Iodine is an essential micronutrient for proper brain development during pregnancy and infancy. Iodine needs increase by more than 50% during pregnancy and many women of childbearing age are iodine deficient before they even become pregnant. Join Dr. Elizabeth Pearce, a leader in iodine research, for a discussion on maternal and infant iodine in baby’s brain development. This session will discuss dietary iodine requirements and how they vary across the life span, as well as how population iodine status can be monitored. Participants will review the effects of iodine deficiency and also of excess iodine exposure. Dr. Pearce will describe the history of iodine nutrition in the US and globally, and how that has changed in recent decades, as well as discuss sources of iodine in the diet and current recommendations about supplementation.
At the end of the session participants will:
- Be able to describe dietary iodine requirements.
- Understand the adverse effects of iodine deficiency and iodine excess, particularly in pregnancy and early life.
- Recognize important sources of dietary iodine.
