You're Getting Too Much Fluoride, Proponents Warn

Because fluoride overdose is a new concern, Zohoori and Maguire  in the British Dental Journal (Feb 23, 2018) suggest that manufacturers use non-fluoridated water in food processing and that food and beverage labels include fluoride content.

In February 2018, US researchers reported, "The continued increase in fluorosis rates in the U.S. indicates that additional measures need to be implemented to reduce its prevalence."

Fluoride, touted as decay preventive, is added to most US water supplies. This means fluoride is also flowing into foods and beverages made with that water. The consequences - white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth (fluorosis) the outward manifestation of fluoride overdose.  Up to 60% of US adolescents are so afflicted.

Fluoride is also absorbed into the bloodstream via topical application e.g. toothpaste, varnish, gels and also found naturally in ocean fish, tea and fluoride-containing pesticide residues on produce.

“[C]ontrolling fluoride ingestion has regained the attention of researchers around the world due to the reported rise in the prevalence of dental fluorosis in both fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas,” write Zohoori and Maguire. Even the World Health Organization is concerned, they report.

"Dietary fluoride supplements increase the risk of fluorosis for those in nonfluoridated areas by more than six-fold. Children who begin using toothpaste before age 2 -- regardless of whether their drinking water is fluoridated -- increase their odds of having fluorosis by approximately three times" (Pediatric Dentistry 1995)

Up to 80% of children in some US areas are afflicted with dental fluorosis (The Journal of Clinical Pediatric Dentistry, 5/2018)

Even though many assume that swallowing too much fluoridated toothpaste is the major cause of dental fluorosis, the CDC’s Fluoridation Engineer, Kip Duchon, is reported in the ADA News as saying:  “A provider needs to understand a patient’s total fluoride exposure and fluoride in drinking water is the largest contributor to total fluoride exposure.”

Former NYS Dental Director and close associate of the American Dental Association, JV Kumar wrote, “practitioners should prescribe fluoride therapy based on an understanding of patients' total exposure to fluoride and the need for additional amounts. 

But that is rarely, if ever, done.

Why aren’t consumers informed?

Dentists are still taught to prescribe fluoride supplements based solely on the fluoride levels in drinking water, Even though fluoride supplements have never been FDA approved or tested for safety or efficacy.

In fact, the Cochrane Oral Health Group reports that fluoride supplements fail to reduce tooth decay in primary teeth, permanent teeth cavity-reduction is dubious and health risks are little studied.

Only expensive cosmetic dentistry can cover fluorosed teeth affording many dentists the ability to neglect low-income folks with serious tooth decay but inability to pay dentists' exhorbitant fees.

In a failed attempt to alleviate the fluorosis problem, recommended water fluoride levels were lowered and fluoride supplement doses were lowered  twice. 

In 1970’s, manufacturers voluntarily lowered the fluoride content of infant formula although they all still contain a little fluoride – whether the formula is concentrated, organic or ready to use. 

On top of that, it’s now discouraged to mix infant formula with fluoridated water if parents want to avoid lifelong discoloration of their babies’ permanent teeth. In Feb 2018 researchers reported "The continued increase in fluorosis rates in the U.S. indicates that additional measures need to beimplemented to reduce its prevalence." 

Fluoridation is the real problem. Science shows it must end.  But the politics of organized dentistry, enriched by corporations that profit from tooth decay, have more entre' to legislators' ears and pocketbooks than the average citizen who needs to use their own resources to organized and a substantial amount of voters to force their legislators to do what's best for their constituents instead of their own political viability.

Also concerned are the Centers for Disease Control and Colgate which urge parents to use non-fluoridated toothpaste until their children are able to spit it all out to avoid fluorosis.

Zohoori and Maguire write, even though the UK and the US have fluoride in foods databases, fluoride levels vary greatly.

“For example, the composition of animal products could be influenced by age, feeding routine and season. In addition, factors such as the country of origin and local growing conditions could affect the composition of plant products, while alteration in recipes, amounts and types of ingredients and even the material composition of the cooking vessel can affect the fluoride content of a particular product,” they write.

Of course, the best way to limit fluoride intake is to stop adding unnecessary fluoride chemicals into the public’s water supply that finds it’s way into the food chain and builds up in our bones, brains and children's teeth.

But that won’t happen until people organize and demand fluoridation be stopped where they live. 

Unfortunately, politics, not science, supports water fluoridation. Organized dentistry, with its pockets full of corporate cash, have too much influence over our lawmakers and bureaucrats, in my opinion.

Fluoride should be dispensed in doctors’ offices and prescribed like all other drugs – considering age, health, weight need and monitored for side effects and overdoses.

“The Iowa Fluoride Study (IFS) reported that during the first 12 months of age, up to 96% of total fluoride intake can be from diet, which then decreases to 53% at age 24 months,” report Zohoori and Maguire. 

IFS revealed  in 2009 "achieving a caries-free status may have relatively little to do with fluoride intake, while fluorosis is clearly more dependent on fluoride intake.”

Recent IFS results (2018) show no benefit from ingested fluoride

  

The End of Fluoridation is Near – If You Help.  Take Action http://fluorideaction.net/take-action 

New Study: Fluoride Perilous to Babies’ Brains

New Study: Fluoride Perilous to Babies’ Brains

Fluoride exposure during pregnancy is linked to children’s lower IQ at one- to three-years-old, according to Occupational & Environmental Medicine  (March 2018), and at levels commonly found in U.S.

Researchers, Thomas et al., found that, for every increase of 1 milligram per liter of fluoride in pregnant women's urine, their offspring averaged 2.4 points lower IQ scores at age 1-3 years-old.  This finding is statistically significant and was adjusted for confounders.

This builds upon previous research from the same prestigious team funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) showing in utero fluoride levels associated with lower IQ in 4 and 6-12 year-olds (Environmental Health Perspectives, September 2017).

Fluoridation protectionists try, but fail, to scientifically debunk these studies. Environmental Health Perspectives is a leading peer-reviewed journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health, an NIH division, They were funded by U.S. government grants. The authors are some of the world’s foremost experts who study neurotoxicity from fetal and early childhood exposures.

Fluoridationists, who rarely challenge pro-fluoridation outcomes, often use knee-jerk criticisms to protect  negative fluoride research – even making it up sometimes.

For example, the American Dental Association (ADA) said the researchers “did not adequately address a number of potential confounders.

But the truth is that maternal age, gestational age, birth weight, mother’s education, lead and mercury were all measured.

As an aside, studies the ADA promotes to claim fluoridation is safe and effective almost never control for important confounders such as diet, poverty and total fluoride intake.

So, in direct contradiction to the ADA , one of the most important strengths of these studies is how comprehensively and carefully it did control for potential confounders.

Although fluoridated salt rather than fluoridated water was the main source of fluoride in Mexican pregnant women in these two studies, fluoride intake is similar and applicable to those consuming artificially fluoridated water. For example, the Mexican women's urine fluoride levels are similar to levels found in pregnant women in fluoridated New Zealand (Brough et al. 2015). 

Further, US, Canadian and UK studies recorded a similar range of urine fluoride in its residents as found in the Mexican studies. 

Therefore, the evidence is strong that pregnant US women have similar fluoride intake as Mexican women, whether it comes from artificially or naturally fluoridated water, medicines, is absorbed from dental products, eaten from foods and beverages, especially ocean fish and tea which are high in fluoride, or inhaled from air pollution or ocean mist.

Over 300 studies, 50+ human, now link fluoride to neurological effects – something that was virtually not considered when fluoridation began in 1945. Even the EPA admits that fluoride is a chemical “with substantial evidence of developmental neurotoxicity.”

These studies form the basis of the legal challenge against the EPA by the Fluoride Action Network (FAN)  et al., under the Toxic Substance and Control Act, to ban the deliberate, unnecessary and health-damaging addition of fluoride chemicals into the public’s drinking water supply for the failed effort to reduce tooth decay  Fluoride also taints foods made with that water at home or purchased in supermarkets and restaurants.

Attorney Michael Connett, FAN’s Legal Director says, “The new finding from NIH’s fluoride/IQ study further strengthens the evidence of fluoride’s neurotoxicity.  The fluoride levels at issue in the study are within the range that pregnant women in the U.S. will receive, so the findings are clearly relevant to our ongoing case against the EPA.”

Also of interest - researchers reported that drinking fluoridated water increased lead absorption which is also linked to lower IQ.

Fluoride/brain studies http://FluorideAction.Net/issues/brain

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