We could get a map of iodine concentration in the earth’s soil over the entire world, and then provide free iodized salt in all the places where it is too low to provide dietary sufficiency in that element.
It would cost less than a billion, take less than three years, and thereafter it would cost less than a hundred million a year to run. It would raise the intelligence of the race by about five points. That increase would come almost entirely from the lower half of the distribution. It would eliminate approximately a trillion dollars in direct medical costs to the world in the next century, and many trillions in increased productivity from the aforementioned lower half of the distribution of intelligence.
It would not make anyone rich, though. What was I thinking?
<P ALIGN=“CENTER”>Tris</P>
Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it. – **Madeleine L’Engle **
A.) End the War on (Some) Drugs and replace it with an intelligent approach to substance abuse.
2.) Restructuring the health care system so that it actually works. My mom has worked both as a nurse and as an administrator for both hospitals and hospice, and some of the stories I hear are amazing.
Oh, and cheaper, healthier beer that not only gives you more confidence, but actually DOES make you more attractive.
It’s not how you pick your nose, it’s where you put the boogers
I like nations. I like cultural differences, I like being able to have differing systems of government, and I like having differing rules about balancing personal freedom and societal need.
God forbid the day that all 6 Billion of us are ruled by one system.
Tris: How good is the evidence that sufficient iodine will raise intelligence (particularly among less-intelligent populations)? I thought iron deficiency was a bigger problem for brain development than iodine deficiency was.
I am not sure of the comparison with Iron. The main point is that Iodine is a unique case. The soil concentration maps almost identically to Iodine related health problems, including delayed neural development in the young. It is not an essential nutrient for plants, and many animals have much less need of it than humans. It does not regenerate in depleted soils, and the Ice Age depleted wide areas that are otherwise quite fertile.
Supplying Iron would be more costly, less easy to direct to the need, and would be more complicated to deliver. Iron as available in nature must be processed into easy to metabolize forms, and supplied as pills, or specifically enriched foods. Iodine is available easily in various natural forms that can be included in salt, and distributed with normal salt distribution economies. The technology is simple, already well established, and easy to maintain without high levels of support. The reason that I choose this element to supply is not that it would be the most dramatically effective, but that it would provide the most benefit for the cost and effort. Success is well within our reach.
I admit to some additional agenda, though. Once that program shows results, I would hope to examine and publicly implement other micronutrient supplements in worldwide programs. The benefits are far more conducive to economic and political stability than other types of food programs. Seven or eight particular micronutrients could mean many billions a year saved in health costs worldwide. The cost of the system is far less. The benefits in social stability and productivity would be basically free.
Iodine, Fluorides, Zinc, Folic Acid, Manganese, and a few other trace elements are widely deficient in human nutrition, even when caloric and protein nutrition is adequate. When that is the case disease resistance is low, healing and tissue growth is compromised, and in children the entire developmental complex is delayed. The things that stand in the way of implementing the specific supplement are economic and political, not medical, or scientific.
<P ALIGN=“CENTER”>Tris</P>
There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.
– **Hodding Carter **
Here is a reference for the whole skinny on Iodine Deficiency Disorders as a worldwide problem. The Micronturient Initiative website is pretty small, but the point is made there that calories alone is not the best answer. Not much results from a lot of searches, but then, that is pretty much the nature of the problem.
<P ALIGN=“CENTER”>Tris</P>
It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.
– Confucius