Fluoride intro:
Fluoride is a binary compound of fluorine and tin.
Fluoride deficiency signs:
As fluoride is not considered an essential mineral, it does not have an associated deficiency state. Regardless, people living in areas with low concentrations of fluoride in the drinking water do appear to be at a higher risk of significant tooth decay than those living in areas with high amounts of natural or added fluoride.
Fluoride sources and dosage:
Fluoride is a trace mineral found in varying concentrations in foods and in water. Foods high in fluoride include fish, tea, and many different vegetables. Fluoride is added into the municipal water supply of many cities in the United States. For those people without access to fluoridated water, fluoride supplements are available in the forms of tablets and drops. These supplements are not available without a prescription. Many non-prescription dental care products contain fluoride as well, including toothpastes and mouthwashes. Drinking water containing 1 mg of fluoride per liter is considered to be roughly the optimal amount for the prevention of tooth decay. For those without access to fluoridated drinking water, chewable fluoride tablets containing 0.25 to 1 mg per day of fluoride or fluoride mouthrinses with 0.05% to 0.2% fluoride content can be used. Liquid fluoride drops are also available.
Fluoride is treatment for:
Tooth decay Osteoporosis
Fluoride side effects
The risks associated with fluoridation of the public water supply have been the subject of vigorous and often heated debate since fluoridation began in 1945. Although much research has been done regarding the safety of fluoridation, a recent review found all prior studies to be of sub-optimal quality and far from definitive. Some, but not all, studies have found a correlation between the amount of fluoride intake and increased risk of osteoporotic fractures. The validity of the studies that found increased risk of fracture in communities with fluoridated water has been questioned by some scientists. A pooled analysis of 29 studies on this issue concluded that there did not appear to be an increased risk of fracture in areas of water fluoridation. Dental fluorosis, a brown staining of teeth due to fluoride exposure during childhood, is the best-documented adverse effect of fluoride. At a water fluoride level of 1 part per million (or 1 mg per liter), roughly 13% will have fluorosis to an aesthetically concerning degree. Some scientists have concluded that water fluoridation is associated with an increased risk of bone tumors, although most others disagree. At the time of writing, there were no well-known drug interactions with fluoride.
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackback“Second Thoughts about Fluoride,” reports Scientific American
New York - January 2, 2008 — “Some recent studies suggest that over-consumption of fluoride can raise the risks of disorders affecting teeth, bones, the brain and the thyroid gland,” reports Scientific American editors (January 2008). “Scientific attitudes toward fluoridation may be starting to shift,” writes author Dan Fagin.
“Fluoride, the most consumed drug in the USA, is deliberately added to 2/3 of public water supplies theoretically to reduce tooth decay, but with no scientifically-valid evidence proving safety or effectiveness,” says lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.
Fagin, award-wining environmental reporter and Director of New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program, writes, “There is no universally accepted optimal level for daily intake of fluoride.” Some researchers even wonder whether the 1 mg/L added into drinking water is too much, reports Fagin.
After 3 years of scrutinizing hundreds of studies, a National Research Council (NRC) committee “concluded that fluoride can subtly alter endocrine function, especially in the thyroid – the gland that produces hormones regulating growth and metabolism,” reports Fagin.
Fagin quotes John Doull, professor emeritus of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, who chaired the NRC committee thusly, “The thyroid changes do worry me.”
Fluoride in foods, beverages, medicines and dental products can result in fluoride over-consumption, visible in young children as dental fluorosis – white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth. We can’t normally see fluoride’s effects to the rest of the body.
Reports Fagin, “a series of epidemiological studies in China have associated high fluoride exposures with lower IQ.”
“(E)pidemiological studies and tests on lab animals suggest that high fluoride exposure increases the risk of bone fracture, especially in vulnerable populations such as the elderly and diabetics,” writes Fagin.
Fagin interviewed Steven Levy, director of the Iowa Fluoride Study which tracked about 700 Iowa children for sixteen years. Nine-year-old “Iowa children who lived in communities where the water was fluoridated were 50 percent more likely to have mild fluorosis… than [nine-year-old] children living in nonfluoridated areas of the state,” writes Fagin. Levy will study fluoride’s effects on their bones.
Over 1700 professionals urge Congress to cease water fluoridation and conduct Congressional hearings because scientific evidence indicates fluoridation is ineffective and has serious health risks. Support them; write your representative here:
http://congress.fluorideaction.net
“(G)enetic, environmental and even cultural factors appear to leave some people much more susceptible to the effects of fluoride,” writes Fagin
“What the [NRC] committee found is that we’ve gone with the status quo regarding fluoride … for too long… and now we need to take a fresh look,” Doull says, “ In the scientific community, people tend to think that its settled… But when we looked at the studies that have been done, we found that many of these questions are unsettled and we have much less information than we should, considering how long this [fluoridation] has been going on. I think that’s why fluoridation is still being challenged so many years after it began, In the face of ignorance, controversy is rampant.”
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