Iodine deficiency

There is an iodine deficiency worldwide the most important cause of brain damage that can be prevented. People living in areas with severe iodine deficiency may have an IQ up to 13.5 points lower than in areas without iodine deficiency. This mental deficit has an immediate effect on children's ability to learn, women's health, the quality of life of the community, economic productivity and animal production (even livestock are iodine deficient).

Until the 1990s, it was used as the primary indicator of the occurrence of iodine deficiency in the population prevalence of current – it usually occurred in mountainous areas and in areas far from the coast. Possibility of testing urinary iodine excretion and other methods, however, have shown in later years that insufficient iodine intake is very extensive and occurs not only in areas where goiter is endemic but also in industrialized countries.

Since 1991, when the World Assembly adopted the goal of eliminating iodine deficiency in the world and the WHO and UNICEF in 1993, they have recommended universal salt iodination (ie for both humans and livestock) as the main strategy for eliminating them The number of countries where iodine deficiency is a problem has decreased, but still 2 billion people in 47 countries suffer from iodine deficiency in the world, most often in Europe (52% of the population) and in the eastern Mediterranean (47% of the population), the largest numbers in Southeast Asia and Europe. The smallest percentage and number of people with insufficient iodine intake is on the American continent.

In the Czech Republic, salt has been iodized since 1947 and the Czech Republic is one of 19 out of 40 European countries with a sufficient iodine intake and 9 countries where ≥ 90% of households use iodized salt> .

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