There is a discouraging extent of research studies showing that the widely lauded benefits of fluoride dental health are more imagined than real. The fallout of sustained fluoride intake on general health is the core concern. Again, there is a mass of research literature on this matter, freely available and even being talked about across the globe.
However, this effort of endeavor was not considered by the York Review when their proposition was changed from "Studies of the effects of fluoride on health" to "Studies on the effects of fluoridated water on health." It is evident that it was not considered by the BMA (British Medical Association), British Dental Association (BDA), BFS (British Fluoridation Society) and FPHM, (Faculty of Public Health and Medicine) since they all insist, as in the briefing paper to Members of Parliament - that fluoridation is safe and non-injurious to health.
It is a shameful fact, yet it is much fitting to discover the effects of fluoridation, specifically on the thyroid gland.
It has been acknowledged since the latter part of the 19th century that certain communities, notably in Argentina, India, and Turkey, were chronically ill, with premature aging, arthritis, mental retardation, and infertility, and high levels of natural fluorides in the water were responsible. Not only was it clear that the fluoride had a general outcome on the health of the community, but in the early 1920s, Goldemberg, working in Argentina, showed that fluoride was displacing iodine, thus associating the damage and rendering the community also hypothyroid from iodine deficiency.
Fluoride Was Once Prescribed as an Antithyroid Drug
Most of us think that fluoride is generally a good supplement to reduce tooth decay. Fluoride, however, has also been prescribed as a drug to reduce the activity of the thyroid gland. In the 1950s, doctors in Europe and South America prescribed fluoride to reduce thyroid function in patients with overactive thyroids (hyperthyroidism).
Doctors selected fluoride as a thyroid suppressant based on findings linking fluoride to goiter, and, as predicted, fluoride therapy did reduce thyroid activity in the treated patients.
Moreover, according to clinical research, the fluoride dose capable of reducing thyroid function was notably low — just 2 to 5 mg per day over several months. This dose is well within the range (1.6 to 6.6 mg/day) of what individuals living in fluoridated communities are now estimated to receive regularly.
Eminently harmful to the thyroid gland
This was the basis of the research in the 1930s of May, Litzka, Gorlitzer von Mundy, who used fluoride preparations to treat over-active thyroid illness. Their patients either drank fluoridated water, swallowed fluoride pills, or were bathed in fluoridated bath water, and their thyroid function was, as a result, greatly depressed.
The use in 1937 of fluorocytosine for this purpose showed how effective this treatment was, but the effectiveness was difficult to predict, and many patients suffered total thyroid loss. So it was given a new role and received a new name, Pardon. It was marketed not for overactive thyroid disease but as a pesticide.
This bit of history illustrates that fluorides are dangerous in general and, in particular, highly damaging to the thyroid gland.
Thyroid
The thyroid gland regulates the body’s metabolic rate and plays an exquisitely important role in human health. Because all metabolically active cells require thyroid hormone for proper functioning, thyroid disruption can have a wide range of effects on virtually every body system.
Chemicals that interfere with thyroid function must be treated with great caution. According to the U.S. National Research Council, and as discussed below, there is substantial evidence that fluoride exposure can impact thyroid function in some individuals.
Fluoride & Hypothyroidism
Your thyroid gland produces the master metabolism hormones that influence every function in your body. It’s found in front of your neck and is part of your endocrine, or hormonal, system. The thyroid gland is responsible for maintaining your body’s overall metabolic rate, as well as for regulating normal growth and development.
Your thyroid hormones interact with all your other hormones, including cortisol, insulin, and sex hormones like progesterone, testosterone, and insulin. Since almost all active cells need the thyroid hormones to function properly, there’s no doubt that a dysfunctional thyroid can have a severe impact on your health.
Aside from exposure to fluoridated water, other lifestyle factors that can cause hypothyroidism include consuming a diet composed mostly of processed foods, having frequently elevated stress levels, and insufficient iodine in your diet. Gluten and food sensitivities, which cause inflammation, are also common causes of thyroid dysfunction. Consuming unfermented, genetically modified soy, high in isoflavones (potent antithyroid agents), is also damaging to your thyroid gland.
Fluoride & Goiter
Studies dating back to the 19th century have implicated fluoride as a possible cause of goiter. Goiter (aka goiter) is an enlargement of the thyroid gland that, in some cases, can produce visible swelling in the neck. Although the main cause of goiter is iodine deficiency, other things can also be caused, including hypothyroidism and goitrogens (substances that cause goiter).
Studies that have examined human populations with adequate intake of iodine have reported mixed results about fluoride’s ability to produce a goiter. However, the research has been more consistent where the examined populations had either excessive iodine intakes or low iodine intakes.
Most of this latter research was initially published in either Russian or Chinese and was only recently translated into English by the Fluoride Action Network. Accordingly, previous reviews of fluoride/goiter research were not able to take these studies into account. As such, the evidence linking fluoride to goiter for populations with excessive, or deficient, iodine exposure is stronger than previously recognized.
Fluoride, Thyroid, & Dogs
An investigation by the Environmental Working Group found that commercial dog food contains very high fluoride levels (due, in part, to the presence of 0f fluoride-rich bone particles).
Since dogs have been found to suffer a high incidence of hypothyroidism, the relationship between fluoride contamination and thyroid disease in dogs deserves further attention, particularly since fluoride’s production of goiter in dogs first prompted the idea that fluoride could be an antithyroid agent.
Displaces iodine in the body
These figures would be worrying enough since they mean that iodine deficiency, which results in hypothyroidism (thyroid hormone cannot be manufactured without iodine), is likely to affect huge people. What makes it infinitely worse is that fluorine, being a halogen (chemically related to iodine) but very much more active, displaces iodine. So that the uptake of iodine is compromised by the ejection, as it were, of the iodine by fluorine.
To condemn the entire population, already having marginal levels of iodine, to the inevitable progressive failure of their thyroid system by fluoridating the water borders on criminal lunacy.
I want to place a scenario in front of those colleagues who favor fluoridation. A new pill is marketed. Some trials not altogether satisfactory, nevertheless, show a striking improvement in dental caries. Unfortunately, it is thyrotoxic, mutagenic, immunosuppressive, causes arthritis and infertility in comparatively small doses over a relatively short period.
Do you think it should be marketed?
Fluoridation of the nation's water supply will do little for our dental health but will have catastrophic effects on our general health. We cannot, must not, dare not, subject our nation to this appalling risk.
Moreover, fluorides are cumulative and build up steadily with fluoride ingestion from all sources, which include not just water but the air we breathe and the food we eat. The use of fluoride toothpaste in dental hygiene and the coating of teeth are further sources of substantial levels of fluoride intake.
The body can only eliminate half of the total intake, which means that the old you are, the more fluoride will have accumulated in your body. Inevitably this means the aging population is particularly targeted. And even worse for the very young, there is a major element of risk in baby formula made with fluoridated water. The extreme sensitivity of the very young to fluoride toxicity makes this unacceptable.
Remove Fluoride Using The Berkey Fluoride Filters
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