Iodine excess in Korean children - 75% of 6 year olds

[wendy]

This is quickly becoming a pattern world-wide.

Lee YJ, Cho SW, Lim YH, Kim BN, Kim JI, Hong YC, Park YJ, Shin CH, Lee YA - "Relationship of iodine excess with thyroid function in 6-year-old children living in an iodine-replete area" Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 14:1099824 (2023). doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1099824
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9968830/
"Excess iodine was prevalent (73.8%) in 6-year-old Korean children. Excess iodine was associated with a decrease in FT4 or T3 levels and an increase in TSH levels."

Kang MJ, Hwang IT, Chung HR - Excessive Iodine Intake and Subclinical Hypothyroidism in Children and Adolescents Aged 6-19 Years: Results of the Sixth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2013-2015" Thyroid 28(6):773-779 (2018). doi: 10.1089/thy.2017.0507
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/thy.2017.0507
"The median UIC was 449 μg/L (range 15-21,905 μg/L), and the prevalence rates of UIC ≥300 μg/L and ≥1000 μg/L were 64.9% and 25.0%, respectively...The prevalence of SCH was significantly higher in the iodine deficient and iodine excess groups compared to those in the UIC 100-299.9 μg/L group (p = 0.038). Therefore, there was a U-shaped and inverted U-shaped correlation between serum levels of TSH and fT4 with UIC, respectively...

Conclusions: Excess iodine was prevalent in Korean children and adolescents, and it may be associated with SCH. Therefore, monitoring the iodine status and education on adequate intake are needed in iodine-rich areas."