Iodide Pills for Radiation = Acne

I've been hearing a lot about people on the west coast buying up and taking potassium iodide tablets. This is in response to the nuclear reactor crisis going on in Japan right now - if there's enough iodides in the body, the radiation will "uptake" that first before attacking the thyroid. From what I've been reading, it sounds like people are really scared; but the risk of getting radiation poisoning is actually very low.

BUT, their chance of having a horrible acne breakout is very high! Iodides irritate the follicle walls and increase the chance of inflamed breakouts.

I have first-hand experience of this lovely phenomenon .... I mistakenly took kelp tablets (VERY high in iodides) while my acne was still active (but under control with products) at the advice of an herbalist. She felt that it would help with thyroid issues that she perceived me as having; and since thyroid issues run in my family, I complied. This was before I was an esthetician; and even though I had been told about iodides, it was a fact that slipped my mind. Well, in very short order, my skin blew up with inflamed lesions - lesson learned.

I had a client who had been very clear for quite a while - she came in for an appointment with a number of inflamed lesions. I started going down my list of questions that I ask when people start breaking out again. When I asked her if she was eating a lot of seafood and/or seaweed, she informed me that she had been sprinkling kelp on all of her food. We got her off of the kelp and cleared her up again.

I think there's gonna be alot of acne breakouts on the west coast this month......

Tags: acne, iodides, kelp, radiation

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Erin Blair on March 24, 2011 at 6:53pm

Laura, do you understand the distinction between 'iodine' and 'iodides'? If any?

Permalink Reply by Laura Cooksey on March 24, 2011 at 8:15pm

I don't know - I'll check with "my team" tomorrow.

Permalink Reply by Brenda Griffin on March 24, 2011 at 10:48pm

Thanks for sharing, Laura. Very good information and a nice reminder.

Permalink Reply by Laura Cooksey on March 25, 2011 at 1:40pm

@Erin - after googling that question I came up with this rather heady explanation -

http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-iodine-and-vs-i...

I tend to use the terms interchangably which is probably wrong. I will do a bit more research.

Permalink Reply by minu makhija on March 25, 2011 at 3:52pm

So for our purposes it is pretty much the same thing. To distinguish further however, Iodine refers to element itself that is in a free state meaning it it not bound to another element or electrolyte like sodium or pottasium. If it becomes chemically bound to another element then the bond implies a change in nomenclature therefore pottasium iodide.

Erin Blair said:

Laura, do you understand the distinction between 'iodine' and 'iodides'? If any?