Contamination and inadequate sanitation are common issues in water safety, and because of this, access to safe drinking water is vital to human health. Is the water you drink every day safe? How much water do you need to keep that body healthy?
The human body is composed of 50-75% water, and it is much higher in kids, so it is more important for them to drink water regularly. Do you think water plays a potential role in developing your child’s IQ? Knowing the underlying factor of your kid’s cognitive level is crucial in IQ development.
Many parents have been dreaming of their children reaching the top of school. It’s rewarding; it’s fulfilling, in other words, most especially moms. They even let their kids be involved in different activities, yearning to develop their holistic well-being. Others invest in nutritional enhancements to help improve their intelligence and mental coping.
According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, a physician and author who spearheaded the research, Harvard researchers' study Lower IQ in Children Exposed to Fluoride confirms that fluoride reduces children's IQ.
According to the meta-analysis study, children who lived in areas with highly fluoridated water and used this water as drinking water may have significantly lower IQ scores than those living in areas with low fluoridated water.
The study further concluded that an adverse effect of drinking water with high fluoride concentration and fluoride is a known cause of toxicity in the nervous system, affecting children's learning and memory.
The researchers performed a statistical procedure in the study, combining data from multiple studies and conducting a systematic review to investigate the delayed neurobehavioral development and effects of increased fluoride exposure in those who lived in highly fluoridated water areas.
Know The Facts
The lead author, Howard Hu, the founding dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, found low scores on intelligence tests with a high level of fluoride exposure in utero in his study. Here are a few of the highlights of the study.
The new study says that increased levels of fluoride exposure during prenatal:
- It may be linked in children with lower cognitive functions;
- The child is more sensitively susceptible to environmental toxicants during prenatal than once the child is born. It means that it is safer for a child to be exposed to fluoride during childhood than during prenatal;
- The researchers found a drop in scores based on the intelligence test results. However, they found that there is no significant influence in the brain development of the child exposure to fluoride in utero once a child was born, albeit there is a potential connection to child exposure to fluoride in utero;
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Measuring the chemical content of fluoride exposure in the urine of Mexican mothers and children reveals the fluoride exposure through used water to quantify the fluoride exposure by analyzing it in the environment and, on average, they found that mothers had 0.90 milligrams per liter of fluoride in their urine;
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In the study, the broad range of exposures reported for other general population samples of pregnant and non-pregnant adult women was associated with lower scores on cognitive function tests in the offspring ages between 4-3, then 6–12 years old with higher prenatal fluoride exposure.
What Is Fluoride?
Fluoride combines unpurified byproducts of phosphate mining: sodium fluoride, hydrofluorosilicic acid, and sodium fluorosilicate. In the United States, thousands of tons of fluorosilicic acid are recovered from phosphoric acid plants and used for water fluoridation. During this process, the fluoride ion is created.
Fluoride is proven to protect teeth from decay. When a person eats sugary food, the bacteria in the mouth produce acid. This acid eats away minerals from the tooth’s surface, weakening the tooth and increasing the chance of developing cavities.
Fluoride helps build and strengthen the tooth’s surface. It stops cavities from developing and can restore the tooth’s surface by keeping it solid. Water fluoridation stops tooth decay by providing frequent and consistent contact with low fluoride levels.
Before, scientists investigated the relationship between tooth decay in children and the naturally occurring fluoride in drinking water. Then, the study found that children who drank water with naturally high fluoride levels had fewer tooth decay.
Many suffered from toothaches and painful extractions, often losing permanent teeth, even molars. Water fluoridation has helped address this problem.
Fluorosis - The disease and how it affects people
Excess fluoride is the most common ingredient in drinking water. It can cause fluorosis, a deficiency of minerals in tooth enamel that affects teeth and bones. Fluorosis is an extremely common disorder caused by ingesting excessive fluoride during enamel formation.
Low fluoride consumption helps prevent dental caries. Therefore, controlling drinking water quality seriously prevents fluorosis, and parents must pay utmost attention.
Dental fluorosis may be a sign of wider systemic damage.
There are many complicated suggestions about the possible biochemical mechanisms underlying the development of dental fluorosis.
It Is an Unapproved Drug
If everyone knew the dangers of fluoride and had a choice, most would likely choose fluoride-free drinking water. Unfortunately, you don't have that choice if you live in an area that adds fluoride to its public water supply.
It's important to remember that fluoride is, in fact, a drug since it prevents tooth decay. No other drug has ever been administered as a public health measure without regard for sex, age, medical need, or other issues that might increase the risk of side effects.
Once you put fluoride in the water, there is no way to control who gets it and how much, and if you suffer the side effects, there's no alternative to it. Most don't even understand that their health problems might be connected to fluoride toxicity.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not regulate fluoride in water, although it does regulate fluoride in toothpaste and other oral care products. These products must bear warning labels about the danger of ingesting fluoride. Fluoride is the only drug forced on the whole population with no control over dosing.
Interventions
Elimination of excessive fluoride from drinking water is difficult and costly. The ideal option is to find safe drinking water with safe fluoride levels. De-fluoridation may be the only solution where access to safe water is already limited.
Other methods include contact precipitation, bone charcoal, and activated alumina. However, only water for drinking and cooking should be treated since all methods produce mud with a very high concentration of fluoride, which must be disposed of, particularly in developing countries.
Many do not realize the proven health risks inherent in fluoridated water, but the information is growing. Adding fluoride to water was claimed to be a safe and effective way to improve dental health. Many bought into this hook, line, and sinker despite all the evidence to the contrary over the decades.
There are scientific investigations that revealed fluoride is an endocrine-disrupting chemical and has connected it to thyroid disease's rising occurrence. Fluoride has been identified as a developmental neurotoxin that impacts short-term and working memory and contributes to rising rates of attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD).
Fluoride in Today’s Water
Most people get fluoride from public water. About 75% are exposed to fluoride through public water, the main route of exposure aside from toothpaste and mouth rinses. Water fluoridation is considered one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the past century.
Since fluoride was introduced into community water over a long period, there has been a reduction in cavities in children and adults.
Fluoride is commonly added to drinking water to improve dental health, though several communities have rejected water fluoridation.
What the new study means for pregnant women in the United States is hanging. The researchers cautioned that this was just one study. They said it needs to be reproduced in other populations by other scientists for more conclusive results.
When fluoride is mixed in water, it isn't easy to control each individual's dose because people drink different amounts of water. Controlling the dose a patient receives is critical.
Some people, such as manual laborers, athletes, people with diabetes, and people with kidney disease, drink more water than others.
Critiques of the New Study
However, a critic says that there is some evidence suggesting that we should take a closer look at fluoride’s effects on the brain, even at the reasonable exposures to which some Americans are exposed.
The study was conducted in Mexico in selected areas with widespread fluorosis and very high fluoride concentrations in drinking water, so the results do not apply to areas where community water fluoridation is used.
However, the high occurrence of premature births and low birth weights for the children of mothers with high urinary fluoride levels suggests that problems of birth in areas of common fluorosis could provide a biological process to explain the IQ deficits rather than a direct chemical toxicity process.
Given the lack of data on fluoride during pregnancy, the power to conclude how exposures may impact the general population is limited. Based on the study, there are no reference values for urinary fluoride in pregnant women.
Data on fluoride content in water are lacking, given that fluoride content is not reported as part of Mexico's water quality monitoring programs. Mexico also lacks information on other environmental neurotoxicants, such as arsenic.
There is no evidence that the population is exposed to significant levels of neurotoxicants. Yet, other factors, including diet, may affect urinary fluoride secretion and may be related to cognition, and the potential for unrestrained confounding cannot be ruled out.
Keep Your Drinking Water Safe and Clean
It is better to track how much water you drink in a day. If you are not at home, you must consider the safety and cleanliness of the water you drink. You can get enough water daily by drinking water, consuming fluids like soup and drinks, and eating lots of fruits and vegetables containing water.
At some point, people don’t think about the water they drink. They look for a tap, fill a glass, and drink. Is the water they're drinking safe and clean? What if their tap water suddenly becomes contaminated? Here are quick tips.
Filtered tap water so you can drink it, cook with it, and have it.
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Bring water in safe containers – Water On the go.
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Stay hydrated with safe water, especially while you’re pregnant.
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Use safe water for formulated milk for infants.
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Use a whole house water filter and breathe easily.
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