iodine deficiency

[lietchi]

I've been gaining weight for the past 15 months.Currently I weigh 160lbs,up from 138.I'm female,5ft5,23 years old.At first I thought it was because I was using birth control and because of simply eating too much.But I stopped taking birth control &watching what I ate,and I simply couldn't lose weight (this never happened to me before).Each week I would gain weight (or stay stable at best, which was rare).I will add that I know a lot about healthy eating,but even at 1600kcal a day I would gain weight.
Somehow I got the idea that kelp might be a solution.I'm wondering if I have iodine deficiency.I know this is supposedly uncommon in industrialised countries,but I have found several governmental sources that say that iodine deficiency is prevalent in my country,Belgium.Also,I rarely eat fish,bread,milk products or eggs.I eat a lot of veggies though,but it's probably not rich in iodine.
Also,I have been diagnosed with a slightly swollen thyroid,no nodules,normal blood test though for TSH.(not sure how strict the values are here for thyroid though) The doc didn't seem concerned,but now I am linking this to my weight gain (the exam was for another reason)
Also,I went on holiday last summer:I ate a lot but came back NOT having gained weight.I just realised:I ate a lot of sea food there,at least every other day. No weight gain because of the iodine?
Is iodine deficiency a likely suspect?Would it be safe to try kelp for a while?I would be taking 225 micrograms a day.

Side question: how long can the thyroid store iodine?Should the 225micrograms be divided over the whole day?

[Mark Lupo, M.D.]

A once a day iodine supplement should be fine - the thyroid will store I- for weeks.  It's possible you are insufficient in I- -- urinary iodine test could be done to document -- The normal TSH suggests against significant thyroid dysfunction as a cause of the weight gain, etc but I do not see where an I- supplement would hurt provided that you do not develop an overactive thyroid -- and based on your description this seems unlikely.

[lietchi]

Not enough room to write everything... I also have cold hands and feet often, and am often sleepy, even when sleeping 8-9 hours at night.

[HashiMan]

Below these threads you asked about the strange electric type symptom. I mentioned reading a lot about electric zaps they also call brain zaps, in people taking antidepressants.  I know yours may have nothing to do with antidepressant but for others on here maybe having this same symptom I wanted to add this.
I put in a search on Google.com, and you can get to the page I found by typing; Paxil Zaps Medhelp, in the search bar and clicking on the second page down thats listed.
A question to Medhelp forum Dr. ReneeX, from someone having this symptom while on an SSRI antidepressant, had her replying by saying she had heard of this many times and felt it was a true side effect of SSRI antidepressants and she said she didn't know of a way to prevent them other than weaning off the drug very slowly, once a person is ready to do so.
I thought it was good to see an actual Medhelp Q & A on this, which came from their Mental Health forum on 10/19/04, strong confirms it really does happen to people on these SSRIs but not supposed to be harmful or dangerous.