Abnormal Development - Iodine Deficiency

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Introduction

Iodinated Salt

Iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) is the single most common cause of preventable mental retardation and brain damage in the world. Iodine (Greek, ioeides = violet) is required for the synthesis of thyroid hormone, a key regulator of neurological development. IDD causes goiters and decreases the production of hormones vital to growth and development.

  • 1.6 billion people are at risk
  • IDD affects 50 million children
  • 100,000 cretins are born every year

Children with IDD can grow up stunted, apathetic, mentally retarded and incapable of normal movement, speech or hearing. IDD in pregnant women cause miscarriage, stillbirth and mentally retarded children. A teaspoon of iodine is all a person requires in a lifetime, but because iodine cannot be stored for long periods by the body, tiny amounts are needed regularly. In areas of endemic iodine deficiency, where soil and therefore crops and grazing animals do not provide sufficient dietary iodine to the populace, food fortification and supplementation have proven highly successful and sustainable interventions. Iodized salt programs and iodized oil supplements are the most common tools in the fight against IDD.

Links: Endocrine - Thyroid Development |
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Some Recent Findings

  • Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) - 22nd Australian Total Diet Study A total diet study of five trace elements: iodine, selenium, chromium, molybdenum, and nickel.
  • Modest Thyroid Hormone Insufficiency during Development Induces a Cellular Malformation in the Corpus Callosum: A Model of Cortical Dysplasia[1]"Whilst the majority of Australians had dietary intakes approaching or above the estimated average requirement (EAR) or AI for selenium, molybdenum and chromium, a substantial proportion of the population had iodine intakes below the EAR. FSANZ has subsequently commissioned further analyses of iodine levels in Australian foods and will be introducing mandatory fortification of iodine in bread, from September 2009."

Iodine and Thyroid Hormone

Thyroxine.jpg

Iodine incorporated into thyroid horomone, Thyroxine (T4)


Salt

Salt shaker.jpg The World Health Organization has made progress recently since the primary intervention strategy for IDD control, Universal Salt Iodization (USI), was adopted in 1993. Iodization can be carried out using potassium iodide or potassium iodate; or sodium iodide or sodium iodate.

Salt was chosen because it is widely available and consumed in regular amounts throughout the year, and because the costs of iodizing it are extremely low - only about US$0.05 per person per year.

Where salt iodization has been in place for over five years, improvement in iodine status has been overwhelming.Over the last decade, the number of countries with salt iodization programmes doubled, rising from 46 to 93. As a result, today 68% of the 5 billion people living in countries with IDD have access to iodized salt and the global rates of goitre, mental retardation and cretinism are falling fast.

(some text information from WHO page)

References

  1. <pubmed>17317780</pubmed>

Reviews

Articles

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June 2010 "Iodine Deficiency"

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Cite this page: Hill, M.A. (2024, March 28) Embryology Abnormal Development - Iodine Deficiency. Retrieved from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Abnormal_Development_-_Iodine_Deficiency

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© Dr Mark Hill 2024, UNSW Embryology ISBN: 978 0 7334 2609 4 - UNSW CRICOS Provider Code No. 00098G