Iodine Deficiency: The Forgotten Public Health Crisis

All throughout human history and up until approximately 100 years ago, iodine deficiency, goiters (enlarged thyroid glands), hypothyroidism, and death from thyroid failure was a common public health problem. Ask your great grandmother (if you could) about goiters and she would likely have been able to share many horror stories about people who were disfigured by goiters and who died of thyroid failure. This public health problem essentially disappeared when, in the U.S., the FDA asked s...