Perchlorate is an environmental pollutant primarily associated with releases by defense contractors, military operations and aerospace programs, as it is a key ingredient in rocket fuel. It is now found in virtually all humans tested, and it is continually making its way up the food chain through ground and drinking water, into feed and edible plants, animals products, milk and breast milk - contaminating conventional and organically grown food, alike.
What does it do? Perchlorate has been used as a "medicine" in this country to "treat" hyperthyroidism since the 1950's despite the fact some patients may develop aplastic anemia (bone marrow destruction) as a result. Perchlorate interferes with iodide uptake at the sodium-iodide symporter in the thyroid gland which unfortunately has a 30-fold higher affinity for perchlorate than iodide. Without adequate iodide hypothyroidism ensues. Could this pollutant have anything to do with the geometric expansion of hypothyroidism diagnoses in this country?
If it were not for the perfect fit between pharmaceutical medicine, e.g. Synthroid (levothyroxine) and pollution-caused hypothyroidism, this question might get some traction in the medical community and we could start solving the underlying problem: a military-industrial establishment and medical-industrial establishment that thrive on death and disease.
