Sunday, February 15, 2009

Fluoride: The Myth

To this day, I feel sick when I think of Parker's toddler years and the many things I did wrong as a new parent. Aside from blindly vaccinating when I should have instead been researching, my other big regret is giving my son fluoride tablets. We were told Parker really needed these 'magic pills' to prevent tooth decay, due to his love of sugary juice drinks. When I asked his pediatrician for the prescription, he never questioned me, just wrote the script with no warnings or words of advice at all.

I unknowingly gave my son ANOTHER toxic substance for nearly two years. Fluoride.

At this point, I know you're probably thinking, "Oh come on, Bridgett. It's fluoride....the stuff keeping our teeth healthy. It's in our toothpaste, our drinking water...it can't be dangerous."

Unfortunately, it is...dangerous, that is.

Let me start by saying, fluoride is a by-product of copper, aluminum, and iron manufacturing. Yes, that's right. A by-product. A pollutant. In other words, it's disposable waste. Historically, the industries spent huge amounts of money on its disposal...that is until the 1950's when the aluminum companies somehow managed to convince our government this toxic by-product prevented tooth decay. Lo and behold, this resulted in our water supply being infiltrated with fluoride and pediatrician's prescribing fluoride drops to all their patients...even newborns.

But does fluoride actually prevent tooth decay?

The answer is a resounding, "No!"

In the mid-80's, 39,000 school children in 84 areas around the U.S. were studied and the results showed no statistical difference in tooth decay rates between fluoridated and non-fluoridated cities. Indeed, 97% of European countries do not have fluoridated water. These countries refuse to fill the water supplies of their citizens with fluoride because they feel health decisions should be personal and not mandated by the government. What a concept! And yet the people living in Europe have teeth just as healthy, if not healthier, than ours. In fact, there is no increase in cavity production once fluoridation has stopped.

As recently as November 2006, the American Dental Association (ADA) advised parents not to give their babies fluoridated water. Babies exposed to fluoride are at high risk of developing dental fluorosis - a permanent tooth defect caused by fluoride damaging the cells which form the teeth. There is also evidence fluoride may damage the developing brain, causing learning deficits and other problems.

Just a few points to consider according to Selwyn Johnston, an Australian advocate for fluoride free water:

  • Fluoride is a known toxin.
  • Fluoride is described by its manufacturers' safety data as a 'hazardous waste'. It is illegal to dump at sea.
  • Fluoride consumption by human beings increases the general cancer death rate.
  • Fluoride exposure disrupts the synthesis of collagen and leads to the breakdown of collagen in bone, tendon, muscle, skin, cartilage, lungs, kidney and trachea.
  • Fluoride inhibits antibody formation in the blood.
  • Fluorides have a disruptive effect on various tissues in the body.
  • Fluoride confuses the immune system and causes it to attack the body's own tissues, and increases the tumor growth rate in cancer prone individuals.
  • Fluoride kills red blood cells and damages gastric mucosa, resulting in the symptoms of 'Irritable Bowel Syndrome'.
  • Fluorides are medically categorized as protoplasmic poisons, which is why they are used to kill rodents.
  • Fluoride is a cumulative poison… we excrete about half what we ingest. The rest is stored, mainly in the bones, where it increases the density but changes the internal architecture of the bone. This makes bones more brittle and prone to fracture.

Did you catch that little tidbit about it being used in rodent poison? Specifically, rats and cockroaches. Lovely.

It's also one of the ingredients in Prozac and nerve gas. Yes, nerve gas. Even lovlier.

In review, let us look what exactly I did to my beautiful son, Parker.

I injected him with multiple vaccinations over a 24 month period. Vaccinations which contained thimerosal, aluminum, components of antifreeze, MSG, formaldehyde, and various other highly toxic substances. I then gave him fluoride tablets for another two years. Fluoride has been shown to increase absorption of aluminum in the brain. It's also stored in the body, as we only excrete about half of what we ingest. My son has a detoxification malfunction, as do many other children. And we wonder why our children are so sick? Environmentally, the United States is in very poor shape.

So what can you do?

  1. Buy fluoride free toothpastes. We use Epic Dental, a fluoride-free, xylitol based toothpaste. I also use their mouthwash, mints, and gum. Another fluoride-free toothpaste is Tom's of Maine. My kids hated the Tom's toothpaste and refused to use it...the Epic toothpaste has a nice minty flavor.
  2. Avoid the bottled water which includes a fluoride additive.
  3. If you live in a city with a fluoridated water supply, do not drink from the tap unless you've added a fluoride filter. Or, at the very least, limit your tap water intake.
  4. Write to your city government and voice your concerns about the safety of your fluoridated water supply.
  5. Refuse all fluoride treatments at your dentist's office. This may not be as difficult as you predict. More and more dentists are recognizing the validity of recent studies confirming the dangers of fluoride and its very limited benefits.

One final thought. My daughter has had no fluoride at all...her teeth are sparkling white and look beautiful. My son, who's been overdosed on fluoride, has stains on his teeth and they look pretty bad. Just a personal comparison...

In conclusion, fluoride is not something your body needs. Fluoride deficiency doesn't exist. Indeed, the stuff is just plain bad.

For more information, you can visit the Fluoride Action Network (FAN).

There is also an excellent book on the topic: The Fluoride Deception

12 comments:

- said...

I don't know how much I agree with this, But still a very interesting read.

My dad was from England and his teeth were not so great. Living in Europe I saw a lot of "Not so great" mouths. Whether or not it was absence of fluoride or bad genes, i don't know.

Anyways, regardless it was a interesting read.

Anonymous said...

I've never heard of giving flouride tablets to kids or anyone else! I was wondering who told you you needed to give Parker those to begin with?
I remember some friends of my grandpas were from Europe and their teeth were so horrible! I remember feeling sick looking at them. Lack of flouride? Probably just lack of dental hygiene but it makes you wonder why are their teeth so bad?
Well I definitely need to research flouride more.

Bridgett said...

Government mandated medicine is, and always will be bullshit in my book.

I'd rather brush my teeth after each meal and cut back refined sugars. That would be much more effective in preventing tooth decay without having to flood my body with a waste by-product of aluminum.

Anonymous said...

I hopped over from someone's bloglist, but I do not remember whom :-). Having worked in medical, I've heard both sides of this, but mostly I wanted to address the idea you'd made terrible mishaps raising Parker. Everyone does! Most parents(though not all) make millions of moral calculations every day on behalf of their kids, not against them, and thankfully, kids live even if some of them are wrong. You did the best you could with the info you had at the time.
~Mary

Tricia said...

Never even crossed my mind. Elijah had stained teeth pretty bad, and thankfully they never gave him flouride, however we have the rinse in the bathroom.
Thanks for your time on these B.
HUGS

lisa said...

again, i knew none of this at all....and reading all this makes my skin itch. I remember taking my kids to the dentist and getting extra fluroide sealants on their molar teeth! My God.
You are the best mom i know..the smartest too. XO

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this information! I feel awful now that I had my oldest take flouride pills for so long and gave them flouride treatments at the dentist over the years. My oldest must have known because I would find those teeny pills in a jewelry box or under the bed, she hated them and didn't want to take them. I haven't given any flouride pills to my youngest but not for the reasons outlined in your entry, just because I couldn't afford the co-pay for them. I am glad now that I haven't!!! Keep the info coming! I find your blog incredibly helpful.
Hugs,
L

~Ann~ said...

Thank you for visiting my blog and the congratulations. WoW, you have so much information on this journal. I will definately be reading up.

*Bitch Cakes* said...

Wow- what a slap in the face! I had no idea, thank you for making me questions few things myself.

Julee Huy said...

Bridgett,
My kid's dentist is always telling me to give them fluoride, I'm always like yeah, yeah whatever! My son had a party at school and they had fluoride added kids water bottles, he came home and told me about it right away! :) It's funny how kids figure out their mom is crazy about that kind of stuff! :)

Thanks for this post, your posts are always so informative and honest.

Also, thanks for the comment on Nathan. I think he's a cutie too, but I'm biased ;) This does seem like a 3-4 year old learning to socialize issue so it did put my mind to rest to hear you deal with the same thing. You'd think I'd know this stuff, but I wasn't watching so closely when my other kids were this age I suppose. :)

Anyway, Thanks for the comment and the post!

The Queen said...

Hi, I stumbled here ,,and wow.. anyway.. I passed your blogsite on to these folks..(you may already be a part of that, I have no idea)

http://growtogether.ning.com/

I think you have a lot of info that young mother's need to check out.

I sure am going to pass you site on to my daughter...

thanks..
I hope that's ok...

The Queen...

Cynthia said...

I am just getting the change to really check this blog out.

I think I need to do some reading today. This is some great info. Now I know, no fluoride for my babies.

Ok off to read more.

:) Cynthia