Solved cryptogram
Your thyroid gland cannot make its hormones without iodine, which is why salt often carries it.
Biology Facts, sourced to Royal Society of Chemistry.
What it means
Thyroid hormones are built around iodine atoms, and there is no substitute for them. Soils far from the sea are often short of the element, and the resulting deficiency was a widespread cause of goiter and of preventable developmental harm in children. Adding a trace of iodide to table salt is among the cheapest public health measures ever adopted.
The claim comes from Royal Society of Chemistry, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.
This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 78 letters over 19 different ones, graded medium.
- SourceRoyal Society of Chemistry
- CollectionBiology Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length78 letters, 19 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 71 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 70 letters
- U.S. Geological Surveyhard, 66 letters
- National Eye Institutemedium, 73 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- NCBI Bookshelfmedium, 77 letters
- National Human Genome Research Institutemedium, 74 letters
- NIGMSmedium, 76 letters
- MedlinePlusmedium, 68 letters