Here's the transcript of the presentation.

welcome everyone today I'm with dr.

David Brownstein who is really kind

enough to join us from conference that

he's attending to educate for continued

his education and and really spend some

time with us to help bring us up to

speed on this really important nuclear

crisis that's in Japan and its impact on

the United States and you know for those

of the United States and then certainly

other information for those of you were

other places but dr. Brownstein has

extensive clinical experience with

iodine and that's particularly useful in

this scenario so it'll be other

information other than a nuclear crisis

that he'll be willing to share with us

so welcome dr. Brownstein thank you for

having me dr. Mercola all right so why

don't you describe to our listeners your

experience with iodine and that really

gives you a herbal perspective in this

situation that can help us understand

what might be an appropriate response

well I've been interested in the use of

iodine or approximately the last 20

years in the first 10 years of my

holistic practice I saw so many patients

with thyroid disorders that I was

searching for the underlying reason or

reasons why so many people were having

side problems and it always came back to

iodine at some point and I would try

various amounts of iodine in my patients

and although I wasn't seeing negative

effects with it I just wasn't seeing the

positive effect and approximately 10

years ago I read an article in one of

the journals from dr. guy Abraham was

developed in iodine loading test and I

became friendly with him and began using

his tests and finding a vast majority of

my patients were severely deficient in

iodine and when he educated me about the

right forms of iodine to use and I began

using the right forms of iodine then I

began seeing the positive results of my

practice and so far between myself and

my partners we've tested over 5,000

patients with either spots urinary test

for iodine or 24-hour urinary iodine

loading tests and found over 95% of

patients moderate to severe lead

efficient and I

and we've just seemed to cook clinical

results over the years of using anything

and now it's really become I tend to

come to the forefront with this nuclear

crisis in Japan yes and I think that's

really the key is the is to

understanding this process so what if

you can describe a little more detail

the the test at the iodine spot test

that you're using and the the iodine

urine test because many people are doing

the self diagnosis where they're

applying some iodine topically and

seeing how long it takes to disappear is

that the spot test using or there's no

different variation of it well the skin

test that you're describing is really a

useless test and so that are studies

that show that 80% of the iodine

sublimates off into a gaseous state and

Lisa skin I don't find that clinically

useful the test that I'm talking about

it's either a spot urinary iodine test

where you just measure the morning urine

and see how much items in there and it

gives you an idea of the dietary iodine

intake from somebody or 24 hour iodine

loading test where somebody takes a

known amount of iodine collects 24 hours

of urine and you measure how much iodine

is excreted and you can calculate how

much the body retains and from that you

can estimate how efficient somebody is

an iodine those are the two tests that

I'm using and I find those two tests

both clinically helpful in diagnosing as

well as treating someone for iodine

deficiency

I seen the latter would be more useful

because if someone were to take a large

dose of iodine initially that spot test

could be falsely accurate or falsely

elevated where is it they would be

sufficient as to the booze relative to

the last one which would be more

reflective of the long-term status I

would totally agree with that although

with over 95 percent of patients and

latter too severely iodine deficient the

spot urinary iodine cuts as long as

they're not taking iodine can be an

accurate indicator of the body iodine

status yeah it kind of reminds me of

another nutrient that we're both I'm

sure an agreement on this vitamin D and

it is my belief certainly not some of

the so-called quote-unquote experts that

that about the same amount of people are

I'd a vitamin D deficient but it really

depends on what you use as a standard

you know because a lot if you're using

20 or 30 nanograms as a standard you're

going to get

different than using 15 anagrams wait so

you know it's really interesting so the

biggest clinical condition that you see

from and this is really an extraordinary

observation they have you know 19 people

out of 20 be deficient in this really

important nutrient to do and can you

well first of all can you describe the

Kop the the implications of being

deficient and then what you will leave

might have led to that deficiency

because it really I mean that's just

really extraordinary that many people

not have enough of that nutrient well

dr. Mercola

I've lectured across the country and out

of the country and I asked all the

practitioners and my lectures what

percent of people do they think are

walking around with saira tissues and

invariably the number comes up with

usually the minimum around 50% and the

maximum around 75 to 80% so we have

fifty to eighty percent of our

population with an undiagnosed abnormal

thyroid function we've got a big problem

in our country and we've got a problem

that's being driven I think in part from

iodine deficiency and the thyroid gland

has the largest concentration of iodine

we can't make thyroid hormone from

without iodine and I think that this is

one large piece of the puzzle why so

many people are having thyroid problems

but it's not just the thyroid gland that

has iodine all the glandular tissue does

the breasts the ovaries the uterus the

prostate and other tissues the skin

holds 20% of the body's iodine they fed

in a muscle cells whole large amounts of

iodine so iodine is concentrated in

every cell in the body every cell needs

and utilizes iodine the white blood

cells can't function without adequate

iodine I mean the list goes on and on I

think is a very important nutrient for

the body and when it's efficient there

are ramp wide ramifications in the body

of what can happen okay would you have

any speculation as to why we're so

deficient well I think that I worsted I

think that sufficiency has been going on

a long time but now this deficiency is

being exacerbated by the toxicities

we're exposed to being fluoride in our

water supply will bind to iodine

receptors and cause the body to release

iodine bromide which I have found and

be patient that I've tested for bromide

which has been nearly 500 they've been

high on bromide levels bromide is a

halogen that can bind to iodine

receptors and also caused by the deluge

iodine chlorine derivatives which are

found in pesticides and insecticides can

bind to iodine sites and cause the body

to release iodine I think that our

exposure to these items have gone up

dramatically in the last twenty to

thirty years causing this iodine

deficiency problems are markedly

worsened and I think that's the the

problem that we're seeing today and and

I think that the consequences of this

are one in seven women having breast

cancer one in three men having prostate

cancer and this is huge chronic illness

problem that we're seeing that's not

being addressed by conventional medicine

I couldn't agree more so and just for

those of our listeners aren't familiar

bra why why we would be having high

levels of bromine because it you don't

think you're normally exposed to it but

for anyone who's eating white flour

products usually bromine bromine is used

to bleach the flower and not only

produces bromine produces brominated

halogen other organic chemicals which

are probably even worse and bromine is

also found in in many soft drinks such

as Mountain Dew and some Gatorade

products an EMP energy drink we're

getting bromine from a wide exposure in

our food supply and you know it's just

been a disaster

and it's it bromine will bind whoever

iodine binds to in the body die rate

hormone can be brominated instead of

biotin ated if there's too much bromine

in the body unfortunately our common

laboratory tests don't distinguish

between the two so we don't really know

and most people with happening but my

testing of patients has shown generally

the sicker they are the higher the

bromide levels are and if they have

cancer one of the endocrine cancers such

as breast or prostate or uterine or

thyroid cancer may have higher levels

and patients without those cancers and

so it sounds like it's a it's a variety

it's not just a simple deficiency there

inadequate intake of iodine but the

exposure to these relative toxins that

we typically didn't have because almost

everyone's drinking or exposed to

fluoridated water and the bromine that

you mentioned and the chlorine of course

so that's displacing it making it

giving us a relatively increased

requirement for iodine to replace the

ones that works but those toxins that

were influenced by so it's the

combination banana-head

yeah so thank you for helping us and me

understand that better so the reason for

the primary reason for the quality was

to have some solid recommendations to

really address the fear because I think

this is a from my perspective I don't

believe this is a the nuclear crisis is

Japan is going to impact the people in

United States hardly at all if at all

but it's good and that it sensitizes to

this issue we could we could address

because there may be another nuclear

reactor within the United States it does

present this problem where it is an

issue but from my understanding you

really it's probably not why is to take

a large dose of potassium iodide to

protect yourself from this cloud unless

you have high radiation holes because

it's only going to give you protection

for one to three days at most and it's

really not going to solve any long-term

problems and I'm wonder if you could if

you could we could have your perspective

on that well we're certainly not going

to feel the the nuclear be the radiation

fallout that the Japanese are going to

feel but if this number four reactor

melts down or if it's not already

melting down although it's hard to tell

from what the Japanese government is

releasing we are going to get some of

that exposure and the problem with even

a mild exposure of radioactive iodine

coming over the northern United States

is not for those people who are iodine

sufficient it's for those people or

iodine deficient if that if that

radioactivity comes down in the form of

rain or mist or hail or something like

that those patients bodies where iodine

deficient will bind that up and it will

cause some problems I agree with you I

do not think we're going to see the

white health crises we're seeing in

Japan but this will be just another drop

in our toxicity environments and for

those right and efficient there are

probably are some consequences to that

and that's why I said at the beginning

of the talk I hope this is a wake-up

call to those who who are been emailing

me and who are concerned about iodine

but we should take precautions before

events like this happen we should eat

better diet we should keep ourselves

hydrated we should take the right kind

of salt in our diet we should make sure

that if I have enough iodine and enough

vitamin C to survive crises like this

and that's what our bodies are looking

for and if you have that nerve in your

body you don't have to worry about a

crisis in Japan

sure