I would like to take a multi-vitamin but notice that it contains iodine. Would this be harmful to my thyroid as I also take 75 mcg of thyroxine each day?
There are many multi-vitamin preparations which do not contain iodine or kelp, and these are probably the most sensible for someone with a thyroid disease. However, the real problem with excess iodine is that it can make a marginally underactive thyroid go severely underactive. Therefore, for someone taking 25 or 50 mcg of thyroxine a day who has a substantial remnant of their thyroid working, excess iodine would be considered harmful. However, for someone with no thyroid tissue left (after surgery, radio-iodine or after complete destruction by autoimmune thyroid disease) there are no harmful effects on the thyroid gland from taking iodine. In cases of doubt it would be best to check the iodine content of any multivitamin preparation, and provided doses were moderate (25mcg per day or less) there would normally be no harmful effects what so ever.
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