Hello Subscribers to iMedDo.com Newsletter,
Wow February flew by fast! A Lot of things going on this month for me including dancing, funeral, travel & chemistry hobnobbing & this month’s newsletter is on the Evolution of Iodine: “Halogen Talk: Fluorine, Iodine & Tennessine” presented by yours truly Biochemist Ben (Dr. Ben MS DSM)!
CHINESE NEW YEAR!
Did you know that as of Feb 5th, we are now officially in the Chinese tradition in the “Year of the Pig”? So happy pig year oink oink! One of my Chinese friends told me that he prefers to call it the “Year of the Boar”. As a former Texan, I have to agree as when I think of pig, I just think of bacon. Whereas, when I think of a boar, I get images of the tough tusked boar from Game of Thrones TV show that killed King Baratheon. Like a wild boar this year is going to be totally wild & exciting as was the month of February!
If you are not familiar then you should know that the Chinese Zodiac is a bit different than than the Greek Zodiac. A similarity is they both have a cycle of 12 but the Chinese zodiac is a cycle of 12 years whereas the Greek zodiac is a cycle of 12 months. Although some of the animals seen similar (ox vs bull & ram vs goat) in greek vs chinese zodiac respectively, actually they are quite different. Whereas the more familiar Greek zodiac which comes from Egyptian-Vedic-Babylonian-Sumerian sources perhaps concerns the planet EARTH & the procession of the equinoxes as earth travels around the SUN in a year, the Chinese zodiac concerns & approximates the ~12 yr (11.85 orbital year) period of the planet JUPITER & is more concerned with lunar cycles of the MOON. So don’t try to compare them as they are quite different & likely played a large part in shaping differences in Western vs. Eastern thought. Myself coming from a Western tradition, I had assumed that if it was your year in the Chinese zodiac that must be your super lucky year! I was shocked to find out that actually they consider when it is your year that it is an unlucky year for you! So if you were born in the year of the pig be extra aware this year this is your year which means it is not your year! I was born in the year of the Rooster which was last in 2017. Looking back I had both ups & downs that year a healthy mixture of good & bad. Regardless of what the zodiac astrology says, I still feel great about 2019 & hope you do too!
DANCIN’ & DETOXIN’
My wife Shari & I started teaching Swing Dance in Chattanooga, Tennessee at the local Yoga studio. It has really been fun to shake it on the dance floor & show others the joy of Lindy Hop Swing Dance & how to use Fusion Dance & Eastern Philosophies of movement in our own dance style we call “Lindy Fu”. Like Kung Fu: Tai Chi & healing Chi movements Qigong, Lindy Fu partner dance is a graceful, healing & fun way to move not only your own Chi but that of your partner. So fun. If you happen to know anyone in Chatt area have them check out River City Dance Club on FB to find us or find a local dance, chi movement, martial or marital art activity in their area. Physical activity does wonders for body, balance, mind & work-fun life balance & highly recommended for everyone in addition to eating healthy & detoxing. The squeezing of the muscles & vibration of head such as from drums in music & dance is a part of the physiological detox process. Movement stimulates & moves stagnant blood & helps excrete toxins in lymphatic system as part of completing a body nourishing & detoxing circulatory loop. Give dance or you favorite form of movement or exercise a try if not already part of your routines consider adding.
FAMILY & TRAVEL
Dear readers, I hope your life & family are doing well but as you know life has its ups and downs. After we started teaching our first week of dance we got the call that wife’s grandma passed away in Texas & we flew out & back for the funeral. Although bitter sweet under the circumstances she lived a long life into her 80’s & it was a good time to reconnect with family & loved ones. If your year is going great cherish it, if you are going through difficulties it will pass & the pain will lessen over time. Thankyou all for the condolences & love shared with us in our time of family transition. If anyone is going through spiritual, family or financial difficulties and wants to talk, I am available for you and am a Priest of “Love is all there is”.
DETOX 101
What I do is I detox. My philosophy is that there are toxins everywhere in the food, water, air & soil & although it is impossible to avoid them all, that there is something you can do about it: Be mindful & detox. I believe in the idea of being in a “Constant State of Detox” where you let your body get rid of toxins out faster than you are taking them in for a net reduction in toxins in your body at all time. If you do this for a prolonged period of time your body will become fully detoxed, you will be much more resilient to poisons, will live a longer & fuller life as your body will operate more smoothly without poisons interfering with your biological & mental & spiritual processes. In order to achieve a negative rate of toxin accumulation so that your body will eventually become fully detoxed, you have two sides of the equation to work with: 1) You can take in toxins more slowly & 2) You can excrete toxins faster. Only you can do #1. The best way to do it is to be mindful of your surroundings, avoid polluted areas & avoid contaminated food & water to the best of your ability. Eliminate or change parts of your life one small change at a time to make each part of your life more healthy. For #2 the best way to excrete toxins faster is to hydrate & exercise. Toxins will naturally exit the body through skin when you sweat, urine & gi track.
This is Detox 101. Seems simple right? In the old days perhaps it was but not anymore. Why not? The environment, food & air are more polluted then in the past. In a struggle for industrial efficiency since the last 2 world war’s & the ongoing industrial revolutions, the science of making more efficient food has resulted in mankind merely making “imitation” food. Such imitation food has imitation nutrition & when your body needs fuel & it gets something else strange things can happen usually resulting in lower energy, malnutrition, infection and cancer. When you eat out or even when your make the food yourself with dubious ingredients it is hard to know what sort of toxins you are taking in. For many if you have a job in a city or polluted are is hard to move & bad habits of not eating healthy or not exercising can be hard to break. Do what you can when you can and take it one step at a time making one small change at a time for a healthier life everyday. As for me those of you who know me well know that I’m a mountain man now living totally off grid in a cabin in a low pollution area, but 7 years ago lived in a smoggy city next next to a powerline so I have made efforts to change my life & if you apply yourself you will be amazed at what steps you can take. Ultimately, you can pick where you live & work & if making changes seems too overwhelming just do one small change at a time. If nothing else take a few minutes each day to appreciate what you have & to love yourself no matter what your circumstances. One of the biggest threats to your food even if real not imitation are preservatives. If you are scared of food poisoning please know you don’t have to fear anymore, just keep a bottle of NeuSilver around and do 7-10 drops if you eat something that makes your tummy start feeling funny. Preservatives may keep food from spoiling but they also keep your gut’s natural bacteria from breaking them down resulting in less nutrition gained. When you avoid preservatives it forces you to eat fresher food. Yes eating healthy can be more expensive sometimes 3x more expensive but your body is worth it. A strong body is required for a strong mind & protect both.
EVOLUTION OF IODINE
Chemistry Background
Yes, I’m a chemist so I will talk a bit of chemistry. Even if you didn’t take chemistry in school or don’t remember, the nice thing is that the field of chemistry has a nice summary table called “Periodic Table of the Elements”. It is a 2 dimensional representation of some very weird 3-D repeating helix like properties of the elements known to be made up of protons, neutrons & electrons where every one that has a different number of protons is a different element. Each element can have different numbers of neutrons called different “isotopes” & the “atomic mass” or weight of each element is an average of the mass of the ones found in nature & in general will have the same number of electrons as protons & can also exist in more complex forms of multiple elements together (compounds) & have different number of electrons than protons (different oxidation states). Some elemental isotopes are stable & some are unstable, depending on the ratio of neutrons to protons, & many elements which do not exist in nature have been created artificially by slamming smaller elements into larger ones to keep increasing the atomic number (# of protons) to create more and more elements. The periodic table like the 7 chakras as 7 energy levels or rows called “Periods” where the word period comes from female moon reproductive cycle meaning repeating & are also arranged in columns called “groups” with 8 main groups repeated like musical octaves & a perfect 10 additional groups squeezed in between the 2nd & 3rd notes of the octave and a strange group of 15 (called the lanthanoids & actinoids) also in there as well which stick out like a sore thumb as does Hydrogen #1 proton the building block of all & Helium #2 at the top sticking out like horns on either side. It’s a strange 2-D table to be sure, but from it many cool patterns can be seen & is required learning for all chemists or anyone who wants to know more about the physical construction of the things we can touch or feel which are all made up of elements. The elements can be classified into chemical “families” which simplified into 3 families are called 1. Metals (3 families of Metals: Alkali Earth Metals, Alkaline Metals, Transition Metals) 2. Noble Gases 3. Halogens. The metals are very broad & table is usually expressed as 5 families & other classification exist such as dividing into 9 families. The Noble gases are inert (non-reactive) and thus not much use for biology (that I know of), the metals are crazy & interesting some critical to biology, some toxic some like the noble metals copper, silver & gold have amazing electrical & thermal properties, however, metals are not the subject of this newsletter. Instead I want to focus on the Halogen family which is super important to biology because it contains elements almost all toxic except for one which sticks out like sore thumb as being critically important: iodine! As a chemist, biochemist & essentially iodine nutritionist, iodine is my favorite element which is why I built the iMedDo detox system around it with silver & gold in correct colloidal forms to complement it. There is a lot to learn about iodine for any chemists interested check out my papers which can be found at www.linkedin.com/in/bengoins.
Halogen Family!
An area of interest on the periodic table are the halogen family. It consists of the elements of atomic number 9 (fluorine), 17 (chlorine), 35 (bromine), 53 (iodine), 85 (Astatine), 117 (Tennessine).
Humans are always looking for beautiful repeating patterns in nature of which many exist & many can be seen from the periodic table. There must be an overarching energy holding all elements together in a repeating framework & this framework of energy & repeating patterns & its laws must be obeyed & harnessed by all creation & living beings to exist & change. There is more unknown than know about creation & everyone would be wise to remember that. When the Russian scientist Mendeleev put together what is now the basic outline of what we call the periodic table, he was in disbelief later in life that there was a whole CHEMICAL FAMILY that he missed, the noble gases! Just as he missed this & just as we have just found & name new elements in recent years, it is possible there could still be whole families still missing so wise to remember that science is still a work in progress & natural laws are there whether we have discovered them yet or not. Perhaps all will be revealed in time but until then the highest honor for a chemist is to simply name an element for their country or state. The most recent honor went to my local state area of Tennessee with the most recent addition to the halogen family of Tennessine!. Congrats Tennessee!
DISCUSSION OF HALOGEN FAMILY
Iodine at #53 atomic number is the largest naturally existing Halogen & is the only one that is good for you as all the smaller ones: fluorine #9, chlorine #17, bromine #35 are very toxic & bad for human health. The only exception is the salt form of chlorine called chloride which is okay. Have you heard of sodium chloride table salt for instance?. The salt form of chlorine is represented by Cl- with minus sign indicative of an extra electron which has negative charge & in the same way iodine in salt form is iodide I-. & bromide Br-, and Fluoride Fl-. Additionally halogens like to exist in bi-molecular compounds consisting of two atoms of the same molecular such as Fl2, Cl2, Br2, I2 which can exist in different chemical states (solid, liquid or gas). Gases can be compressed into liquids or can be suspended or dissolved in liquids & can with further compression or reduction in temperature can exist as solids. Bi-molecular halogens are very reactive & frequently used in chemical reactions. The larger than iodine halogens Astatine #85 and recently discovered/synthesized Tennessine #117 are of no biological significance as they do not exist in nature and can only be produced in very small quantities by nuclear chemists using expensive linear accelerators. However, is worth noting that they are expected to be extremely hazardous to health as would be larger than and would replace iodine in the body with damage to thyroid, pineal, breast & ovarian tissue expected to be the most noticeable & have seen some studies on Astatine confirming my theory. So for practical purposes only the first 4 in the halogen family need be considered for health purposes. In general the word “Halogen” with the exception of Iodine is synonymous with “Super Toxic” in the health, nutrition, biochemistry, and alternative medicine parlance but is synonymous with “Super Exciting & Reactive” in the chemistry & nuclear chemistry parlance.
Whereas most chemists look at the periodic table as a place to practice nuclear chemistry to try to make bigger & bigger elements & to make nuclear weapons (actually best weapon is made with the smallest #1 Hydrogen), as a biochemist & biophysicist interested in nutrition & medicinal usage, I am looking at the periodic table very differently. Firstly, I’m looking at the it to heal not kill. Secondly, I don’t care about all the new radioactive elements (except how to detox them) and especially don’t care about all the synthetic elements which do not exist in nature but only exist in microscopic quantities inside linear accelerators. So when I look at the halogen family the thing that begs the question is WHY ARE ALL THE HALOGENS (EXCEPT IODINE) SO TOXIC & WHY IS IODINE SO GOOD FOR YOU INSTEAD? Is there some reason on the periodic table that can be seen? I know a lot but much is still unknown but now for the first time dear reader I will give you my thoughts and working hypothesis on the above question. My current working hypothesis about why iodine is so good and the rest of the halogens are so bad is that because iodine was an abundant & reactive element in salt & later molecular & other oxidation state forms in the ancient oceans, that all life evolved to use it for their reactions. A key reaction is that iodine & all the halogens are useful for binding and interacting with metals & the metal family is very vast with many properties. A key metal of importance in the ancient ocean is Calcium (an alkali metal) in salt form Ca2+ were the ability to re-arrange calcium such as in calcium carbonate became a critical competitive advantage for all organisms as they used it to form coral, & shells & bones (our bones are like our internal coral structure). Of all the relevant halogens (fluoride, chlorine, bromine, iodine) the ONLY ONE THAT IS INSOLUBLE WITH CALCIUM IS FLUORIDE! So the presence of fluoride is very toxic as it STOPS the ability of calcium to be re-arranged. Calcium not only is used in building coral & bones but is used in many signaling pathways & many early proteins which evolved to bind & process calcium such as calmodulin & many proteins in the ocean such as green fluorescent protein in jelly fish rely on calcium level signaling, and in humans our neurons & heart & even muscle contraction relies on calcium signaling which is so important. IT SEEMS TO ME PROCESSING CALCIUM WAS A KEY COMPONENT OF SEA BIOLOGY EVOLUTION & THUS IS STILL SO IN HUMANS MILLIONS OF YEARS LATER! And a key corollary to this hypothesis is that it is extremely toxic if the calcium gets stuck. The primary way the calcium gets stuck is if it binds to FLUORIDE halogen. Fluroide is a known neurotoxin in human which is not surprising since there is a calcium pathway in neuronal plasticity (ability of neurons to grow, change & learn).
The Insolubility of Fluoride
I think the insolubility of calcium fluoride may have been a key driving factor of evolution and of larger halogens to detox it where iodine became the nutrient of choice because it was the largest of the halogens, could bind to and assist in moving around the most number of metals & is able to replace/detox all the other smaller halogens which besides fluoride became non-preferred.
Calcium Carbonate Acquisition
If you look at limestone made from ancient coral shells of sea critters or living modern sea critters you will see their shells are made of calcium carbonate where carbonate is a compound of carbon (atomic #4) and oxygen (atomic #16). It is interesting to note that carbonate can form carbonic acid (like bubble in a coke) which can be acidic & acid can dissolve or assist in rearranging bone/shell/coral just as the carbonic acid in a coke can dissolve your teeth. Additionally it is known that iodine which likes to form a di-atomic molecular form when not in water (such as in early sea critter membranes, now in milk & thyroid tissue in humans for instance) likes to react similar to oxygen in its chemical reactivity as oxygen also likes to form a di-atomic molecular compound & both oxygen gas & iodine gas diatomic forms are highly reactive. Oxygen is so reactive that much of chemistry talks about redox (reduction or oxidation reactions) where oxidation refers to the loss of electrons & reduction refers to the gain of electrons as oxygen (and iodine) like to “steal electrons”. There is no doubt that there are likely whole classes of “oxidation” actually “iodination” chemical reactions in biological tissues which have not even been discovered or studied yet. The reason is most chemistry in the body is limited to fluids such as urine are blood whereas measuring levels of suspended colloidal or molecularly crowded proteins inside of cellular tissues or membranes is much harder. Regardless, iodine is believed to be used in every cell of the human body which makes sense if iodine as I believe was an early calcium modulator to remove insoluble fluoride so that the early life could re-arrange calcium as needed without hindrance for signaling & protection.
THOUGHTS & QUESTIONS TO PONDER
How different are the cells inside our bones really from early life sea coral? Are our bones calcium carbonate repositories where the calcium is designed to be deposited & dissolved at will according to calcium level & other signals? Is the primary toxicity of fluoride halogen because it makes calcium get stuck as I suspect? Are there any reasons besides larger size that made evolution prefer iodine as a nutrient while shunning the smaller halogens as toxic? Why is chloride tolerated is it used as a cheap and abundant way to try to flush insoluble fluoride when life evolved away from the ocean where iodine salt form became less abundant and tissues came to rely on molecular iodine forms for oxidation like reactions in the tissues?
Biological Prehistory: Ocean Salt to Life
Iodine in salt form iodide occurs in abundance in the salts of the world’s oceans & ultimately most sources of iodine harvested to day come from ancient oceans such as the deep mining sources used by iMedDo. When heated the salt form can combine into a molecular gas form & resublimate (when gas cools directly to a solid) which may happen naturally from volcanic activity or thermal vents. At some point ocean critters developed membranes to separate the salt water & to perform chemical reactions on either side of or through the membranes and become more & more complex from prokaryotic to eukaryotic to multi-cellular as time progressed. Since earth is believed to be 4.5 billion years old & oldest fossils are 3.5 billion years old this was believed to have occurred quite a while ago during that time period roughly 4 billion years ago. Based on Sumerian religious cuneiform documents, it was believed life might be much older than that if it came from waters on the planet Mars (Marduke) which may have smacked into the proto-earth (Tiamat) which imparted the seed of life (DNA? Micro-organisms?) to our planet (Ki/Gaia). If that is the case then this evolution could have happened even before 4.5 billion years ago and it is true that evidence of ancient oceans have been found on Mars. So maybe one day soon we will find more clarity on this issue when Elon Musk & world governments succeed in going to Mars more often & sharing what they have learned especially if any fossils are found in ancient martian dried up oceans. Here on earth the evidence for ancient oceans are everywhere. Where I live in the mountains near the Lookout mountain range, there is limestone everywhere which was made from the calcium carbonate of sea organism shells when this area was underwater approximately 300 million years ago! Wow! Is there limestone on Mars I wonder? Until more Mars missions occur, then is all speculation, but iodine in salt water likely been here at least 4 billion years+ and has no doubt heavily influenced the course of evolution through being involved in ocean critter chemistry. The nervous system of a giant squid is remarkably similar to a human neuron nerve cell in that it uses the salts sodium (Na+) & potassium (K+) kept in disequilibrium separated by a membrane when can then be allowed to cross the membrane to stimulate an action potential to make the nerve fire. In a similar way iodide salt (I-) in the ocean was used by living organisms which somehow grew to also prefer the molecular form to be used in their tissues & membranes which likely evolved and was conserved as critters crawled out of the ocean onto land & eventually evolved in mammals, monkeys & humans in evolutionary theory. Calcium processing is no doubt very important to ancient ocean life for making coral, protective shells, & extends to modern humans even perhaps as our bones are like coral structures for our body to use on land.
Iodine in Human Prehistory & History: Bread
The use of iodine goes as far back in human history as does the making of bread & beer. Sumerian times or before no-one really knows at least 7-10 thousand years ago as evidence of ancient bread making goes back at least 8 thousand years in areas such as ancient Iraq. Although, Iodine was not known by that name, it was known that both salty bread (from ocean salts such as in dead sea area) & mother’s milk had certain nutrition properties related to wisdom & dreaming. I found a great 2 thousand year old Armenian tradition that if a woman had two suitors that she was supposed to eat salty bread which would stimulate her to have a dream & then whichever man brought her water was the correct one to marry! Wow talk about specific! Why would bread stimulate dreaming? Looking back it obvious to me that is because the bread contained iodide the salt form of iodine. The tradition of putting iodide form of iodine in bread goes all the way up to modern time & was even popular in America until about the 20’s when was replaced by poisonous versions brominated flour (contains bromide form of bromine halogen instead of iodine) & bleached flour (contains toxic chlorine halogen instead of iodine). Since then many health problems have resulted & we need to go back to iodinated not other toxic halogenated bread.
Iodine in Human Prehistory & History: Milk
Actually, the history of iodine goes all the way back to the beginning of human species & before. Iodine is concentrated in the fat of mother’s sacred breast milk which is the complete nourishment needed for a human baby. Although there are many healthy nutrients in breast milk, iodine is the one directly related to intelligence. There are many ancient Hindu-Egyptian-Greco-Roman depictions of the Snake of Wisdom drinking milk as milk is & was known to have all sort of benefits for wisdom & detoxifiction and even anti-snake venom properties and was and still should be considered sacred across time by many cultures & religions. In modern times, iodine as an independent chemical element with atomic #53 on the periodic table was not discovered until 1811 by a Frenchman who got a purple gas in his face when trying to make gun powder & was named after the greek word for the color “violet”. Note that although NeuIodine in liquid form looks amber not violet, if you put it on a carbohydrate such as a piece of paper or a potato it will turn purple with the exception of papers covered in flame retardant. Try it! In metaphysics iodine is always associated with the color purple, the 3rd Eye/Pineal & is known to stimulate dreaming which is now known scientifically to be caused by its ability to flush out calcium fluoride (decalcify & defluoridate) the pineal gland in the brain which when re-activated results in dreams. In ancient history there have no doubt been many religions & priests & priestesses who have used iodine either from salty bread or milk to stimulate dreaming & many such dream stellae in ancient egypt have been found in modern archeology. If you know anyone who had drank too much fluoride & can no longer dream, give them a drop of NeuIodine on their skin and they will dream that night! Try it! Why does this work? As discussed calcium fluoride is insoluble. This fact and it’s ability to get stuck in and deactivate bone & calcium signaling in tissue & iodine’s ability to unstick the calcium & restore function is one of the great “miracles” of iodine chemistry.
Thank you very much for reading & contact me if you have any questions.
Dr. Ben DSM Founder & Chemist of iMedDo.com
Disclaimers: Views & Opinions of Dr. Ben DSM & in this newsletter do not necessarily represent the views & opinions of iMedDo. iMedDo products are sold as health supplements for health support subject to the FDA disclaimers: Products Not Evaluated by FDA & not intended to diagnose, cure, prevent or treat disease. Read & Understand the Health Supplement Mindset at iMedDo.com Guide.