Welcome to the Dr. Berg's Healthy Keto and Interminute Fasting Podcast, where Dr. Berg takes you on the journey for the truth about getting healthy and losing healthy weight.

So let's talk about iodine. What it's good for. Iodine is a trace mineral. A trace mineral is something you need in very tiny trace amounts, okay? Usually in micrograms. But iodine is so important for your body. Let's start with the thyroid. What does iodine do for your thyroid?

Well, the majority of iodine is located in the thyroid gland.

Why?

Because you need iodine to make the thyroid hormones.

When we're talking about T4 or T3,

we're really talking about the number of iodine molecules

that are attached to this protein hormone.

And so what happens is when the thyroid makes T4, that's not the active form, that's the inactive form.

You have about 80% of that T4 being converted to T3, the active form of thyroid hormone through the liver,

and 20% of this conversion

happening through the kidneys okay so T3 is the active form T4 is the inactive

form and you also need selenium for this conversion as well and so without iodine

wow your metabolism suffers pretty much every single symptom relating to your

metabolism. So if you have a slow metabolism, it can affect your hair, your nails, your skin,

your mood. You can have a buildup of cholesterol. You can start gaining weight all over your body.

So there could be many, many problems, including nodules on the

thyroid itself from an iodine deficiency. All right. Number two, iodine is essential in protecting

you against excessive amounts of estrogen. And so if you're estrogen dominant, you have too

much estrogen, you're going to need a little

more iodine to counter that excess amount.

I'll give you one example, fibrocystic breast, okay, where you're having these little nodules

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