Studies Show Fluoride Can Lead to Hypothyroidism
Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 10:09AM Lizzy Hi friends,
Happy Saturday! Today I want to share some info about fluoride.
First I want to say there is so much to keep track of when it comes to our health, it can all get overwhelming sometimes. And with foggy brains from hypothyroidism, I know it's especially hard to remember everything! I never want to make you feel bad or like you should be doing more (you're doing great!). This information about fluoride and its relationship to thyroid function is incredibly interesting, so I wanted to share.
All these years I've been thinking fluoride was good (or I didn't think much about it at all). It's in drinking water and toothpaste, dentists do fluoride treatments on our kids. Fluoride is everywhere. But I recently read studies about how fluoride is really, really bad for our bodies, especially for the thyroid. This article on Dr. Mercola reports that fluoride can lead to breast cancer, ADHD, arthritis, and low thyroid (hypothyroidism).
The history of fluoride is actually really fascinating, dating back to the post war 1940s USA when companies like ALCOA had to find a way to get rid of the hazardous contaminants from the aluminum smelting process, which included fluoride. Somehow fluoride ended up being added to the water supply to "help protect our teeth" even though studies show it's toxic.
Fluoride in its many forms may be one of the most toxic of industrial pollutants.
- Christopher Byron, The Flouride Deception
I won't get into the conspiracy theories or speculate on why fluoride is still being used. A really important detail about fluoride is that it displaces iodine in the body. As Dr. Jarvis wrote, iodine is necessary for thyroid function. So if iodine is being displaced by fluoride that spells bad news for thyroid function. But have hope! Here are a few things I am doing to protect myself and my family from fluoride exposure:
Water
My town has fluoridated water, so I am going to fork over the money for bottled water (I will have to cut back on my Starbuck's budget, but it's worth it.)
Toothpaste
I switched to fluoride free toothpaste. I like JASON which I buy at Whole Foods. But you can also make your own toothpaste using a 50/50 mix of coconut oil and baking soda. According to this site and other sources, coconut oil is a great antibacterial and anti fungal. For flavor use a few drops of an essential oil like peppermint, and for a sugar-free sweetener try liquid stevia.
Fluoride Treatments for Kids
After reading articles like this one about fluoride treatments for kids being pointless. On the Fluoride Alert site, they wrote about a study of over 15k kids in Michigan, and it made no real difference in cavity count if the kids had fluoride treatments or not. I decided to be cautious with my son not have him get fluoride treatments at the dentist. When I told the dentist "no thanks" to fluoride, she looked at me like I had three heads. But I am used to that. ;-)
Iodine
I am a loyalist to Dr. Jarvis and Dr. Brownstein who both write about the usefulness of Iodine, which can be bought through the store, or many other places online.
Final Musings
I know I sound like a hemp-buying, organic preaching, conspiracy theorist, health nut (not that there's anything wrong with that). But I'm really not (well, maybe partly, but I wear high heels instead of Birkenstocks). More appropriately, above all else I would say I am "hypothyroidism activist."
xxoo
Lizzy
More Reading
If you want to learn more about fluoride here are some interesting resources:
Dangers of Fluoride (video)
Reader Comments (2)
Just curious whether or not you have had any problems with cavities since you started using the fluoride free toothpaste? I'm all for it, as I have both hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue and want to cut out anything that might stress them, but I also wouldn't want to get cavities as a result of stopping the fluoride toothpaste. Dentists are so crazy about the stuff, as you probably know. And I've never understood why people want it in their drinking water.
Hi Ashley, So far I've been cavity-free and didn't use flouride toothpaste for a couple of years (this month I am trying a whitening toothpaste, which sadly does have fluoride). Anyway after my next dentist appointment I will post an update. There is so much debate about flouride, I tend to be cautious.