IODINE AND GOITRE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 443, 19 December 1947, Page 29

IODINE AND GOITRE

(Written for "The Listener’ by DR.

MURIEL

BELL

Nutritionist to the Health Department )

element necessary for the . prevention of goitre conto come to hand from variPus quarters. Recent support for this relationship comes from witzerland, U.S.A., and the Netherands. If there is too little iodine, the thyroid gland in the neck becomes enarged. Supposing that this occurs dur‘ing the development of the offspring ‘before it is born, the gland is enlarged ‘at birth. This is known to take place in Yambs on some farms in New Zealand, d sometimes the gland is so large that it presses on the windpipe, causing eath of the lambs after birth. If. the wes are given pellets containing iodide, e farmer dbdes not have a wholesale ss of lambs in. this way. that iodine is an As to the human offspring, congenital miargement of the thyroid similarly mds to occur if the mother has not ad sufficient iodide. In Switzerland, Zodized salt has been increasingly used Bince 1922, and now 68 per cent. of ‘the salt consumed in all the cantons is odized. Prior to 1922, the incidence of mgenital goitre was one in seven; now t is 1 in 500, If goitre occurs in several successive enerations, the mother may have so dittle thyroid secretion to pass on to the infant that its gland fails to develop, and etinism results. This occurred in the pet in Switzerland, with the result that ‘cretinism was rife; moreover, 80 per tent. of the cases of deaf-mutism were

associated with goitre and cretinism. In | Switzerland, cretinism has shown a marked decline, and similarly deafmutism is much less common. The figures for deaf-mutism ranged from 12 to 17 per 10,000 in 1915-1922, and fell in 1925 to 4.3 per 10,000. The decrease has been so great that it has been possible to close some of the deaf-mute institutions. In U.S.A., propaganda for the use of iodized salt was active from 1923 to 1936, and the incidence of goitre was markedly reduced; but laxity in the matter of publicity has occurred since 1936, and according to one authority, the consumption of iodized" salt has dropped with the result that there is a serious increase in the amount of goitre recorded. In the Netherlands, shortages of iodide occurred during the war, and iodide prophylaxis became irregular. The leading doctor of the Netherlands Goitre Commission found that the percentage of goitres in school-children ran parallel to the lack of iodide prophylaxis. For instance, in 1931 before any iodide administration, 40 per cent. of schoolchildren examined in Culemborg had goitres; in 1939, after four-and-a-half years of iodide supplementation, the figure was reduced to nil for the three-year-olds and to 14 per cent. for the children up to 12 years of age. In 1945, when there had been no iodide to give them for over a year, the figures again rose to 41 per cent. for the children up to 12 years of age. The price of freedom-from goitreis eternal vigilance. —