Iodine in pregnancy thought to affect children’s IQ

Posted 21/05/2013

Mild iodine deficiency in pregnant mothers is now thought to result in reduced IQ in their children. It has long been known that iodine was important in the development of an unborn child but the effect of mild deficiency had not been researched. In the UK, iodine deficiency has not been thought to be a significant problem but the latest research shows that even a mild lack of iodine can have a lasting affect on your child. Good sources of iodine are fish and dairy products, but warnings are at the same time being given about the dangers of taking seaweed or kelp supplements as these may well result in an overdose.Trefine Maynard, a clinical negligence specialist at Ashtons Legal, says: “More and more research is being done into how what we eat affects us or, in the current context, any unborn child. There is a slow but growing realisation that nutrition as a branch of health sciences may be fundamental to all sorts of health problems both in relation to prevention and treatment. Interestingly, today research has been published suggesting that vitamin C may be an effective treatment in patients with drug resistant TB. The old adage that we are what we eat is proving more apt than ever. The human body is an organic construction dependant on food and perhaps unsurprisingly affected by what food it is given. There have been calls for nutritionists to be much more closely involved in the treatment of patients with a whole variety of conditions and more and more advice about what we should and should not eat appears every day.I hope that with further investment in this field, knowledge, and subsequent advice to the public, will become more and more sophisticated. At present the danger is that what we are told one week we should not eat, the following week we are told it is essential that we eat lots of it.  Research is likely to be able to refine advice and explain why the food we eat is so crucial to our well being”.