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Tool Kit 5
Key Messages for Doctors (Pakistan)
The Role of General Practitioners/Family Physicians in Promoting Iodized Salt
The Iodized Salt Support Facility seeks cooperation from All Doctors in the following area:
Use iodized salt at home.
Advise friends and relatives to use iodized salt.
Recommend iodized salt to patients to use for life and educate them in order to dispel any suspicions in their minds.
Discourage false propaganda against iodized salt.
Remember
Iodized salt is ordinary common salt with iodine added to it. By adding a small quantity of iodine to salt, an essential nutrient so vital to the health and well being of humans and animals, it can be easily available daily to everybody. Daily consumption of iodized salt can protect entire generations of both humans and animals from mental and physical disabilities caused by iodine deficiency.
| Fallacy | Fact |
| Iodine deficiency disorders are only prevalent in the northern areas of Pakistan | Iodine deficiency is a country-wide problem |
| Healthy people do not need iodized salt | Everyone in Pakistan should use iodized salt everyday and for a lifetime |
| Regular use of iodized salt leads to excess of iodine in the body | Iodized salt provides the right quantity of iodine as per body's daily requirement, not more nor less, therefore regular use of iodized salt cannot lead to excess iodine in the body |
| Taste of iodized salt is different | Iodized salt is same in taste and use as ordinary salt |
| People who use iodized salt cannot have babies | Regular use of iodized salt reduces the risk of stillbirth and miscarriages, and is one of the factors leading to birth of healthy children |
| Livestock does not need iodized salt | Use of iodized salt improves the health and reproductive capacity of livestock |
The Medical Spectrum