How Adding Iodine To Salt Resulted In A Decade's Worth Of IQ Gains For The United States

[n2doc]

by MAX NISEN

Iodized salt is so ubiquitous that we barely notice it. Few people know why it even exists. Iodine deficiency remains the world's leading cause of preventable mental retardation. According to a new study, its introduction in America in 1924 had an effect so profound that it raised the country's IQ.
A new NBER working paper from James Feyrer, Dimitra Politi, and David N. Weil finds that the population in iodine-deficient areas saw IQs rise by a full standard deviation, which is 15 points, after iodized salt was introduced.

Since one quarter of the population lived in those areas, that corresponds to a 3.5 point increase nationwide. We've seen IQs go up by about 3 points every decade, something called the Flynn effect, so iodization of salt may be responsible for a full decade's worth of increasing IQ in the U.S.

If a mother is iodine deficient while she's pregnant, the cognitive development of the fetus is impeded, and the effects are irreversible. To this day, the World Health Organization estimates that nearly 50 million people suffer some kind of mental impairment related to iodine deficiency.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/iodization-effect-on-iq-2013-7

[warrant46]

1. Given the apparent lack of cognitive thinking by the growing class of Sheep

It is difficult to accept this theory

[PSPS]

2. This may be true but wasn't the impetus

The thyroid gland needs iodine. In fact, when you ingest iodine, it is immediately routed by the body to the thyroid gland. This is why radioactive iodine is one method used to treat thyroid cancer (a form of cancer almost never fatal because it almost never metastasizes beyond the thyroid.)

If you look at old pictures of settlers, you will often see that many have goiters (enlarged thyroids) due to lack of iodine in the diet. This was because the mountain waters were so pure. So iodine was added to salt.

[pipoman]

4. Also why ingesting iodine is

recommended for several types of radiation exposure..fill the thyroid with non-radio active iodine and there is no place for the radioactive iodine to accumulate..(by my layman's understanding)

[kestrel91316]

3. If it helped minorities, we can now expect the RW to work their a--es off trying to ban

the addition of iodine to salt.

[Chemisse]

5. Actually, stupidity in general helps Republicans

Maybe the House will squeeze a ban in between health-care-law repeal votes.

[bemildred]

6. Yeah, some idiot is going to want to outlaw iodine in salt.

Just watch, I'm not kidding.

[Quantess]

8. If they manage to make the case

that Michelle Obama and other liberal elites are trying to force iodine on children, it could get a following.

[SheilaT]

7. A mere decade? Isn't it closer to a century?

I had no idea about the IQ connection, but I'm old enough to have seen adults with goiters when I was a child. They almost never occur any more.

Although, given that people are told over and over that salt is bad for them and they shouldn't ever use it, I wonder if Iodine deficiency, perhaps at a borderline level, might not be a bit of a problem.