See also: https://revealingfraud.com/2022/09/health/why-im-taking-iodine/
We tested taking only Potassium Iodide instead of Lugol’s for 8 months in 2023, as our source of iodine. As of October, 2023, we added Lugol’s back in. The change for us was so minor, I can hardly notice any difference.
What is the difference, and what are the reasons for the change?
The difference: Lugol’s contains both elemental iodine and potassium iodide. You can see instructions on how to make Lugol’s here:
Making a fully saturated solution of Potassium iodide is easier. You simply add white potassium iodide crystals to boiled distilled water until the crystals stop dissolving. Or, the way I do it now is, I fill a 2 oz. bottle just over half full with potassium iodide crystals. Then, I add boiled distilled water. If there are a little leftover crystals, fine. If not, close enough. If I want to be super precise, I can add a tiny bit more of crystals over and over again until they stop dissolving. It’s very easy.
A fully saturated solution of potassium iodide has about 51 mg of iodine per drop.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_iodide
“History”
“Potassium iodide has been used medically since at least 1820.”
“Formulations”
“Potassium iodide can be conveniently prepared in a saturated solution, abbreviated SSKI. This method of delivering potassium iodide doesn’t require a method to weigh out the potassium iodide, thus allowing it to be used in an emergency situation. KI crystals are simply added to water until no more KI will dissolve and instead sits at the bottom of the container. With pure water, the concentration of KI in the solution depends only on the temperature. Potassium iodide is highly soluble in water thus SSKI is a concentrated source of KI. At 20 degrees Celsius the solubility of KI is 140-148 grams per 100 grams of water.[52] Because the volumes of KI and water are approximately additive, the resulting SSKI solution will contain about 1.00 gram (1000 mg) KI per milliliter (mL) of solution. This is 100% weight/volume (note units of mass concentration) of KI (one gram KI per mL solution), which is possible because SSKI is significantly more dense than pure water—about 1.67 g/mL.[53] Because KI is about 76.4% iodide by weight, SSKI contains about 764 mg iodide per mL. This concentration of iodide allows the calculation of the iodide dose per drop, if one knows the number of drops per milliliter. For SSKI, a solution more viscous than water, there are assumed to be 15 drops per mL; the iodide dose is therefore approximately 51 mg per drop. It is conventionally rounded to 50 mg per drop.”
“The term SSKI is also used, especially by pharmacists, to refer to a U.S.P. pre-prepared solution formula, made by adding KI to water to prepare a solution containing 1000 mg KI per mL solution (100% wt/volume KI solution), to closely approximate the concentration of SSKI made by saturation. This is essentially interchangeable with SSKI made by saturation, and also contains about 50 mg iodide per drop.”
“Thus, a drop of SSKI provides 50/0.15 = 333 times the daily iodine…” [US RDA] {which are established for prisoners}.
A source of potassium iodide crystals: Amazon’s Choice: https://www.amazon.com/Potassium-Iodide-Purity-Crystals-grams/dp/B01JKJWXBK/
Potassium iodide crystals are white, and it makes a clear solution. The solution slowly turns a bit yellow over a few months of time, as some of the iodine is naturally liberated through decay. This does not mean the solution has turned bad, it’s fine if it’s yellow.
Potassium iodide is used to help stabilize and hold elemental iodine in the solution of Lugol’s. After about a year or more, the dark color seems to fade a bit, but that’s not why we made the change. One of the counter-claims against making the change is that the body needs Lugol’s, because parts of the body really need elemental iodine, and not “bound” potassium iodide. Is that true? How can they prove that claim? That might be marketing hype. And that claim is easily disproved.
The reasons for the change:
- If you mix potassium iodide with copper sulfate, the copper sulfate liberates the iodine from the potassium iodide. This proves that iodine is not irrevocably nor permanantly stuck just because the iodine is bound to potassium.
(Neither is copper permanently bound to sulfur in the form of copper sulfate! Copper is easily liberated both with magnesium and iron, and potassium iodide!)
- Here is proof that iodine is available to the body in the form of potassium iodide: Potassium iodide is the preferred form when used to flood the thyroid with iodine in the event of a nuclear attack, to help prevent the body from uptaking radioactive iodine from the fallout from the blast. There are two proofs of this. First, the CDC says so (yes, they sometimes lie, but sometimes also tell the truth). Second, all the reviews on the potassium iodide product are from people saying they bought it to protect themselves from radioactive iodine, just in case. This proves that the iodine in potassium iodide is readily available to the body.
- There was a forum called “Curezone” from many years ago, and they preferred the form of potassium iodide, yet many of their members also took Lugol’s as well.
- The original data as presented at optimox.com in their education section, in paper number 1, shows that potassium iodide had ZERO SIDE EFFECTS, and near the highest success rate. Why argue with such success? There are a lot of people who have difficulty tolerating Lugol’s iodine, because they get the side effects of allergies. Why lobby for a form of iodine like Lugol’s, that causes more problems? The entire point of a health protocol is to reduce the side effects, and make things easier for people.
https://www.optimox.com/content/Iodine%20Research%20Resources/IOD01.pdf See table 1, or the following screenshot:
- Potassium iodide is far cheaper, easier to make, often has a higher purity, and is easier to obtain, than the iodine prills needed to make Lugol’s.
- Potassium iodide is less acidic, and less caustic. Lugol’s seems to burn more. Potassium iodide is a balanced salt. Elemental iodine is not.
- As stated above, potassium iodide and copper sulfate combine to form both elemental iodine, and a more stable “copper iodide”. Copper iodide is the form of iodine that is added to table salt, because it is white and stable. It is possible that this combined more stable form helps iodine to go where copper goes, and helps copper to go where iodine goes. And all the cells in the body need both iodine and copper. Furthermore, copper iodide is a “copper 1” form of copper, and in theory more bioavailable, rather than “copper 2”. So the argument that potassium iodide is less bioavailable just does not fit with actual biochemistry, either.
- Elemental iodine is actually rather unstable. It might be all converted into some form of iodide as soon as it hits stomach acid, we really don’t know. So claiming that elemental iodine is far better is a very difficult claim to make.
- Getting back to price.
Iodoral at 50 mg, in their largest bottle, for presumably the best value costs $104.19.
90 Tablets at 50 mg is 4500 mg of iodine.
https://www.optimox.com/iodoral-iod-50/
In contrast, bulk potassium iodide at amazon: Searching “potassium iodide crystals” brings up:
Amazon’s Choice: https://www.amazon.com/Potassium-Iodide-Purity-Crystals-grams/dp/B01JKJWXBK/
100 grams, 99.98% pure, for $18.87. 100 grams is 100,000 mg.
So the comparison is:
$104 for 4500 mg for (Iodoral) vs $18.87 for 100,000 mg for (Potassium Iodide Crystals)
That is 2.3 cents per mg vs. 0.019 cents per mg.
Iodoral is 2.3/.019 times more expensive, or 122 times more expensive.
- There are federal regulations on the selling of “Lugol’s”, requiring an expensive permit. There are less regulations on the sale of “Potassium Iodide”. This should make it easier for people who wish to start up businesses to start selling potassium iodide to others.
We do not sell supplements, both to comply with laws restricting making health claims while selling supplements, and to prevent even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Finally, my wife Jennifer and I discussed this change at length. Over a month. I want to next discuss our own hesitations for making this change, for full transparency and extra fun, and to show we are humans like everyone else.
Jennifer’s objections: “But I healed my thyroid with Lugol’s. I don’t want to mess it up, and deprive myself of Lugol’s. It could be bad!”
This objection was overcome with the following arguments: “Yes, but if for any reason, it does not work out, we can easily go right back to using Lugol’s. [True] Besides, if you are healed, then it’s not going to be instantly bad, even if it is bad, so it’s not going to be a disaster. Trust that you are healed. [True] Toxins are not going to flood back in overnight. [True] Also, are we not going to believe our own eyes? We saw and demonstrated on video, and saw on other people’s videos, that potassium iodide, combined with copper sulfate, liberated the “bound” iodine into elemental iodine. [True]”
Another of Jennifer’s objections: “What if we only convert some of the bound iodine? Won’t we be getting less?
This objection was overcome with, “Well, we can take more to compensate. How much potassium iodide do you want to start taking?” I suggested 400 mg, and we settled on that.
Note, a few years ago, we took 2000 mg of iodine a day for a year, with most of that being in the form of potassium iodide. After a year of that much, we thought it depleted our calcium and copper a bit, and we thought we got a very powerful extra detox boost and that by then we should have completed most of the detoxing we would get from that, and so, we stopped. We next started taking silica. Since then, we have taken potassium iodide on occasion only if we thought we needed a bit of a boost for whatever reason. Getting sick. Feeling run down. Needing more energy, or whatever.
After I convinved Jennifer to make the change, I suddenly realized I had my own hesitations, as follows.
“Oh man. I just made a full year’s supply of Lugol’s 5%. What, and we are just not going to take it anymore? What if we make this change for a full year, and the Lugol’s starts to lose strength? What a waste!”
“Oh man. I just made a video of me making that bottle of Lugol’s 5%. People are going to think I’m wishy washy.”
“Oh man. Many other people just made their own Lugol’s 5%. What a waste of their Lugol’s if they follow us!”
But my desire to help everyone new, my desire to save everyone money, my desire to keep it simple, my desire to reduce side effects for everyone, my desire to experiment, and my desire to tell the truth (I have a page of what we are really taking) won out over my own objections.
Nobody has to throw out their old Lugol’s. In fact, you don’t have to use it all up before switching. Maybe keep some in reserve so you can go back and use Lugol’s if it does not work out. Or simply go back and forth for a while.