A therapist from North Devon experienced debilitating fatigue, thinning hair, brittle nails, and cognitive issues, initially attributed to perimenopause. After months of ineffective hormone therapy, a nutritionist discovered a severe iodine deficiency stemming from her decade-long vegan diet. The case highlights rising iodine deficiency in the UK, potentially linked to dairy alternatives, and the challenge of distinguishing its symptoms from menopause. Experts warn that iodine deficiency affects metabolism, brain function, and immunity, and is often overlooked by doctors.
Like most working mothers in their mid-forties, Tamsyn Wood was no stranger to feeling tired after a long day. But when two years ago her hair began to thin, her nails started to become brittle and her skin began to lose its youthful glow, the therapist started to think there may be something more serious going on.
She had all these symptoms working against her all the time. Although she had always been fairly articulate, she suddenly started forgetting simple words and her mind would just go blank. No amount of rest seemed to help and it would take many more months, and a mistaken diagnosis, before Tamsyn, 48, found out that her symptoms were due to an increasingly common vitamin deficiency. No matter how much sleep she got, she just felt really flat.
Her skin was drier than ever, her hair was lacklustre and thinning - and other people noticed it too. She got really bored of people telling her she looked tired. The exhaustion was so debilitating that at just 46 years old it began to take over her life. An avid walker and keen cold-water swimmer, she found herself unable to take comfort in the things that used to keep her grounded.
She loved being outdoors, it helped her de-stress after a long day, but she was just exhausted. The only way she can describe it is like a heavy cloud draining her of all her energy. Tamsyn had always been very health-conscious. But when she reached her mid-40s even going on a walk became a struggle.
As her symptoms worsened, so did her anxiety. She kept having to pause when talking and, even when she could find the words, she wasn't firing on all cylinders because she was worried there was something more serious going on. She thought the worst. She heard of people getting early-onset dementia and despite only being 46, she was in a position where she couldn't rule anything out.
It was quite scary. When she contacted her GP, she was told her symptoms were consistent with perimenopause, the early stages of the mid-life hormone change. Tamsyn was prescribed hormone replacement therapy over the phone, with no further investigations. At first she was relieved.
But weeks went by and nothing improved. If anything, she felt worse, she says, explaining how she developed digestive issues on HRT. Ultimately, after just a month, she decided to come off the daily pill. She has always been cautious of what she puts into her body, adding that she was disappointed that her GP didn't explore other options before slapping on a generic dose of HRT.
It was only months later, after seeing a nutritionist, that she finally found an explanation: her vegan diet. Tamsyn had stopped eating animal products such as meat and dairy a decade earlier, in an effort to boost her health.
However, as a blood test revealed, it had the opposite effect - triggering a severe iodine deficiency. Iodine is a crucial mineral needed to produce thyroid hormones, which in turn regulate metabolism - the chemical reactions in the body that control everything from heart rate to brain function and cell repair. Experts say that dairy products are a main source of iodine in the UK diet.
However, studies show that, in recent years, iodine deficiency has been on the rise in the UK. Experts believe that this increase could be due to the growing popularity of dairy alternatives such as oat milk. On the guidance of her nutritionist, Tamsyn started taking pure seaweed supplements - with one capsule containing 350mcg, 2.5 times the daily recommended amount.
Young women are markedly more likely to have an iodine deficiency than most - with around a third of women of childbearing age now low in the essential mineral. In many countries, iodine is added to salt to avoid wide-scale deficiency. Studies suggest that a lack of iodine during pregnancy can lower the IQ of newborns and lead to other complications.
However, iodised salt is not commonplace in the UK. And despite its growing prevalence, experts say that doctors often miss the symptoms of an iodine deficiency. An iodine deficiency can cause fatigue, lethargy, weight gain, dry skin, feeling cold and cognitive delay, says nutritionist John Lukey. It affects everything - appetite, sleep patterns, body temperature - and the symptoms can be almost identical to those of menopause.
Left untreated it can lead to brittle bones, reduced immunity, fertility issues and worsening menopausal symptoms. Tamsyn says the diagnosis came as a surprise. She has always been really conscious about what she puts in her body, so she thought it had to be perimenopause. She is ashamed to admit she didn't even know iodine deficiency was a thing.
She pays attention nutritionally to what she eats, avoids caffeine and drinks a lot of water, so she didn't think it could be anything she was doing wrong
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