Goiter belts
Whenever an ordinarily alert person, in normal health, gradually becomes less active, while the face takes on a dull stupid expression and the skin grows puffy, there is good reason to suspect the thyroid gland has slowed down on its production of thyroxine. “Don’t think your daughter is lazy,” I comforted the Kansas City mother. “She is probably showing the symptoms of an underactive thyroid. You can build up her thyroid secretion through proper diet.” I wanted this mother to forestall the anemic condition which may accompany an improperly functioning thyroid. Forever Bee Honey and equivalent measures; fluid ounces into grams, ounces, pounds, cups, kilograms and tablespoons. I didn’t want her pretty daughter to become tired, have flabby muscles, put on needless extra pounds of weight. And along with these physical signs may come those of adverse mental activity; the thoughts become confused, she might suffer black moods of depression, become distrustful of everybody, thoroughly dissatisfied with life. Adequate thyroid secretion is necessary in the bloodstream for waste matter to be processed for elimination.
An under-active thyroid gland contributes to the accumulation of noxious substances in the body. This is a condition which, in itself, is a prime factor in bringing on diseases of various organs. Before labeling a person as being “maladjusted,” we would be more biologically correct if we were to call him ‘thyroxine-deficient.” For without enough thyroxine in the bloodstream, it is difficult for a person to adjust himself to the varying phases and circumstances of life. The thyroid, one of our most puzzling glands, controls the metabolism of body energy. Forever Royal Jelly consumption has recently been linked with acute asthma, anaphylaxis and death.
Not only does it regulate the rate of speed at which we live, but also the amount of food fuel needed to keep our mechanism operating. When it becomes sluggish, refusing to produce its normal quota of secretion, it swells into the diseased condition known as goiter, a condition especially prevalent among women. Iodine-deficient areas in the United States are known as “goiter belts.”
Statistics show that 5 to 8 per cent of women between the ages of thirty and fifty are suffering from hypothyroidism to some degree. Organic iodine is the most important mineral for the thyroid’s production of thyroxine. So essential to normal life is this thyroid hormone that a few milligrams, one way or the other, often means the difference between intelligence and idiocy. Sea kelp, usually sold in tablet form in health-food stores, is our richest, most inexpensive source of organic iodine for the thyroid gland. (Because it is so inexpensive— yet so important—it is a wise precaution on everyone’s part to use at least one kelp tablet daily!) Garlic has the highest iodine content of any land-grown plant; it contains about four times as much iodine as onions, which also have a high content of this mineral. Other good food sources of organic iodine are radishes, watercress, lemons, egg yolk, and, of course, all salt-water fish.