Iodine & AfIB

I found this interesting. Am currently at 15 drops of 2% Lugol's iodine.


Cardiovascular System (from Recent Advances in Iodine Nutrition, Michael Donaldson, PhD, on ResearchGate.net)

Iodine is critical to the heart and arterial system. Iodine (as well as omega 3 fats) is
critical to the stabilization of the electrical pulses of the heart. Lack of iodine is related to
atrial fibrillation. An iodine-containing drug called amiodarone is used to prevent atrial
and ventrical fibrillation and releases about 9 mg of iodine per day. It is a complex,
toxic drug and is stored in the fatty tissues of the body, but part of its mechanism of
action appears to be the iodine that is being released slowly by the drug.

Bruce West is a chiropractic doctor who has found iodine to be very helpful in helping
patients with arrhythmia problems. He says, “The body needs adequate stores of iodine
for the heart to beat smoothly. After close to a year now of using Iodine Fulfillment
Therapy, I can attest to this fact. Most of the stubborn cases of cardiac arrhythmias and
atrial fibrillation that we were unable to completely correct with our cardiac protocols
have now been resolved with adequate supplies of iodine added to the protocol.”
(West B. Atrial fibrillation, arrhythmias and iodine. Health Alert. 2006;23(6).)

Another article is here: [drsircus.com]

I've taken around 50 mg (20 drops)/day of iodine as Lugol's solution (60% iodide, 40% iodine) for a number of years.

There are notes I put together uploaded to this post from 2023: [www.afibbers.org] There is a broken link to Dr. Guy Abraham's papers. Here is one that works, through the Internet Archive: [web.archive.org]

When I consulted with a person that runs an iodine FB group (and is a retired nurse who had been doing an iodine protocol for 10 ish years), he told me a fair number of people who consulted with him had afib and it did help mitigate their episodes. I can't say it has made a difference one way or the other for my afib case. The most potent afib rhythm med is amiodarone, which has an organic (chemically organic in this case) iodine molecule as its basis. As most know, it also has potential side effects from long duration use. My logic was that Lugol's, which does not have those issues, might have the same benefit.

One thing is that iodine is a halide in the periodic chart. It will displace other halides. The big one is bromine/bromide, which is now ubiquitous in our environment. Getting it out of your system is good, but needs to be done slowly. There is a salt loading protocol, developed by a US military doc in WWI for dealing with bromine gas poisoning. It should be done for two weeks prior to consuming high iiodine doses. In my uploaded document, there is a list of suggested companion nutrients that sholud be taken with the iodine.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2026 07:15PM by GeorgeN.

Very interesting George.
I will take alook at all of it.
Thanks

I took Amiodarone early on after first having Afib. Over twenty years ago. But had to stop the drug because it was putting deposits on the lenses of my eyes. I’m now subclinical hyperthyroid and get horrible hives when I get injected with iodine contrast. I think the Amiodarone is implicated. Hard to know which came first. The drug or the over active thyroid. But I am supposed to minimize iodine in my diet. My Afib is under control with Flecainide. Ten minutes afib today. Last episode October 2025. Now I’m wondering if should be having some iodine.

I started taking a 6.25 mg Iodoral tablet (iodine and iodide) 6 months ago when I realized I used sea salt wtih no additional iodine. (Hain DOES sell a sea salt with extra iodine, I've since learned). After around 2 weeks on it, I noticed a minor but constant drippy nose. I came across some info that this can be a side effect of iodine supplementation and signifies too much iodine. On stopping the tablet, the drippy nose symptom stopped. Oddly enough, a friend of mine who'd been on small amounts of Iodoral for years said she'd had a constant watery nose for as long as she could remember. When she stopped the iodine, the nasal symptoms stopped. (Maybe it's a side effect of the iodide, and not the iodine). I should research this further but my 'plate' is a bit full right now.

Tom and George, thanks for your posts. Human biochemistry is a marvel. Always good to learn more about it...

Update on the nasal drippiness I spoke of: I googled whether this might be a symptom of bromide detox and got a Yes from Gogle A I.
I plan to get back on iodine.

I’m allergic to iodine and flatly refused amio multiple times. Unfortunately when I get CTs I need prednisone if they use Iodine contrast which for me causes arrhythmias if I get one big dose. If prednisone is required for you since you have an iodine sensitivity, may I suggest asking to breaking up the steroids so instead of an IV push, you take oral prednisone 13 hours, 7 hours and one hour before your CT?