Tributes flow for the Australian who saved millions of brains
May 25, 2025 3:10 AM Subscribe
Tributes flow for the Australian who saved millions of brains.
Endocrinologist Creswell Eastman, who discovered the link between iodine deficiency and a range of health issues, has died aged 85.
He was dubbed "the man who saved a million brains" after discovering the critical link between iodine deficiency and cognitive function.
World-renowned endocrinologist, Creswell 'Cres' Eastman died peacefully at home last Saturday. He was 85.
Professor Eastman's life work was the prevention of iodine deficiency, especially in pregnant women, which leads to intellectual and physical disabilities in children.
It followed his discovery that the trace element in minuscule but daily doses was crucial to healthy brain function.
"You could put the whole amount of iodine you need for a lifetime into a teaspoon," Professor Eastman told Richard Fidler on Conversations in 2015, "so long as you don't take it all at once".
"It's absolutely essential for a normal life."
He was dubbed "the man who saved a million brains" after discovering the critical link between iodine deficiency and cognitive function.
World-renowned endocrinologist, Creswell 'Cres' Eastman died peacefully at home last Saturday. He was 85.
Professor Eastman's life work was the prevention of iodine deficiency, especially in pregnant women, which leads to intellectual and physical disabilities in children.
It followed his discovery that the trace element in minuscule but daily doses was crucial to healthy brain function.
"You could put the whole amount of iodine you need for a lifetime into a teaspoon," Professor Eastman told Richard Fidler on Conversations in 2015, "so long as you don't take it all at once".
"It's absolutely essential for a normal life."
Iodine deficiency has likely had a notorious effect on Australian culture, and many people don't even know it's the likely cause. People whose diets are very poor in dietary iodine their neck's thyroid gland, which uses iodine from their blood, swell up in a desperate attempt to extract it - this is known as goitre. This used to be common in the Australian island-of-an-island state of Tasmania, which likely led to the common joke that Tasmanians have two heads - which many people assume is a joke about inbreeding.
posted by BiggerJ at 6:47 AM on May 25 [3 favorites]
posted by BiggerJ at 6:47 AM on May 25 [3 favorites]
Ouch. Iodine deficiency being the cause of goiter and mental issues has been known since 1912. My first reaction to this was horror that bringing iodine to the people of China and Malaysia and Australia happened recently enough that the guy who did it just died. But that is all the more reason to celebrate this guy. Someone stepped up when no one else was doing anything.
And it's not like dietary deficiencies won't always be an ongoing struggle. Switzerland is where they first made the idodine-goiter and mental problems connection, but recently their consumption of imported iodized salt has dropped enough that the Swiss government has started issuing iodine tablets to their population to replace the salt that they are no longer adding to their food.
posted by Jane the Brown at 6:49 AM on May 25 [2 favorites]
And it's not like dietary deficiencies won't always be an ongoing struggle. Switzerland is where they first made the idodine-goiter and mental problems connection, but recently their consumption of imported iodized salt has dropped enough that the Swiss government has started issuing iodine tablets to their population to replace the salt that they are no longer adding to their food.
posted by Jane the Brown at 6:49 AM on May 25 [2 favorites]
"You could put the whole amount of iodine you need for a lifetime into a teaspoon," Professor Eastman told Richard Fidler on Conversations in 2015, "so long as you don't take it all at once".
Well, this just got Robert Kennedy, Jr's attention. He must ban it in our salt now since A) it's an additive and 2) it's necessary for us to have to avoid terrible things. See also, fluoride.
posted by NoMich at 7:37 AM on May 25 [1 favorite]
Well, this just got Robert Kennedy, Jr's attention. He must ban it in our salt now since A) it's an additive and 2) it's necessary for us to have to avoid terrible things. See also, fluoride.
posted by NoMich at 7:37 AM on May 25 [1 favorite]
.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 8:26 AM on May 25
posted by JoeXIII007 at 8:26 AM on May 25
Incidentally, it used to be possible to get enough iodine from drinking cow's milk (because the mechanical milking equipment was cleaned with an iodine based disinfectant that left traces in the milk), but now a non-iodine disinfectant method is used instead, which means milk is no longer a source of iodine.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:28 AM on May 25 [2 favorites]
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:28 AM on May 25 [2 favorites]
.
It is men like RFK and Trump who history remembers, but it's men like Eastman who make the real changes.
posted by sotonohito at 8:48 AM on May 25 [2 favorites]
It is men like RFK and Trump who history remembers, but it's men like Eastman who make the real changes.
posted by sotonohito at 8:48 AM on May 25 [2 favorites]
.
posted by lalochezia at 9:58 AM on May 25
posted by lalochezia at 9:58 AM on May 25
The previous discussion of iodine deficiency in Switzerland
posted by ockmockbock at 10:25 AM on May 25
posted by ockmockbock at 10:25 AM on May 25
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“if you had his words ringing in your ears, it's ‘use iodised salt.’ So if you're in the supermarket … always get the iodised salt.”
posted by HearHere at 3:57 AM on May 25 [1 favorite]