What are the effects of iodine deficiency?
Iodine deficiency can result in a series of conditions, referred to as iodine deficiency disorders. Iodine deficiency disorders can affect people of all ages, but babies are most at risk of serious problems. Babies who do not receive adequate iodine can have intellectual impairment and problems with physical development. Sometimes, severe mental retardation (sometimes known as cretinism) develops following severe iodine deficiency during early development. In fact, iodine deficiency is the most common cause worldwide of preventable intellectual impairment in children, so it’s extremely important for pregnant women, breast-feeding mothers and young children to receive an adequate amount of dietary iodine. Iodine deficiency can also cause swelling of the thyroid gland (goitre), as well as symptoms of an under-active thyroid gland (a condition called hypothyroidism). Iodine deficiency is the most common cause of hypothyroidism throughout the world. Some of the features of hypothyroidism i
