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 Summary: For those persons needing to track their levels of iodine, and the ability of their thyroid to utilize it. This state-of-the-art profile combines an advanced thyroid panel with the long-awaited Urine Iodine Test. Tests in this profile include urine: Iodine, Creatinine; and blood spot: Total T4, Thyroglobulin, TSH, fT3, fT4, TPO
Iodine, Creatinine (from dried urine)
Thyroid: (dried blood spot: TSH, fT3, fT4, TPO, Total T4, Thyroglobulin)
Price: $229.00
Also known by ZRT LAB Product Name: Comprehensive Iodine Thyroid Test in Dried Urine and Blood Spot
  
Iodine plays many different roles in optimizing health and preventing disease. As a result, it is essential that proper iodine intake is maintained and problems associated with either inadequate or excessive iodine levels are identified. Deficiency in particular has become a global health problem. Accurate diagnosis may often be overlooked because the symptoms overlap with those of other illnesses, perhaps masking the problem.
Testing Iodine levels and treatment for both excessive or deficiency is emerging area of science that holds potential for improving your health and longevity.
Testing Iodine
Testing iodine, along with the blood spot tests in this profile, allows the tester to appreciate fully the impact of iodine on thyroid health and this is why:
There will always be limitations to detecting iodine over 24 hr or multiple single point tests (as provided by ZRT) because iodine levels can change somewhat from day to day depending on diet. Overall, if diet remains about the same, levels shouldn’t fluctuate too much. With this caveat, ZRT went one step beyond iodine and developed dried blood spot tests that look at how well iodine is incorporated into the thyroid gland and how it is utilized for thyroid hormone synthesis. ZRT developed thyroid tests in dried blood spot that measure the following analytes associated with iodine: thyroglobulin, total T4, free T4, free T3, TSH, and TPO. Each of these analytes are uniquely associated with iodine.
Thyroglobulin is well recognized as a marker of iodine nutritional status over the past weeks. When iodine levels are low thyroglobulin is poorly iodinated and it spills out of the thyroid follicular lumen into the bloodstream. High levels indicate low iodine status. Iodine supplementation to sufficiency usually returns thyroglobulin to normal levels of less than 10 ng/ml in blood.
When iodine levels are very low, or very high from excessive supplementation (e.g. Iodoral in excess), thyroid hormone synthesis is inhibited and the amount of Total T4 released from the thyroid gland into the bloodstream decreases. Low T4 signals the brain to make more TSH to activate the thyroid gland to make more thyroid hormones, therefore an elevated TSH can be due to iodine levels too low or too high.
Free T4 and free T3 are not as directly related to iodine status, but provide some information about the bioavailable levels of these hormones to systemic tissues throughout the body.
TPO antibodies are important because those individuals positive (Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis) for this condition have a compromised thyroid gland that may react adversely to iodine supplementation, causing a person to go from mild subclinical hypothyroid state to one of clinical hypothyroidism that requires thyroid medication.
The lab will mail your results to you within 7-10 business days after kit is returned with the samples. Once you have your results, read our Interpreting Results article and consider consulting with a practitioner for next steps. Knowledge is the key to wellness. Find out what you need to know and start your path towards recovery today.
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