Toothpaste, Fluoride, and your brain

[bit_pattern]

Listen... If you want to start a thread about the advantages of different foods I may contribute. But I'd rather not here. I didn't mean for what I said in passing to blow up like you always seem to make things do.

Lulz, you're the one who brought it up and kept trying to defend something that is patently false by bringing human growth hormone into the conversation. If you don't like that answers, stop asking the questions.

You say correlation doesn't equal causation and then you seem to jump the gun like to say it isn't a causative factor.

Where did I say that? I'm not saying that there is no causative relationship, I'm saying that drawing such broad and tentative links between lifespan of a region and the consumption of goji berries is idiotic and an exemplary variation on the JAQing Off fallacy that people who believe idiotic things so often like to throw into discussions like this.

Compared to other organic berries (blue), organic gojis are actually less expensive through some sources (by dry weight).

And you point being... what exactly?

 

[Stonerhenge]

The only thing I'm aware that fluoride does is weaken your bones and strengthen your teeth in small amounts. 3 mg of boron usually removes fluoride from bones. Fluoride doesn't have many effect on the brain unless taken in large doses.

 

[Tranced]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/fluoride_b_2479833.html

Harvard Study Confirms Fluoride Reduces Children's IQ


A recently-published Harvard University meta-analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has concluded that children who live in areas with highly fluoridated water have "significantly lower" IQ scores than those who live in low fluoride areas.

In a 32-page report that can be downloaded free of charge from Environmental Health Perspectives, the researchers said:

A recent report from the U.S. National Research Council (NRC 2006) concluded that adverse effects of high fluoride concentrations in drinking water may be of concern and that additional research is warranted. Fluoride may cause neurotoxicity in laboratory animals, including effects on learning and memory ...
To summarize the available literature, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies on increased fluoride exposure in drinking water and neurodevelopmental delays. We specifically targeted studies carried out in rural China that have not been widely disseminated, thus complementing the studies that have been included in previous reviews and risk assessment reports ...
Findings from our meta-analyses of 27 studies published over 22 years suggest an inverse association between high fluoride exposure and children's intelligence ... The results suggest that fluoride may be a developmental neurotoxicant that affects brain development at exposures much below those that can cause toxicity in adults ...
Serum-fluoride concentrations associated with high intakes from drinking-water may exceed 1 mg/L, or 50 Smol/L, thus more than 1000-times the levels of some other neurotoxicants that cause neurodevelopmental damage. Supporting the plausibility of our findings, rats exposed to 1 ppm (50 Smol/L) of water-fluoride for one year showed morphological alterations in the brain and increased levels of aluminum in brain tissue compared with controls ...
In conclusion, our results support the possibility of adverse effects of fluoride exposures on children's neurodevelopment. Future research should formally evaluate dose-response relations based on individual-level measures of exposure over time, including more precise prenatal exposure assessment and more extensive standardized measures of neurobehavioral performance, in addition to improving assessment and control of potential confounders.

Studies Have Repeatedly Linked Fluoride to Reduced IQ and Brain Damage

There are so many scientific studies showing the direct, toxic effects of fluoride on your body, it's truly remarkable that it's NOT considered a scientific consensus by now. Despite the evidence against it, fluoride is still added to 70 percent of U.S. public drinking water supplies.

It amazes me that the medical (and dental) communities are so stubbornly resistant to connect the dots when it comes to the skyrocketing increase of cognitive decline in adults and behavioral issues in children (ADD, ADHD, depression and learning disabilities of all kinds). In fact, there have been more than 23 human studies and 100 animal studies linking fluoride to brain damage. Fluoride can also increase manganese absorption, compounding problems, since manganese in drinking water has also been linked to lower IQ in children.

Reported effects of fluoride on your brain include:

• Reduction in nicotinic acetylcholine receptors
• Damage to your hippocampus
• Formation of beta-amyloid plaques (the classic brain abnormality in Alzheimer's disease)
• Reduction in lipid content
• Damage to purkinje cells
• Exacerbation of lesions induced by iodine deficiency
• Impaired antioxidant defense systems
• Increased uptake of aluminum
• Accumulation of fluoride in your pineal gland

Harmful Effects Have Been Known for Half a Century

What is perhaps most surprising is that the harmful effects of fluoride have been known by conventional medical organizations for over half a century. For example, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) stated in their Sept. 18, 1943 issue that fluorides are general protoplasmic poisons that change the permeability of the cell membrane by certain enzymes. And, an editorial published in the Journal of the American Dental Association on Oct. 1, 1944, stated:

Drinking water containing as little as 1.2 ppm fluoride will cause developmental disturbances. We cannot run the risk of producing such serious systemic disturbances. The potentialities for harm outweigh those for good.

Part of the problem is that it's an accumulative toxin that, over time, can lead to significant health problems that are not immediately linked to fluoride over-exposure. In a 2005 paper entitled "Fluoride -- A Modern Toxic Waste," Lita Lee, Ph.D. writes:

Yiamouyiannis' book, Fluoride, The Aging Factor, documents the cumulative effect of tissue damage by fluoride, commonly seen as aging (collagen damage), skin rashes and acne, gastrointestinal disorders, and many other conditions, including osteoporosis. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and the Safe Water Foundation reported that 30,000 to 50,000 excess deaths occur in the United States each year in areas in which the water contains only one ppm fluoride ...
Fluoride suppresses the immune system: Fluoride inhibits the movement of white blood cells by 70 percent, thereby decreasing their ability to reach their target. Yiamouyiannis cites 15 references in his pamphlet, Lifesavers Guide to Fluoridation, that document immunosuppressive effects of as little as 10 percent of the amount of fluoride used in fluoridated water ... Immunosuppressive effects run the gamut, from a cold that won't go away to increased risk of cancer and other infectious diseases.

Studies have shown that fluoride toxicity can lead to a wide variety of health problems, including:

• Increased lead absorption
• Disrupts synthesis of collagen
• Hyperactivity and/or lethargy
• Muscle disorders
• Thyroid disease
• Arthritis
• Dementia
• Bone fractures
• Lowered thyroid function
• Bone cancer (osteosarcoma)
• Inactivates 62 enzymes and inhibits more than 100
• Inhibited formation of antibodies
• Genetic damage and cell death
• Increased tumor and cancer rate
• Disrupted immune system
• Damaged sperm and increased infertility

Suppressed Science: Fluoride Link to Cancer

Long-lost research linking fluoride to cancer has resurfaced in a Dutch film clip featuring Dr. Dean Burk, who in 1937 cofounded the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and headed its cytochemistry department for more than 30 years. In the taped interview, he equates water fluoridation to "public murder," referring to a study that had been done on the 10 largest U.S. cities with fluoridation compared to the 10 largest without it. The study demonstrated that deaths from cancer abruptly rose in as little as a year or two after fluoridation began. This and other studies linking fluoride to cancer were government-ordered but were quickly buried once fluoride was found to be linked to dramatic increases in cancer.

Six Facts You Need to Know About Water Fluoridation:

Thoughts?

 

[brink]

It's a conspiracy. Like vaccines.

Well water also contains fluoride, and one should realistically be more concerned about the levels from a natural source, as they are not held to any EPA regulations.

Per CDC: "A 2008 U.S. Geological Survey study found that 4% of sampled wells had natural fluoride levels above the EPA Secondary Maximum Contaminant Level (SMCL) of 2 mg/L. A smaller set of 1.2% of all wells exceeded the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 4 mg/L. If you have a home well, the EPA recommends having a sample of your water analyzed by a laboratory at least once every three years. Check with your dentist, physician, or public health department to learn how to have your home well water tested."

Of course, the CDC may be out to get you... What better way to carry out "brainwashing" but via water. :D

 

[Tranced]

It's a conspiracy. Like vaccines.

Well water also contains fluoride, and one should realistically be more concerned about the levels from a natural source, as they are not held to any EPA regulations.

Per CDC: "A 2008 U.S. Geological Survey study found that 4% of sampled wells had natural fluoride levels above the EPA Secondary Maximum Contaminant Level (SMCL) of 2 mg/L. A smaller set of 1.2% of all wells exceeded the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 4 mg/L. If you have a home well, the EPA recommends having a sample of your water analyzed by a laboratory at least once every three years. Check with your dentist, physician, or public health department to learn how to have your home well water tested."

Of course, the CDC may be out to get you... What better way to carry out "brainwashing" but via water. :D

Yeah but if you add fluoride then it's natural levels + extra. So regardless of whatever you'd have naturally, you'd have all the added fluoride on top.

I don't have an opinion on this as such. It's just that I was reading this thread around the same time that a friend refused tap water at a restaurant, and I thought mainstream media reporting like this might be interesting.

 

[brink]

Yeah but if you add fluoride then it's natural levels + extra. So regardless of whatever you'd have naturally, you'd have all the added fluoride on top.

I don't have an opinion on this as such. It's just that I was reading this thread around the same time that a friend refused tap water at a restaurant, and I thought mainstream media reporting like this might be interesting.

No doubt, it's important to avoid ingesting too much fluoride. The old saying that the dose makes the poison rings true. Referenced information about toxic levels may be accurate in those cases, though it shouldn't be a huge concern in well developed and regulated areas; That part is most often conveniently left out. To be sure, it would be worth testing municipal water to clarify particulates or constituents, if concerned.

Thanks for not reading my opinion as a personal slight - I didn't intend to assume any stance, and none was made.

Hopefully readers won't buy into overall hype surrounding fluoride.
A majority of anti-fluoride articles out there amount to conspiracy propaganda, and are essentially presented in such black and white terms as "fluoride=bad" and "no fluoride=good". Any official research showing otherwise tends to be portrayed as clandestinely malicious in nature.