Unfortunately, fluoride gets a bad rap in a lot of holistic, alternative medicine and natural living communities, based on widely-spread myths. But I'm here to debunk some of those myths!
1. The Nazis used fluoride in concentration camps to pacify the Jews!
No they didn't.
Patricia Heberer, a historian who specializes in the German medical community and Holocaust-era experimentation, debunked this myth. Acorrding to Patricia, none of the Nazi experimentation that she knows of involved fluoride.
Another form of this myth is that fluoride was delivered to Jewish ghettos for mind control. However, in the final days before the Nazi take over, the water lines rarely delivered any water.
Even other anti-fluoridation groups don't believe this myth.
Paul Connett, a chemist who directs the Fluoride Action Network, said himself : "We have done our level best to discourage opponents of fluoridation from using this emotive argument. The historical evidence for this assertion is extremely weak. It is sad that the U.S. media has done such a bad job of educating the public on this issue that it is so easy for crazy ideas to fill the vacuum." [3]
2. Fluoride is toxic
Oh, holistic lovers and alternative med-heads alike. You sure love the word toxic. You throw it around like a dog with a bone. Like a young child with a ball...
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| "Everything written in red is toxic!" "But EVERYTHING is in red!" |
But like everything, the dose makes the poison. Even oxygen and organic kale is deadly if you get enough of it.
But how much fluoride would you need to ingest for it to harm you? A lot. A human, adult man at 155 lbs, would need to ingest 5-10 grams of sodium fluoride all at once for it to harm him. Doesn't sound like much? It is. It's more than 10,000 - 20,000 times as much fluoride as is consumed when drinking an 8oz glass of optimally fluoridated water. So, essentially, you would have to drink 10,000 glasses of water all at once for it to harm you. [4]
3. Fluoride causes cancer!
More than 50 epidemiologic studies have been preformed in different populations and at different times since the introduction of community water fluoridation. They have all failed to demonstrate an association between fluoridation and a risk of cancer.
This myth is largely based on one study that compared cancer death rates in ten large fluoridated cities versus ten large nonfluoridated cities in the United States. However, the results of this study have been refuted multiple times, and scientists at the National Cancer Institute analysed the same data, finding that the original investigators failed to adjust their findings for variables such as gender and age differences that drastically affect cancer rates. [5]
4. Fluoride inhibits the activity of enzymes.
In the World Health Organization report 'Fluorides and Human Health", it states:
"No evidence has yet been provided that fluoride ingested at 1 ppm in the drinking water affects intermediary metabolism of food stuffs, vitamin utilization or either hormonal or enzymatic activity."
To produce significant inhibition of enzymes in labs, the concentration of fluoride used is a hundred times greater than the concentration present in body fluids or tissues. [6] This again brings up the point that the dose makes the poison.
5. Fluoride is a neurotoxin and can lower your intelligence / turn your brain to mashed potatoes
This myth also comes from another flawed study. This one completed in 1995 on rats.
The rats were fed fluoride of up to 125 times greater than what is found in optimally fluoridated water. The study attempted to show that rats fed extremely high levels of fluoride showed behavioral changes and cognitive deficits.
However, two scientists who reviewed the study suggested that the observations of the study can be easily explained by mechanisms that do not involve neurotoxicity. These scientists also found severe flaws in the foundation of the experiment itself, such as not including a control group to test validity.
A seven-year long study compared the health and behavior of children from birth to age 6 in communities with optimally fluoridated water with those of children without exposure to fluoridated water. The results? There was no evidence to indicate that exposure to properly fluoridated water had any detectable effect on children's health and behavior. [7]
Sources:
[1] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (2000). Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General. National Institute of Dental Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health. Rockville, MD.
[2] http://www.ada.org/en/public-programs/advocating-for-the-public/fluoride-and-fluoridation/fluoridation-faq - "Why would communities want to fluoridate tap water?"
[3] http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2011/oct/06/critics-water-fluoridation/truth-about-fluoride-doesnt-include-nazi-myth/
[4] http://www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/Member%20Center/FIles/fluoridation_facts.ashx - "Question 27. Is fluoride, as provided by community water fluoridation, a toxic substance?"
[5] http://www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/Member%20Center/FIles/fluoridation_facts.ashx - "Question 28. Does drinking optimally fluoridated water cause or accelerate the growth of cancer?"
[6] http://www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/Member%20Center/FIles/fluoridation_facts.ashx - "Question 29. Does fluoride, as provided by community water fluoridation, inhibit the activity of enzymes in humans?"
[7] http://www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/Member%20Center/FIles/fluoridation_facts.ashx - "Question 36. Does ingestion of optimally fluoridated water have any neurological impact?"
If you'd like to learn more about fluoride safety, visit the following:
This myth is largely based on one study that compared cancer death rates in ten large fluoridated cities versus ten large nonfluoridated cities in the United States. However, the results of this study have been refuted multiple times, and scientists at the National Cancer Institute analysed the same data, finding that the original investigators failed to adjust their findings for variables such as gender and age differences that drastically affect cancer rates. [5]
4. Fluoride inhibits the activity of enzymes.
In the World Health Organization report 'Fluorides and Human Health", it states:
"No evidence has yet been provided that fluoride ingested at 1 ppm in the drinking water affects intermediary metabolism of food stuffs, vitamin utilization or either hormonal or enzymatic activity."
To produce significant inhibition of enzymes in labs, the concentration of fluoride used is a hundred times greater than the concentration present in body fluids or tissues. [6] This again brings up the point that the dose makes the poison.
5. Fluoride is a neurotoxin and can lower your intelligence / turn your brain to mashed potatoes
This myth also comes from another flawed study. This one completed in 1995 on rats.
The rats were fed fluoride of up to 125 times greater than what is found in optimally fluoridated water. The study attempted to show that rats fed extremely high levels of fluoride showed behavioral changes and cognitive deficits.
However, two scientists who reviewed the study suggested that the observations of the study can be easily explained by mechanisms that do not involve neurotoxicity. These scientists also found severe flaws in the foundation of the experiment itself, such as not including a control group to test validity.
A seven-year long study compared the health and behavior of children from birth to age 6 in communities with optimally fluoridated water with those of children without exposure to fluoridated water. The results? There was no evidence to indicate that exposure to properly fluoridated water had any detectable effect on children's health and behavior. [7]
Sources:
[1] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (2000). Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General. National Institute of Dental Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health. Rockville, MD.
[2] http://www.ada.org/en/public-programs/advocating-for-the-public/fluoride-and-fluoridation/fluoridation-faq - "Why would communities want to fluoridate tap water?"
[3] http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2011/oct/06/critics-water-fluoridation/truth-about-fluoride-doesnt-include-nazi-myth/
[4] http://www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/Member%20Center/FIles/fluoridation_facts.ashx - "Question 27. Is fluoride, as provided by community water fluoridation, a toxic substance?"
[5] http://www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/Member%20Center/FIles/fluoridation_facts.ashx - "Question 28. Does drinking optimally fluoridated water cause or accelerate the growth of cancer?"
[6] http://www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/Member%20Center/FIles/fluoridation_facts.ashx - "Question 29. Does fluoride, as provided by community water fluoridation, inhibit the activity of enzymes in humans?"
[7] http://www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/Member%20Center/FIles/fluoridation_facts.ashx - "Question 36. Does ingestion of optimally fluoridated water have any neurological impact?"
If you'd like to learn more about fluoride safety, visit the following:
- http://www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/Member%20Center/FIles/fluoridation_facts.ashx
- http://www.ada.org/en/public-programs/advocating-for-the-public/fluoride-and-fluoridation/fluoridation-faq
- http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/fluoride.cfm
- http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/faqs/
- http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation
- http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2011/oct/06/critics-water-fluoridation/truth-about-fluoride-doesnt-include-nazi-myth/
- http://www.oda.on.ca/personal-oral-care/fluoride-in-your-tap-water
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=water+fluoridation
- http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/naturalhazards/en/index2.html
- http://www.health.gov/environment/ReviewofFluoride/default.htm
- http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11571&page=R1
- http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301857
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