To Fluorinate or not to Fluorinate, that is the question?

Okay, it is another water article, but these questions keep coming up. For years there has been a battle raging between advocates of fluoride, the fluorinators, and those that promoting pure water, the puritans, no religious orientation suggested.

As early as 1961, as recorded in the Congressional Record, fluoride was tagged as a lethal poison in our nation water supply. Fluorinators claim that fluoride is a naturally occurring element and has a hand in developing and maintaining strong bones and teeth. The puritans claim that the fluoride in our water supply promotes the building of a lesser grade of bone, thus increasing the incidence of hip fractures in fluorinated populations as well as causing damage to the immune system. The Delaney Congressional Investigation Committee, a government entity designed to evaluate additives to our food supply, states “fluoridation is mass medication without parallel in the history of medicine.”

I heard that some fluoride is not toxic, is that true?

Yes. Fluoride in its natural form, calcium fluoride is not toxic, but this is not the fluoride in our water supply. The fluoride salts used in the water supply are sodium fluoride and fluorosalicic acid. These are industrial byproducts that are never found in nature, unless of course they have been dumped there. These forms of fluoride are highly toxic to such an extent that they are used in rat poison and insecticides.

Doesn’t fluoride in water help build bone?

Again we are specifically speaking about the industrial byproducts here, the toxic fluoride salts. Bone is basically two parts, the mineralized part, which makes bone hard, and the collagen part giving bone its pliability. Fluoride disorganizes bone collagen thus weakening bone strength. Some studies suggest fluoride salts increase mineralization, but in this instance you increase one part of bone, but mess up the other part, and in doing so you messing up the whole thing. Body processes are a balance, ying and yang. If you tip the scale too far to one side then the other side suffers. Fluoride induced collagen fragmentation leads to inflammation and cartilage destruction and the eventual loss of the “cushioning effect” in the event of a fall.

Can’t fluoride be added in safe amounts?

The EPA states that 1ppm (part per million) of fluoride in the water is acceptable. Then it was learned that some towns have much higher natural levels of fluoride in their water supply, up to 4 ppm. Remember this is natural fluoride, not the industrial byproducts. The EPA subsequently raised its standards. This is in addition to fluoride ingested from all processed foods made with fluorinated municipal water supplies. Fluoride (natural) is the 13th most widely distributed element on earth, so it turns up just about everywhere, like in fruits and veggies.

My take on the subject

Health is a balance monitored exquisitely by your nervous system. If there is any controversy around adding a potentially toxic substance, I look to see what Mother Nature is doing, she is very rarely wrong. Therefore, I recommend that my patients drink distilled water.