you have never heard of iodine deficiency, then I need to tell you that by the statistics and according to the research of Dr David Brownstein: http://www.drbrownstein.com/ - and others, he references them, at least 30% of the population is either deficient or halo-toxic (with halides like fluoride, bromine, and others, in excess bound up in enzymatic processes and tissues) - it is only possible to determine whether you are just not taking in enough by taking some and then testing urine excretion levels of the various halides.

Of course it is probably difficult/expensive/impossible for most people to find a doctor who will do this testing and prescribe this supplement, so, though I don't recommend it - if you take iodine in a greater amount than will cause the release of toxic halides into your bloodstream - when I first started, for a few days it made me feel very sleepy and nervous, and then I dropped the dose right back, and put double the amount of salt I normally would have, of natural, unrefined sea salt (any unrefined salt has a lot of other important minerals that help), which speeds up the kidneys, causing them to eliminate the released toxic halides more efficiently.

Halide chemistry is a subject that I have some background in before I learned about its biological functions, and I knew already that halides aggressively compete with each other to bind to free binding sites, if a fluoride is stuck on something, if it is sufficiently weakly bound (such as a salt or bound to an alcohol group), the halide will push the other one off, and then it will go around in a circle.

Basically, if you have toxic halides in your body, by increasing your intake of iodine, and indeed chloride (from salt) you will decrease the concentration of the toxic halides as they go into the blood, and the kidneys will increase the rate of elimination of salts in response. This is why one of the primary treatments for acute halide toxicity is saline drip.

So, without any further ado, here is how I made up a big batch.

First, the materials.

I have a 2.5L amber glass bottle, which was actually a recycled bottle of diethyl ether, and as such it has no graduations or markings. So I have a 1L plastic beaker, and a 100ml measuring cylinder (the latter for preparing a small dropper bottle), a dropper bottle, a small funnel for filling the dropper, 2x 100g of Potassium Iodide, and 100g of elemental Iodine.

First I got a relatively precise measurement of where 2L fills the big bottle up to, by using the beaker with some tap water. You can probably see that the tap water is a pretty nasty looking mix, at this time of year in Sofia, it has a yellow colour and is quite turbid, for which reason I bought a water filter. But for this I am going to use distilled water, this is just for measurement purposes.

Here we have the aforementioned distilled water. First I start by measuring out about a litre. It isn't important exactly how much, because we will just add more at the end to fill to the correct volume.

Next, I dumped all the potassium iodide, 2x 100g jars, into the distilled water, and stirred it up until it all dissolved. Potassium iodide is more soluble than sodium chloride, so it mixes clear pretty quickly.

Next, we add the iodine. Elemental Iodine comes usually either in crystals or in beads like this. You can actually make these beads similarly by taking crystals of elemental iodine, and sitting in warmed water (about 40-50 degrees) and slowly the crystals will dissolve a little but then form little round blobs as they dance around from the convection. Iodine is only sparingly soluble in water, and indeed you can make any solid substance do this with the appropriate low-solubility solvent.

Here you can faintly see the tiny little bit of elemental iodine that has not quite yet dissolved. Elemental iodine doesn't really dissolve in water, but in the correct ratio (roughly 1:2 by weight) with Potassium Iodide, it dissolves, and forms this dark red/pinkish solution, which is said to be Potassium Triiodide. Basically two potassium iodide molecules allows the elemental iodine to stay in association with it, thus making it soluble.

Next, for the purpose of making the 100ml dropper bottle, I measure out about 100ml. I know, I can see it is probably about 0.5ml over. It's not that important that it's super precise but following a formula means you can rely on dose rates. This stuff is measured by the drop, doses are between 1 and 5 drops depending. Each drop contains about 15 or 20mg, there is 20 drops per ml, and 2000ml in this solution, with 200g of KI and 100g of I₂, so each ml has 0.2g KI and 0.1g I₂, or 0.04g KI and 0.02g I2, in other words about 40-50mg per drop, of available Iodine.

A shot to show the colour of the liquid, it's a very pretty dark red colour sorta like wine.

Next, using the little funnel, I fill up the smaller bottle that I will be using to store it for dosing:

The obligatory shot of the pretty red liquid and its yellow/brown tint that it will stain everything with (So be careful where you prepare this). You can remove it with strong solutions of sodium carbonate (washing soda), some types of plastics are very prone to soaking this up permanently, old styles of laminated coatings common on older kitchens and the like.

Finally, here is the money shot, this is the liquid, and the device you will use to dispense doses. I will be starting with just taking one drop a day in some orange juice, and taking it at the same time as I eat a decent sized meal that has been liberally salted.

On an unrelated note, related in so far as being chemicals and health related, I also picked up these sacks of magnesium sulphate. I will be putting about a cup of this into my baths every day and making myself sit in it for half an hour before rinsing/washing:

If you are interested in learning more about iodine supplementation, I highly recommend Dr Brownstein ( http://www.drbrownstein.com/ ) as a good starting point. Iodine deficiency is very likely responsible in a large part for weight problems and psychiatric disorder, and even cancer. Be careful out there, don't just throw any old thing in your belly without knowing very well what it is!