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Fluoride: Too Much of a Good Thing?
By Lisa Poisso
There may be more questions about fluoride — the white knight of cavity prevention — than we’ve assumed over a half-century of fluoridating city water and toothpaste. The National Research Council (NRC) has determined that the level of fluoride allowed in community drinking water is too high. Children who consume the highest level of fluoride permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could actually be damaging their teeth and setting themselves up for health risks including lower IQs and osteoporosis.
The rate of fluorosis, splotchy white or brown stains on the teeth that can sometimes lead to pitting of the tooth enamel, in American children have jumped from 23% to 32% in the past 20 years. A 2006 Harvard study even suggested a link between fluoridated water and a rare form of cancer in young boys.
Armed with the NRC date, the American Dental Association (ADA) issued a statement recommending that parents use non-fluoridated water or water with low fluoride content for mixing infant formula, to ensure babies don’t receive too much fluoride.
So what’s a parent to do? First of all, relax. The fluoride in the water supplies of most major cities fall well within the EPA’s recommended range of 0.7 – 1.2 parts per million.
The challenge, of course, is making sure your child isn’t picking up too much fluoride from other sources: toothpaste, dental treatments, foods and drinks made with fluoridated water. Most research shows that fluoride applied topically to teeth is more effective than fluoride ingested in food or liquids. Water is one of the easiest ways to do this, explains Dr. David Hale, assistant professor of pediatric dentistry at Dallas’ Baylor College of Dentistry. “The good thing about the fluoridated water is that it’s bathing the teeth each time the child has water to drink,” he says.
Limit your child’s fluoride
Considering the new questions being raised about fluoride, it makes sense to ensure your kids don’t get too much.
- Don’t use fluoride toothpaste if you’re not certain your child won’t swallow it (usually no sooner than three or four years of age), and only use a pea-sized amount. Or choose a non-fluoridated variety.
- Call your local water department to find out how much fluoride is in your area’s drinking water.
- If fluoride levels of drinking water at your child’s home, school or daycare exceed 2 ppm, drink non-fluoridated water or get a reverse-osmosis home filter system that removes fluoride.
- The ADA recommends breast milk for babies, but if you have to use formula, use ready-to-feed formula. The next best alternative is using non-fluoridated water for mixing powdered formula or concentrate.
- If your physician prescribes fluoride supplements despite your child’s drinking fluoridated water, ask why. See if a topical rinse would work just as well.
- Eat organic produce, avoid or limit mechanically deboned chicken (like nuggets and baby food) and limit colas, juice and tea made with fluoridated water.
Photo: Darwin Bell
3 Responses for “Fluoride: Too Much of a Good Thing?”
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[...] Is fluoride actually a healthy supplement? I, for one, am not convinced that solid research actually demonstrates that it is — and I prefer to limit my kids’ exposure. Find out how at this article over at DORway. [...]
Its very nice post and Worthful content. Thanks a lot.
Fluoride is just one more fine example of the manipulation of government agencies to create the false assumption that a deadly poison is harmless. What is ever more interesting is that there is actually a similarity to the “NUTRA” -Sweet analogy in that many ignorant Americans have come to actually regard the highly dangerous fluoride as a “nutrient” that they “need” to “protect their teeth”. Sodium Fluoride is a powerful POISON that has a Material Safety Data Sheet which may be viewed here:
http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/s3722.htm
I strongly suggest that anyone reading this post review this MSDS and the continue your quest for the TRUTH regarding YOUR HEALTH rather than blindly TRUSTING A CORRUPT GOVERNMENT AGENCY to spoon feed you THEIR LIES. You should also be aware that the white paste that makes up the abrasive component of most popular “toothpastes” is pure ALUMINUM HYDROXIDE with highly reactive Sodium Fluoride premixed into it. The majority of Americans are completely ignorant of the dangers of this seemingly “innocent” chemical “cocktail” but the chemical interaction created when Sodium Fluoride comes in CONTACT with aluminum is that it changes the aluminum to aluminum fluoride, which is readily absorbed into the bloodstream where it will oxidize, find its way to the cerebral cortex of our brain and bind with beta amyloid proteins found there. They then begin to release NEUROTOXINS at the bind sites which produce a CUMULATIVE EFFECT and eventually lead to the “senile plaques” which are widely recognized as the direct cause of Alzheimer’s disease.