Medicine, while concretely scientific, is a constant reminder of the changing influence of outside factors on what we think we can understand. One of these factors is location; trends often populate within a certain area due to climate, landscape, or other geographical features. The Goiter Belt, a little known geographic trend of iodine deficiency, is a perfect example of how medicine is vital to understanding more about humanity and our world.
The Goiter Belt is a horizontal zone in the northern continental United States. Doctors placed in charge of physicals for men heading to World War I noticed a disproportionately high prevalence of thyroid swelling (known as goiter) in the men who came from the northern part of the U.S. A later study would confirm these results: “Endemic iodine deficiency was prevalent in the Great Lakes, Appalachians, and Northwestern regions of the U.S., a geographic area known as the ‘goiter belt’, where 26%–70% of children had clinically apparent goiter” (Leung). This prevalence is obviously not just coincidental, so the question became clear; what was causing this deficiency?
Humans do not produce iodine naturally. Instead, we depend on our nutrients to provide the mineral to us. What scientists failed to note, however, was that the distribution of iodine is unequal in different parts of the world. When the glaciers melted away from the area now known as the Goiter Belt, they depleted the iodine of the soil, meaning the generations living there have since suffered from iodine deficiency and, therefore, goiter. Luckily, many salt deposits contain iodine, and soon after the connection was made, health officials recommended the use of iodized salt. Since then, the risk of goiter through iodine deficiency has been eliminated from the United States, and the lack of iodine in the goiter belt no longer causes the health issues it once did.
The Goiter Belt is no longer urgent. The use of iodized salt has eliminated the health risk that iodine deficiency once caused. However, the importance of the Goiter Belt is not so much the health risk, but rather the idea that geography can have such an influential role in medicine. Healthcare and medicine are not just used to improve the quality of life, but also to know more about life in general.
References:
https://www.dispatch.com/article/20080812/news/308129615
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3509517/
https://yourmedicalsource.com/content/goiter-belt
Written by Anna Cernich
Edited by Zain Qureshi
Graphics by London San Luis
Group advised by Aashima Sagar
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