• Iodine is an essential trace mineral for your body. You can not survive without iodine.
• It is used by your thyroid gland to make thyroid hormone, without which you would die.
• Used by your white blood cells to kill invading pathogens (germs) by a process termed the "phagocytic burst", in which iodine plays an essential role.
• Iodine has been added to table salt to give us iodized salt. This was begun years ago to prevent a disease condition known as goiter, where the thyroid gland swells due to insufficient iodine.
• Iodine is also an effective antiseptic. It is used to treat the skin prior to surgery to sterilize the skin. Now, if iodine were as toxic as some sites claim, we'd have millions of people dropping dead with swollen throats every time they used their salt shaker.
• Severe anaphylactic reaction to iodine occurs ONLY with iodine that is complexed (attached to) a protein, and MUST BE TAKEN INTERNALLY. This occurs in the iodine found in shellfish, or in IV contrast material used by the radiologist for special X-rays. These are the types of situations where iodine allergy can be serious. It involves the production of circulating antibodies to the iodine-protein comples which cause the severe reaction.
• This kind of severe iodine reaction DOES NOT OCCUR WITH TOPICAL IODINE.
• Even if a small amount of iodine were absorbed into the blood from application onto the skin, your body would simply utilize the iodine in one of many normal physiologic processes. This is not the case for metals such as lead, mercury, and cadmium which have no known physiologic role in the human body and can result in heavy metal toxicity.
• Topical iodine has been used for hundreds of years as a local antiseptic without serious problems. It's what 'Grandma' used to put on cuts and scrapes to prevent infection.

 

True iodine allergy in children is very rare. A computer search of the U.S. National Library of Medicine files of over 13,000,000 (thirteen MILLION) scientific and medical studies published since 1960 reveals NOT ONE SINGLE SERIOUS REACTION TO TOPICAL IODINE IN A CHILD!!!!! That's right; not a single one. Iodine has been used safely for over 150 YEARS as a topical antiseptic for wounds, cuts, scrapes, etc. in over 500,000,000 children throughout the world. The only adverse effects can be development of some itching and redness in those that become sensitized to iodine with repeated use. This is uncommon in children. ORAL intake of iodine as a complex bound to proteins or complex organic molecules as in shellfish, can result in severe reactions, but this also is very rare in children.

The warning about allergies is a cautionary one. In post-marketing surveillance of over 10,000 customers the only adverse reactions have been some skin irritation with an incidence of about 1 per 2000 - 3000. In other words, you have about 1 chance in 2000 - 3000 of having a reaction to ZymaDerm that may include some redness and itching. NOTHING more serious has occurred with ZymaDerm use.

The FDA allows a maximum concentration of 10% iodine for over-the-counter topical use, for example, Betadine. ZymaDerm contains hundreds of times less iodine that this safe, common, over-the-counter, FDA approved topical antispetic.