Long term iodine storage and retention for humans, crops and more

There is a topic that I rarely or never see discussed: how do we stop ourselves from being severely malnutritioned by lacking iodine in our environment?

I'm acutely aware of this by living in the midwest. Iodine deficiency is a serious thing since the environment has very little iodine available to give to plants, animals and humans.

Iodine is essential and humans need much higher quantities than presently consumed.

Sadly potassium iodide doesn't store super well if you just use it from a supplement bottle without keeping it sealed due to the reactivity and leaking of the iodine.

Has anyone found successful ways of inserting, storing and using iodine within the environment? Especially locations that are deficient of the element?

I have thought that maybe consuming iodine, collecting feces and reusing in gardening and animal grazing areas could be one way to help retain a LITTLE iodine, but probably not really enough.

Most folks don't realize that even if a particular plant aggregates iodine it has to have iodine in the environment in the first place to even have it to offer... so again, we need to figure out ways to insert, retain and aggregate iodine or things will simply not be good for anyone trying to live in a self sustained ecosystem or farm.

Thoughts/experience?

Since iodine's an element,  I think it would be very hard to artificially increase its availability in the environment (i.e. adding it to soil and water where it is not already prevalent).  Seems like it would be easiest to import high-iodine foodstuffs or supplements from other regions. Like sea salt, seaweed, ocean fish. Dried fish, dried sea vegetables and sea salt are lightweight and high value foodstuffs so nat be worth the environmental cost of transport, depending on your point of view.

How about povidone-iodine nasal misters.
they were suggested for protection from covid and other viruses.

Does that absorb easily?

Greg Payton wrote:There is a topic that I rarely or never see discussed: how do we stop ourselves from being severely malnutritioned by lacking iodine in our environment? ...

Thoughts/experience?

It is good to take supplement though to me getting iodine in your food is a much better option.

Many foods contain iodine.

When someone had scurvy, the doctors would give them fermented foods back in the old days

Here is a list of foods that contain iodine:

.Seaweed (nori, kelp, kombu, wakame)
Fish, shellfish (cod, canned tuna, oysters, shrimp)
Table salts labeled “iodized”
Dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt)
Eggs
Beef liver
Chicken

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/iodine/

For those of you who would like to learn more about how iodine helps with colds and the flu:

https://permies.com/t/3051/kitchen/iodine-cure-flu-cold

Mk Neal wrote:Since iodine's an element,  I think it would be very hard to artificially increase its availability in the environment (i.e. adding it to soil and water where it is not already prevalent).  Seems like it would be easiest to import high-iodine foodstuffs or supplements from other regions. Like sea salt, seaweed, ocean fish. Dried fish, dried sea vegetables and sea salt are lightweight and high value foodstuffs so nat be worth the environmental cost of transport, depending on your point of view.

Iodine being an element is to me, exactly why I'd want to add it to my soil. If it's low, it can't come from anywhere except being added. I wish it were cost effective to import seaweed from the coast so I can add it.

@Mk Neal yeah, that is the reason for this post. Since the purpose of and the concept behind Permies is sustainability and self sufficiency, this is exactly why I came to this forum to post this topic. I believe that we cannot and should not rely on importation for long term sustainability and survival - and "thrive-al" 😊. We should be able to thrive as families and societies that are isolated from various resources and I want to try to figure out such options that may even be out of the box or not hitherto considered. For example, and this isn't really maybe the solution, but I have heard that chickens modify some elements ("transmute") them such as magnesium to calcium I think it was. I really have no idea if something like that happens in nature with any animals for iodine, but it is interesting.

(@Anne Miller) I suppose if there is some raw material that comes from beaches or oceans that is relatively cheap then maybe that can be used to help dairy, eggs, beef (liver) and chickens like @Anne Miller suggested. Maybe the smartest thing would be some kind of sea sourced shell "mash" (oyster shells?) would be good. MAYBE that is WHY chickens are high in iodine??? Perhaps they tested chickens for iodine levels and they happened to be feeding them oyster shell mash?

On closer inspection it DOES appear that oyster mash could be a source of iodine: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016003238902340

Bunashimeji mushrooms might have some, but I wonder if mushrooms might absorb and store iodine if oyster mash is supplemented to their growth environment?

Foods high in iodine: https://wholefoodcatalog.info/nutrient/iodine/foods/high/

We really need to try to understand where these foods come from and how they extract the iodine from the environment.

@craig howard I have actually tried to use straight povidone before in some sinus rinses and drinking it and didn't have any adverse reactions, but I also don't have any data about whether it was absorbed or useful for my body. Tricky to nail this down since I don't know if anyone has any studies or analysis of whether it has been observed as being present in tissue following such use. Iodine is heavily used by some important organs in our bodies and so I don't think it is a simple task to measure/biopsy such results. 😿

So ultimately it seems a very practical and low entry bar is oyster mash for chickens and/or figuring out how to use it for other things or foods - or direct consumption if leached? I dunno, but we obviously need to dig into options since this seems to perhaps be the CHEAPEST and most "mass"ive option that we may currently have in this societal ecosystem.