Wolff–Chaikoff effect

The Wolff–Chaikoff effect (pronounced "woolf' cha'kof"), discovered by Drs. Jan Wolff and Israel Lyon Chaikoff at the University of California, is a reduction in thyroid hormone levels caused by ingestion of a large amount of iodine. In 1948, Wolff and Chaikoff reported that injection of iodine in rats almost completely inhibited organification (thyroglobulin iodination) in the thyroid gland. Patients with Graves' disease are more sensitive than euthyroid patients, and iodine has been used to manage Graves' disease.