarie sets the standard and then keeps raising the bar!

She has been instrumental to my healing and recovery from insulin resistance, adrenal fatigue, leaky gut syndrome, and FDB.  And I strongly believe her coaching programs will help me prevent cancer, diabetes, and heart disease — all three diseases being repeatedly and generationally in my family medical history.

If you are concerned about whether you (or a loved one) are getting enough iodine to prevent disease or want to find out if you (or a loved one) need more iodine to reverse disease, a first step to take is getting your iodine status tested.

Help with determining what tests to order and getting tested, along with help on how to analyze the test results is a big part of what Dr. Ritamarie offers in her coaching programs.  If you are looking for answers on how to get healthier or how to prevent and reverse disease, enrolling in her new Energy Recharge Coaching Program for 2013/2014 is one of the best investments in your lifelong health you’ll ever make!

To Your Vibrant, Optimal Health!

And in loving memory of my mother, Mary Benoit…

With Love, Joy, and Gratitude,
Yvette Benoit

P.S.  In fact, after completing her Energy Recharge Coaching Program that got my own health back on track, I was so impressed with the results that Dr. Ritamarie helped me get as my health coach, I signed up for her practitioner’s certification program called the ERSPC (Energy Recharge System Practitioner’s Certification) program.

In the program, she teaches you how to get the results with your clients that she gets for her clients, beginning with very thorough assessment, evaluation, testing, and analysis of the client’s health condition.  And she teaches you how to coach your clients through her Energy Recharge System, and how to develop your own system and coaching practice.

Or if you only want to study about the tools that Dr. Ritamarie uses to assess and evaluate her client’s health condition, you can learn more about her CAT (Client Assessment Tools for Holistic Practitioners) program.

Yvette Benoit is a natural health and nutrition coach, and a researcher of natural medicine. She has studied many types of herbal medicine springing from different cultures around the world, and has special reverence for the ancient wisdom of Chinese and Ayurvedic tonic herbalism. Yvette invites you to contact her to schedule a consultation to develop a personalized diet and lifestyle regimen that will take into account your unique constitution and condition. She can guide and support you on implementing the regimen into new healthy habits that will empower you to make progress on your journey to achieving and maintaining radiant, vibrant health on every level.

To reach Yvette, please go to the Facebook page for White Phoenix Healing Arts and click on About for contact information:
https://www.facebook.com/WhitePhoenixHealingArts