[M]y first attempt at charting temperatures was completely botched. It seems that my temperature readings were being affected by mouth-breathing previous to using the thermometer and by drinking water or brushing teeth. I’m being more careful now and this chart is accurate. I’m getting more data as well by using Excel to keep track of the time of day of each measure. My temperatures have risen along with my increases in iodine.
A little background – my temps have been low since I first checked them 12 years ago. Recently, a naturopath told me I would never sleep well until my thyroid was functioning properly and I was about to start using thyroid hormone when I learned about iodine on Tara’s blog. So, I started titrating up from about 6 mg Iodoral in April. I also started using it topically (for good measure) so in reality I get more iodine than shown in the graph. Just in the space of the graph that you see here, my temperature started rising. I did also double my Selenium to 400 mcgs around June 1 and I am taking all of the cofactors mentioned on CureZone.
Stash licorice tea helps with adrenals. Also kelp helps with thyroid function for me. Sorry to hear that Canada does not allow glandulars. I count on Standard Process Simplex Female for the thyroid and adrenal glandulars.
Hi Eric,
Very interesting post — nice to hear your temps went up with Iodoral. I’ve had some in my drawer for maybe 7-8 months, but have never taken it very often as there is so much conflicting info on the web, and it seems like the only docs who recommend it are the one’s selling it. Not exactly true, but you know what I mean…
I’m curious though — did you start taking the ‘co-factors’ right away, or start first with the Iodoral? I’m especially concerned about the niacin, as it’s a huge methyl-sponge (or methyl “acceptor”), and can stop methylation (or ‘overmethylation) within an hour or so.
Thanks Eric,
Kelly
Kelly, I believe I started the iodine first and the cofactors later. I have alternated between using 100 mg regular niacin and 1 g of inositol hex. – I take them at bedtime which I believe helps me sleep better because methylation supplements worsen my sleep…
Interestingly, I recently reduced my iodine quantities and suddenly found myself feeling unusually cold at temperatures that used to be comfortable for me. I increased my iodine and quickly warmed up over a few days!
Hi Eric,
A followup. I’ve recently found out that I have histamine intolerance, so I can’t take any form of B3, as it increases/releases histamine in the body — hence my negative reactions over the last year. Do you know if it’s still okay to use the iodoral (and selenium) w/out the B3?
sorry I don’t know Kelly
Ron, you may want to consider adding in some ACE and desiccated thyroid until you’re able to get up to the higher doses of iodine. This is the second winter for me of being on them, and for the first time in my life (last winter), I was not ice, bone cold. No freezing hands, feet, and bones. I can even stand out in 15 degree below temps and find it refreshing 🙂 I, too, used to be one with 4 layers of clothes on, sleeping with hat and mittens and wool socks.
My parents have both been on 50 mgs of Lugol’s for 2-3 months now, without any detox symptoms, but they haven’t noticed anything in the way of feeling warmer. My dad especially still has a really hard time with the cold. I think it will take some time at that dose for them to be fully detoxed and to start healing their thyroid to the point of noticing more improvements, such as optimal thyroid functioning.
Hi Tara,
Thanks so much for your advice! I probably will try upping the iodine soon. I can’t get ACE where I am (Canada, which doesn’t allow glandulars), so my only option for adrenal support is Hydrocortisone. The weird thing is my thyroid tests have all tested in range, including Free T3, but I read low cortisol prevents thyroid hormones from entering cells, instead becoming reverse t3. have not tested for reverse t3. My cold body also started years before I felt any fatigue at all and probably normal adrenal function, so maybe it’s partly non-hormonal (like heavy metals or unconscious stress).
Please consider licorice powder. one tablepoon of Frontier brand powder was roughly equal to 22.5 mgs of Hydrocortisone. YMMV. It felt much better.
Hi Lloyd,
I took licorice in the past. It does not contain hydrocortisone, it just has a substance that slows down the breakdown on cortisol in the blood so that it lasts a little longer. It does not add cortisol to the body. Thanks for the suggestion!
When did I say licorice contains cortisol? I used the phrase “roughly equal to”….. The tablespoon of licorice made the cortisol last long enough in my body so I didn’t have to take any exogenous cortisone and become a medical patient. I was able to avoid the medical-industrial complex, remaining a mere” customer” in a health food store. I could avoid the whole “medical theater” experience. Peace.
Hi Lloyd,
thanks for the clarification! it’s great the licorice helped you so much. I will reconsider it, maybe I should have taken more.
Also, don’t get me wrong on another angle of the “Equivalency” issue. I didn’t just substitute HC to licorice in one day. It took weeks to switch over. Lot’s of experimentation. (MUCH BAD! :)Pull off some HC add some licorice, wait a few days, repeat. Note: the whole thing would have been much easier had I been methylating close to a normal human being.
Hi Eric,
what an amazing improvement in temps! thanks so much for the graph!
Question: when you were averaging 96.7 at the start of your chart tracking, did you need to wear many extra layers, if any at night or during the day? At night my temp dips to about 96.6-96.8 F. and I need to sleep in longjohns, socks, literally 6 shirts, lots of duvets which is pretty crazy. This past summer I tested my daytime temps like you and they averaged around 98.2-98.4 over about 20 days. The weird thing is I always feel freezing cold and need to wear tons of layers both at night and during the day to feel warm. I measured my temps when wearing the amount of clothes that a healthy person would wear. I do know though I have vasoconstricion like Raynaud’s syndrome, cold hands, feet, but still don’t see how that could cause me feeling so cold in my chest.
My ND put me on 12.5 mg iodoral/400mcg selenium etc for 6 weeks with no visible effect but I now see that a lot more iodine is needed to feel improvement. Happy New Year!
Happy new year Ron! I still have cold hands and feet in the mornings but I did not have to wear so much clothing like you. My wife has similar symptoms to yours (her hair test also shows mercury) and does wear a lot of warm clothing when no one else is cold in spite of more normal body temperatures.
Even though my body temperatures are normal now, I still feel much warmer when increasing folate or mb12. Must have something to do with circulation. For me, it shows how many layers of healing are necessary to get back to one hundred percent!
Hi Eric,
just wondering, before starting iodine did you have your thyroid hormones tested, like TSH, Free T3, Free T4? have you tested them since then?
The fact that I feel way colder than everyone, even those with lower body temps than me makes me wonder if something other than hormonal is going on, but I guess I should treat the adrenals anyways.
Over the years my thyroid hormones always tested sub-optimal but in range… have not had any follow-up tests.
I’ve found b12/folate has done wonders to my temps. My ability to do Jack Kruse’s COLD TERAPY has gone through the roof these past seven weeks . I’m shooting for temps in the high to even mid thirties in January. I feel its got to do with increased T4 to T3 conversion than due to “circulation”. IMHO
That’s great news Lloyd, congratulations! I’m also looking forward to continuing to warm up as I increase my B12 and folate further…
Congrats! That’s gotta feel soooo good! It looks like 50 mg’s of iodine is where it’s at 😉 Enjoy this victory!
thanks Tara!!
My body temperature is now normal!
Awesome! What a great testimony for iodine!
Tara, thanks to YOU and Viking 😀
another graph update showing that my iodine supplementation has leveled off at 50mg (plus topical) and my body temperature is still rising…
Are you still on round, Eric? How are you doing?
I am on day 4 and my gut is now sort of ok and no other significant sfx. As during the latest round, I have felt a mild version of some of the familiar psychological sfxs, i.e. procrastination and confusion, over the past few days. Pulse, bp, and temp all fine. But I feel really, really bored. It just feels like a grind and I don’t feel like I can really do anything, since I am afraid to miss a dose if I don’t follow my routine, which mainly means staying at home. Could be worse, I guess, but still…..
Thanks for asking Viking, I’m still on round and hoping to go for seven days. Feeling run down now after several days of diarrhea from trying to boost magnesium. I have a feeling that the chelation is not taxing me a lot anymore because I’m adjusted to this dose pretty well. Also had nightmares last night and woke before each alarm but I don’t attribute that to chelation. I am still keeping to my exercise routine. Brain fog is possibly a little lighter, too early to tell for sure.
My brother is coming into town for a few days with his family and he doesn’t come often so I’m trying to figure out what the ideal round scheduling is. If I can make seven days this time and do 10 the next, then I would be off-round for his visit…
I know that procrastination confusion feeling and when you mix activity in with it, mistakes happen. What is the longest round you like to do?
Maybe you need to watch some new shows – have you seen the Merlin series? We enjoyed that a lot.
“I have a feeling that the chelation is not taxing me a lot anymore ”
Great news! My normal reaction to that would be to take up the dose, but in your case there are still some supps that you want to add, so maybe it makes sense to keep the chelator doses until you have all the other supps in place.
In any case, you are showing much better progess than what I would call the average person on FDC. This is similar to my experience and may indicate that you will have a similar time line for your recovery. Just a guess, of course.
Regarding length of rounds, I often aim for 7 days but end up with 5 or 6. But the sfxs keeps getting milder, and I don’t think that I have that long to go. Once I feel that I can do 7 days without sfx, I will do 30 more days and then hopefully be done. I may also try some rounds on higher dose ALA, but I am not sure.
Cutler seems to think that it should be possible to go up to 500 mg but I really need to read and think a bit more before I go over 200.
I have not seen the Merlin series but I will take a look. Otherwise, I must have seen at least 5 whole HBO series the past year, almost all of it on round…..
Thanks, and you’re right I probably won’t increase the dose until other supplements are added and maybe until after uncomfortable with long rounds.
I guess if you often end up with five or six day rounds that you don’t always start them on the same day of the week? Either that or you don’t allow for an equal number of days off-round?
Fantastic that you feel the end is in sight! Do you have something in mind to do to celebrate?
Merlin is great for watching with the kids. We’ve also seen about that number of HBO series I think. Also like some of the BBC stuff like Downton Abbey. I used to need to watch that sort of low-key thing when I still had anxiety to make sure I would sleep okay, lol.
I suspect that your recovery is going to be greatly expedited with the iodine. Congrats on nearing 40 mg!
Thanks Tara, I hope you’re right, I appreciate your support. I’m doing my first longer round at the moment (on day 4) and in the grips of one of those nasty moody spells…
Good luck on the long round, Eric!
And Tara, I am sure that you will be able to tolerate some iodine soon. You are chelating at high doses, so it should only be a matter of time before your detox system can handle some iodine. Hang in there!
I am on day 3 and hoping to do 7 days. Very mild sfx, aside from major gut problems. Very loose stools combined with high dose ALA is not a good combination, trust me 🙁
Anyway, it is midnight here i Europe, and I have just taken the 24.00 dose and put the alarm on 3 am………
Thanks for the encouragement, Viking. It means a lot. I’ve been tempted to try the heel dosing, but I think I’d rather just wait a few more months before trying the iodine again. Iodine sounds like it has a shorter detox period, so I guess I feel okay waiting it out until my HM load is a bit less and my reactions aren’t as severe.
I think most of us are used to dealing with a pretty high pain tolerance/suffrage rate on a daily basis, but I also think we shouldn’t try peeling away too many layers of the onion at any one time. At any rate, I’m hoping your hunch that I’ll better tolerate it sooner rather than later is a prediction I’m hoping proves true 😉
another graph update – now showing iodine dosage…
Still lookin’ really good, Eric! I’m beyond frustrated with mine, as I’ve really dropped over the past 3 days, down to 97.6 for my daily average. I haven’t been this low in months. I upped my NDT to 5 grains, and my ACE to 1400 mg, but I’m at a point where increasing doses seems to make me more hypo rather than closer to optimal. Going to back down on my NDT, and see where I’m at. I’m still light years from where I started, but it’s a bit maddening trying to reach that ever elusive, and seemingly unattainable, 98.6. Again, be glad you can tolerate iodine, as I suspect it proves more accurate in resetting your thyroid and adrenals to that 98.6 ideal.
you’ll figure it out, remember how small three days or even three weeks is in relation to the journey as a whole. but I know where you’re coming from – I got upset the other day when one temperature reading was low, lol.
Updated to show chelation… the big dip on Sunday the 30th comes after overexertion with horseback riding on Saturday the 29th.
Nice! Love the Excel formatting! I’m uber jealous that you can tolerate iodine — I’m thinking it probably mine would steady out and rise to near perfection if I were doing the same. I guess I’m doing pretty well with the NDT, all things considered. Iodine is just another thing I look forward to, down the road.
How I wish I could help you with the iodine… have you tried using it topically? I read that it goes into the lymphatic system and maybe that would affect you differently? I also paint it on myself and my kids.
I haven’t tried it topically, but at this point, I wouldn’t even want to try. I can almost guarantee the effects would not be good. If I’m still having nightmare reactions to things I smell, I can imagine the same would be for things applied to my skin.
It’s okay. I’ll wait. I’m working on my patience, remaining optimistic. All things in good time, and grateful for the tough lessons learned through being mercury poisoned 😉
you are probably wise to be patient as I think each thing has its right moment…