For anyone out there wondering to what extent the pesticide methyl bromide builds up in our bodies, I offer my recent bromide-detox experience after I switched to organic chocolate.
Read more: Get thee behind me, methyl bromideIodine experiment strangely unproductive
Seven months into my iodine experiment, I still couldn’t seem to lower the dose below 100 mg a day without losing its benefits — mostly increased energy and concentration — which was getting a little tedious and expensive. In theory you shouldn’t need more than 15 mgs or so of it once you’ve corrected a deficiency. I found a few people on various forums who were experiencing the same thing and who suspected that it was because they hadn’t removed all the bromide sources from their diets. The only source I had left was chocolate, so I switched to a brand of chocolate that isn’t sprayed with methyl bromide.
Bromides: iodine antagonists that are everywhere
About bromides: they are chemicals used in baked goods, citrus drinks, fire retardants in mattresses, carpets, etc., and pesticides such as methyl bromide, which is used extensively on chocolate, among other crops. (The theobromine in chocolate is not a bromide.) In the 1970s, the US and other countries banned a type of sedative medication called bromides due to their potential to cause brain toxicity. For similar reasons, and because of its ozone-depleting properties, the pesticide is also being phased out around the world.
Bromides also displace iodine in the body (as do chlorine and fluoride). When you take iodine, it in turn displaces the bromine and you feel lousy for a few days or weeks or months as it exits your body. It is thought that the symptoms associated with iodine toxicity are in fact these bromide detox symptoms.
When I started my iodine experiment I had already quit most bromide-containing foods and I figured that pesticide-sprayed chocolate wasn’t a significant enough source to bother with. It is possible that denial was also a factor in my attitude. As for environmental bromide sources, avoiding them is pretty hard. The “organic” mattresses I priced a few years ago, made without chemical fire retardants, started at $3,500.
Effects of my switch to organic chocolate
The Sunspire organic chocolate I chose as a replacement has almost the same ingredients as my usual crank, minus some milk fat and whatever secret mind-control ingredient Nestle uses. After two days I started experiencing a mild version of the effects most people get when they start iodine, namely acne, constant headaches, a metallic taste, and a sore throat, plus a weird stomach stretching sensation that made me feel like a horse that got into something bad. I started drinking salt water a few times a day, which binds with the bromide and flushes it out faster. The symptoms were not as pronounced as they were when I first started iodine, but so far they have lasted three times longer.
Even more interesting is that on the second day of organic-only, my cravings were noticeably less. Other factors might be involved: I recently started shooting thiamine (vitamin B1), which is related to carb metabolism (more on that in a later post), and I also stepped up my protein intake a few weeks ago, which some say is linked to sugar cravings. But still, the timing was pretty suspicious.
About the publishing dates
This post was originally published on January 31, 2012, and updated in August 2023.
What about lemon sprayed with methyl bomide. It saying it’s main in the peel but I grate the whole lemon. How bad it that for me. I soak them in vinegar water at least 2 hours then wash good before putting then in freezer.
I wondered that myself, because I can’t find organic lemons around here, but when I couldn’t find any definite info. One source says you can remove 98% of pesticide residues from strawberries by washing, but other articles say produce treated with methyl bromide should be avoided completely if possible. Your cleaning method sounds very thorough, though.
“acne, constant headaches, a metallic taste, and a sore throat, plus a weird stomach stretching sensation that made me feel like a horse that got into something bad”
That is exactly me whenever I take higher doses of iodine! For the past year supplementing with high doses I have always felt super bloated.
If you haven’t seen it already, my iodine diary page goes over the various remedies I tried for those issues. Good luck!
Most of the Fracked wells use Bromine, or some use Chlorine based “Bio-cides”.
One such is DBAN or Di-Bromo-Aceto-Nitrile (the old fashioned name, 50 years ago, was Di-Bromo-Methyl Cyanide!!!). Nice stuff: it does not smell and is not toxic when breathed in. But later the body will metabolise this via the CYP 2E1 pathway to Cyanide, within the body, leaving the Bromine behind in the body. So you will be poisoned with the Cyanide, but nothing much will be detectable in the blood.
The “waste gas” and the toxic well “Flow-Back” done to clean out the well are typically burned in Flares, or Shielded “Ground Flares”, which are often called “Incinerators” but do not burn at a high enough temperature or residence time to actually incinerate the waste gases properly
So every Fracked well is spewing out fine particulates which do not smell. There is no visible smoke, usually, either, so no-one knows they are being slowly poisoned. The fine particulates, are typically in the nano-metre range, so will travel anywhere in the body and lodge there. It will takes years of detox to clean these adsorbed Bromine compounds out of the person’s body.
This may be a hidden source of unknown and unseen Bromine contamination. The plumes travel for miles or thousands of miles. Welcome to America the Free! Any Oil Co is free to spew anything into the air and put their profits in the Bank, thanks to the “Cheney” agreement.
Best of luck with getting ride of your Bromines.
Holy cow. Thank you. I’m going to look up the fracking wells map for my state.
I have gastroparesis that I believe was caused by anorexia (not anorexia nervosa) caused by years of Dew toxicity. Am gratefully getting “clean,” but it can happen!
Holy cow, I had no idea. Lack of appetite has always been a problem for me. Hope you see progress fast!
Marjorie, thanks to some helpful medical research papers and blog posts, especially this one, I am eating normally after 5.5 years and no longer in constant pain…and many mental health symptoms have resolved as well. I will not be needing a feeding tube, and I will not be dying before 60 because I starved to death! Thank you for helping me get my life back!!! I have given up soda in general and am telling everyone I know in youth mental health (my former, and maybe future, profession) about screening for Dew toxicity (the drink is insanely popular w kids here).
That is great to hear! Weird timing — just last night a friend mentioned “Dew toxicity.” He described how after he was diagnosed with diabetes, he quit Mountain Dew and lost 20 pounds in a month.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I have known that fluoride and chlorine have been a problem for me and my mother for years. It was only recently that I realized that bromine has the same bad effects on the body. I will have to take a look at the chocolate that we have been consuming.
I am just a person trying to get healthy. As a Mountain Dew addict, I believe I am suffering the effects from bromide ingested that way. Looking for ways to detox. This article was informative. Thank you.
PS: Already gave up the Dew… don’t want to give up the chocolate!
I have chocolate craving too. I recently switched to organic “equal exchange” brand 72 % dark chocolate and have gained a lot of weight as well as other symptoms which I think may be toxicity symptoms. My thyroid temp has gone down 1 degree. Do you think its possible that this organic chocolate has been sprayed? Or could it possibly be lead contamination?http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1281277/
thanks for your thoughts
I’m afraid I don’t know much about toxicity issues. If the chocolate supply has been contaminated with lead, I’m doomed. Apparently bromide detox can make your thyroid wonky for a while. Breast Cancer Choices has a page on bromide detox symptoms here, although they’re referring to bromide detox caused by iodine repletion in this case.
you might consider a lead test sometime, after a year of chocolate (organic) mine tested high.
I “switched” but meant switched brands, my chocolate has always been organic. Symptoms of weight gain happened after brand switch, so I suspect increased lead/thyroid connection.
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/09/28/why-lead-poisoning-may-be-causing-your-health-problems/
Ah, I misunderstood. Yes, I will do that. I’ll talk to my doctor when I see her next week. Thanks for the info!
Please address inhalers that have bromide in their content.
I’m afraid I don’t know much about inhalers and bromide. Breast Cancer Choices and many other websites list “some asthma inhalers” as a bromide source that depletes iodine in the population. Breast Cancer Choices advises patients to ask pharmacist for a non-bromide inhaler. I tried an internet search first but had no luck, although I did find a lot of studies comparing the effectiveness of inhalers with and without ipratropium bromide. I called the local CVS pharmacy and was told that only two prescription inhalers contain bromide, Combivent and Atrovent.
(Nutritional Lifestyle Pharmacist who despises medications here) In response to the query, Combivent (ipratropium/albuterol), Atrovent (ipratropium) and inhaled products Spiriva (capsules) and DuoNeb (solution) are products with bromine. For a complete list of meds with bromine (and equally nasty fluoride), see http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1109781#i
Great post – thanks for raising awareness!
Thanks for the info!
Another perk to organic chocolate is that it is not made by child slave labor like its non-organic counter parts. CNN had several articles on this matter.
I did not realize that. Here’s a link to the Chocolate’s Child Slaves report. It is one of a series called The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery.
Hi. I’m not sure I understand how to interpret your experience. Why would bromide detox symptoms occur after you switch to organic chocolate? The most direct hypothesis would be that the organic chocolate contains more bromides than the regular chocolate. But are you thinking that the regular chocolate had bromides which you are now detoxing? If you have been taking iodine all along, you would think that you would be detoxing the incoming bromides all along as well. Is there a mechanism whereby reducing your incoming bromide load leads to increased bromide detox symptoms?
I’m currently slowing increasing iodine and having a ton of the symptoms you describe, and I also tend to eat a lot of chocolate, which is why I am interested.
I guess I neglected to state explicitly that organic chocolate is not sprayed with methyl bromide. Regular chocolate usually is.
I believe the answer has to do with the relative amount of incoming bromide to incoming iodine. They compete for iodine receptor sites, which are often already occupied by usurper bromide molecules (which cause bromide poisoning/iodine deficiency symptoms). The less competition there is from incoming bromide for those receptor sites, the more sites iodine will be able to grab and evict the usurper bromide from, to be detoxed by the liver and adrenals. The more bromide gets displaced, the greater the detox.
Relatively speaking, then, taking a moderate dose of iodine and keeping your bromide intake the same is not as effective as taking a moderate dose and stopping all bromide intake. And that in turn is less effective than taking a whopping dose and stopping all bromide intake.
The question is, when all the incoming bromide that DOESN’T win a receptor site gets ushered out of your body, does that cause detox? I don’t know. The moderators at the Yahoo Iodine Group might be able to answer.
Great post. I’m new to this iodine/bromide thing and have just started supplementing as recommend by the Iodine Yahoo group. Very interested to hear about the new mattress. My mattress is fairly new, so I’m going to have a look at it right now.
Best wishes
If you find a cheaper one, please let me know! I heard of one person who just bought a bunch of wool futons and stacked them. (Wool is naturally fire retardant.) I’m not sure I could do that.
Holy cow. I had no idea chocolate was so toxic. Thanks for the heads up.
That will teach me to feel all superior when I make my kids’ cookies with dark – but not organic – chocolate chips.
I think dark chocolate is still more sophisticated.