elements · 53 / 118 · All 118
I
Iodine
- Z
- 53
- Mass
- 126.904
- Lifeforce
- Water
- In the body
- thyroid
Fifteen to twenty milligrams in the whole body, most of it in the thyroid — and yet this trace sets the pace of every cell: without iodine the hormone of metabolism never forms at all.
Heavy enough that it is made primarily in neutron-star collisions. Every iodine atom in your thyroid is older than the Sun.
Lab note · Builds thyroxine, the hormone that regulates metabolism. Iodine deficiency once caused widespread cretinism; iodized salt ended it.