![]() ![]() ![]() Much of the Western world followed suit, adding fluoride to their water supplies as well. This step was taken even though the studies that were performed at the time appear to have been suboptimal and poorly designed. In the 1950s, the United States government along with the American Dental Association persuaded Americans that adding fluoride to tap water would improve the health of people’s teeth. Back then, a small amount of iodine - about 74 mcg - was enough to prevent and even treat goiter for the vast majority of the population.īut things changed as the 20th century progressed. The early 20th century was a very different time. When I look back at those days, I can see that while my professors may have understood the history of iodine, they knew next to nothing about what was going on in the present day. Professors claimed that iodine deficiency simply did not exist in our modern times. We also were told that iodization of salt had cured the goiter epidemic of the early 1900s, and that it was one of the greatest public health achievements in history. In medical school, I was taught that iodine deficiency was responsible for the goiter epidemic that affected the United States at the turn of the 20th century. The term goiter refers to an abnormal swelling of the thyroid gland, which sits in the lower part of the neck.
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