To have better behaved citizens we could legislate putting Valium in the town water supply, or aspirin and cholesterol drugs to reduce heart attacks, and hormones to regulate birth control.
Not a silly idea? Of course it is! It violates Nuremberg laws as well as basic individual freedom to choose.
So why is it that we have fluoride medicine in the water supply? Dental health “experts” tell the Health Minister who tells the medical officers, fluoride prevents tooth decay. Most of us accept it must be true or “they” would tell us otherwise. So I researched the evidence. I wish I hadn’t.
First, it is a medication, not a natural mineral we are supposed to have in our bodies. Neither is it the naturally occurring fluoride in water, but a cheaper version from toxic wastes from the fertiliser industry – hydrofluosilicic acid for which even the US Environmental Protection Agency has no answers as to the possible toxic effects from combining it with aluminium (used to purify town water). Nor does this agency have ANY safety data. It gets scarier.
We don’t really know what the long-term effects are other than a possible increased hip fractures and dental fluorosis; a mottling of teeth.
Because people are not dropping like flies, it’s assumed safe. Lead wasn’t killing people either, but it also is toxic, accumulates like fluoride and it affected kids first, slowly and insidiously. We got that right, eventually.
Worse, fluoride is being linked to damage tot eh pineal gland and thyroid glands. To me this is worrying as I see many patients who have subtle and not-so-subtle hormone imbalances. There may be a link according to some researchers.
And how can you get the dose right? Some kids drink lots of water then brush with fluoride toothpaste, swallow some, resulting in doses far in excess of “safe” limits. While it is apparent fluoride can reduce decay, this benefit is small rather than massive. Latest research shows the effects on hardening enamel are from surface absorption, not from drinking it. So toothpaste, if you insist on having the drug fluoride, is the way to go.
After 35 years of fluoridation the evidence against fluoride grows, while the benefits are under increasing doubt.
Fluoridation has either been halted or never used in most of Western Europe, Canada, Finland, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Austria, former East Germany and even Cuba. Japan says it should be individual free will and there are safer ways to tackle decay prevention. Dental decay rates in these unfluoridated countries continue to fall. But good old US, Australia, UK, Ireland and New Zealand are the bastions of enforced fluoride medication. Is it our western diets? Or are we the experiment?
Major 1990 research studies comparing populations with or without fluoride have shown minimal difference; about a half a tooth (surface) better. There is no such thing as human fluoride deficiency, just as there is no such thing as lead or mercury deficiency. Dental decay is caused by acids from bacterial action on sugar. Sugar comes from junk foods. Personal responsibility or the bitter pill? Let’s get this one right.
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