Iodine is a chelator and stays in your body much longer from all that I've read. It's not like other chelators in that it is an essential nutrient for your body and takes a number of weeks to build up to level that's good for the body. One of the reasons it takes so long to build up is that it is pulling(chelating) bromides, fluoride, and mercury from your body for at least that amount of time. These are all bad toxics but iodine will slowly get rid of them. Iodine is a LARGE missing puzzle piece of the wellness game. Please see the site www.drbrownstein.com for more info and this doctor isn't the only one advocating iodine and natural treatment methods.