Iodine deficiency: the importance of supplementation during pregnancy and lactation

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), ‘iodine deficiency is the world’s most prevalent, yet most easily preventable cause of brain damage and more than two billion people worldwide are at risk of developing one or more of the effects of IDD [iodine deficiency disorders]’. Dietary iodine deficiency results in a broad spectrum of disorders, collectively known as iodine deficiency disorders (IDD), comprising endemic goitre, hypothyroidism, obstetric complications, increased neonatal morbidity and mortality, and mild-to-severe brain damage that may vary from small loss of IQ to frank cretinism.

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