BY SIMONE J. SMITH
According to the National Institutes of Health (https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Fluoride-HealthProfessional/) fluoride is naturally present in many foods. It is said to inhibit or reverse the initiation and progression of dental caries (tooth decay) and stimulates new bone formation.
Soil, water, plants, and foods contain trace amounts of fluoride. Most of the fluoride that people consume comes from fluoridated water (which we will talk about in a moment), foods and beverages prepared with fluoridated water, and toothpaste and other dental products containing fluoride.
The site states that approximately 80% or more of orally ingested fluoride is absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract. In adults, about 50% of absorbed fluoride is retained, and bones and teeth store about 99% of fluoride in the body. The other 50% is excreted in urine. In young children, up to 80% of absorbed fluoride is retained in their bones and teeth.
Since 1962, the U.S. Public Health Service has recommended the addition of fluoride to drinking (tap) water to reduce the risk and severity of dental caries, one of the most common chronic diseases in children. Countries around the world now adjust the fluoride concentration of community drinking water supplies to the level recommended for the prevention of dental caries.
Most of the toothpaste sold in the United States contains fluoride in the form of sodium fluoride or monofluorophosphate. The amount of fluoride ingestion from toothpaste depends on the amount used, the person’s swallowing control, and how often the person uses toothpaste. Estimated typical amounts of fluoride ingested daily from toothpaste are 0.1 mg to 0.25 mg for infants and children aged 0 to 5 years, 0.2 to 0.3 mg for children aged 6–12 years, and 0.1 mg for adults. Now, let’s discuss why this is a very serious, and yet rarely discussed problem.
When you get a chance, I would like for you to visit a website called Fluoride Alert Network (https://fluoridealert.org/). FAN’s mission is to broaden awareness among citizens, scientists, and policymakers on the toxicity of fluoride compounds. They provide comprehensive and up-to-date information about the impact of fluoride on the general public.
In one of their extensive reviews conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP), they concluded that fluoride is presumed to be a cognitive neurodevelopment hazard to humans. The NTP is the toxicology research division of the National Institute of Environment Health Sciences (NIEHS), and services: the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The review was requested in 2015 by FAN, because of the accumulating evidence that fluoride actually damages children’s brains. The NTP report identified 159 human epidemiological studies and over 300 animal studies and concluded, “When considering all the evidence, fluoride is presumed to be a cognitive neurodevelopmental hazard to humans. This is based on a consistent and robust pattern of findings in human studies demonstrating that higher fluoride exposure is associated with lower IQ and other cognitive effects in children.”
An association between elevated fluoride exposure and reduced intelligence has now been observed in 65 IQ studies. It is consistent with a large body of animal research where mice or rats tested with fluoride were found to suffer impairments in their learning and/or memory abilities. To be fair, there have been a few animal studies that have failed to find this association.
As of January 2022, a total of 83 studies have investigated the relationship between fluoride and human intelligence. Of these investigations, 74 studies have found that elevated fluoride exposure is associated with reduced IQ in humans. The human studies, which are based on IQ/cognitive examinations of 27,174 children (71 studies) and 689 adults (three studies) provide compelling evidence that fluoride exposure during the early years of life can damage a child’s developing brain. 27,174 children (71 studies) and 689 adults (3 studies), provide compelling evidence that fluoride exposure during the early years of life can damage a child’s developing brain.
What is interesting is that the NIH funded all of these studies. It is something to keep in mind, and I do suggest you find ways to limit the amount of fluoride that you are ingesting. Avoid drinking tap water, and use fluoride free toothpaste. These are small measures, but every little bit helps.
REFERENCES:
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Fluoride-HealthProfessional/
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