Why do they add iodine to salt?

Table salt contains iodine to help prevent thyroid problems and iodine deficiencies. Find out how table salt keeps your thyroid happy -- and what iodine has to do with a nuclear attack -- in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

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(00:28):
Brain with today's question, why do they add iodine to
table salt? I have a box of salt in the
kitchen and it says iodizes salt, and then at the
bottom it says this salt supplies iodine and necessary nutrient
On the ingredient label at lists potassium iodine at a
concentration of zero point zero zero six percent. A quarter

(00:52):
chea spoon of salt or one point five grams therefore
provides sixty seven micrograms of iodine, which is out half
of the US recommended daily allowance for iodine. The main
reason that you need iodine is because of a gland
in your neck called the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland
produces two hormones, thyroxine and tri iodo thyroneine that your

(01:18):
body uses during metabolism. Without these hormones, you start to
feel tired, depressed, cold, weak, and so on. Iodine is
an important element in these two hormones, so without iodine,
your thyroid gland can't produce them. When start for iodine,
the thyroid gland also swells up, and when it does

(01:38):
it's called a goiter. Groiters can look pretty hideous. Your
body doesn't need or contain very much iodine. You might
have twenty or twenty five milligrams of iodine in your
entire body right now. However, in some parts of the world,
the soil contains no iodine at all, so plants contain
no iodine, and therefore iodine deficitiency is a big problem.

(02:02):
In the US, one part of the country that lacks
iodine is the Great Lakes region, So companies started adding
iodine to salt in the nineteen twenties to eliminate goiter
and thyroid problems. If you live through the Cold War,
you may have heard about the practice of taking iodine
pills during the threat of a nuclear attack. When a

(02:23):
nuclear bomb explodes, one substance it forms is radioactive iodine.
If you eat drink or inhale this isotope. Your thyroid
gland will concentrate it, and this can lead to a
thyroid damage or cancer. By taking an iodine pill, you
saturate your thyroid gland with iodine and prevent it from

(02:44):
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