Iodine deficiency, more than cretinism and goiter.

Recent reports of the World Health Organization show iodine deficiency to be a worldwide occurring health problem. As iodine status is based on median urinary iodine excretion, even in countries regarded as iodine sufficient, a considerable part of the population may be iodine deficient. Iodine is a key element in the synthesis of thyroid hormones and as a consequence, severe iodine deficiency results in hypothyroidism, goiter, and cretinism with the well known biochemical alterations. However, it is also known that iodine deficiency may give rise to clinical symptoms of hypothyroidism without abnormality of thyroid hormone values. This led us to the hypothesis that iodine deficiency may give rise to subtle impairment of thyroid function leading to clinical syndromes resembling hypothyroidism or diseases that have been associated with the occurrence of hypothyroidism. We describe several clinical conditions possibly linked to iodine deficiency, a connection that has not been made thus far. In this paper we will focus on the relationship between iodine deficiency and obesity, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), psychiatric disorders, fibromyalgia, and malignancies.

Amino acids and our genetic code: a highly adaptive and interacting defense system.

Since the discovery of the genetic code, Mendel's heredity theory and Darwin's evolution theory, science believes that adaptations to the environment are processes in which the adaptation of the genes is a matter of probability, in which finally the specie will survive which is evolved by chance. We hypothesize that evolution and the adaptation of the genes is a well-organized fully adaptive system in which there is no rigidity of the genes. The dividing of the genes will take place in line with the environment to be expected, sensed through the mother. The encoding triplets can encode for more than one amino acid depending on the availability of the amino acids and the needed micronutrients. Those nutrients can cause disease but also prevent diseases, even cancer and auto immunity. In fact we hypothesize that auto immunity is an effective process of the organism to clear suboptimal proteins, formed due to amino acid and micronutrient deficiencies. Only when deficiencies sustain, disease will develop, otherwise the autoantibodies will function as all antibodies function, in a protective way. Furthermore, we hypothesize that essential amino acids are less important than nonessential amino acid (NEA). Species developed the ability to produce the nonessential amino acids themselves because they were not provided by food sufficiently. In contrast essential amino acids are widely available, without any evolutionary pressure. Since we can only produce small amounts of NEA and the availability in food can be reasoned to be too low they are still our main concern in amino acid availability. In conclusion, we hypothesize that increasing health will only be possible by improving our natural environment and living circumstances, not by changing the genes, since they are our last line of defense in surviving our environmental changes.

Micronutrients and amino acids, main regulators of physiological processes.

Human physiology is supposed to be a complex interaction of regulating processes, in which hormones, genes, their proteins and apoptosis are thought to play a dominant role. We hypothesize that regulation of physiological processes is mainly influenced by amino acids and micronutrients with hormones, proteins, apoptosis and gene modifications being their derivatives. Furthermore, we suppose that the cells power plant, the mitochondrion, is in fact an intracellular bacterium, living in absolute symbiosis. Because of its intracellular existence it depends on the host's micronutrients completely. Within the host these micronutrients regulate their own formation, degradation, uptake and excretion. Known deficiencies, such as iodine and vitamin D, affect billions of people. Many micronutrients neither have been investigated, nor have they been studied in relation to each other and solid data are not available. Optimal levels of many micronutrients and all amino acids are not known. Amino acids, vitamins and minerals are capable of altering gene expression, inducing apoptosis and regulating chemical processes. It makes them highly attractive for creating better health, against low cost, as we have already proven in the case of rickets, cretinism and scurvy in severe deficiencies. By creating optimal living conditions and study mitochondria from a symbiotic point of view we suppose that diseases not only can be prevented, but the course of diseases can be altered as well.