Medical Advisor to Thyroid UK

There is a daunting amount of research studies showing that the widely acclaimed
benefits on fluoride dental health are more imagined than real. My main concern
however, is the effect of sustained fluoride intake on general health. Again,
there is a huge body of research literature on this subject, freely available
and in the public domain.

But this body of work was not considered by the York Review when their remit was
changed from Studies of the effects of fluoride on health to Studies on the
effects of fluoridated water on health." It is clearly evident that it was not
considered by the BMA (Britsh Medical Association), British Dental Association
(BDA), BFS (British Fluoridation Society) and FPHM, (Faculty for Public Health
and Medicine) since they all insist, as in the briefing paper to Members of
Parliament - that fluoridation is safe and non-injurious to health.

This is a public disgrace, I will now show by reviewing the damaging effects of
fluoridation, with special reference to thyroid illness.

It has been known since the latter part of the 19th century that certain
communities, notably in Argentina, India and Turkey were chronically ill, with
premature ageing, arthritis, mental retardation, and infertility; and high
levels of natural fluorides in the water were responsible. Not only was it clear
that the fluoride was having a general effect on the health of the community,
but in the early 1920s Goldemberg, working in Argentina showed that fluoride was
displacing iodine; thus compounding the damage and rendering the community also
hypothyroid from iodine deficiency.

Highly damaging to the thyroid gland

This was the basis of the research in the 1930s of May, Litzka, Gorlitzer von
Mundy, who used fluoride preparations to treat over-active thyroid illness.
Their patients either drank fluoridated water, swallowed fluoride pills or were
bathed in fluoridated bath water; and their thyroid function was as a result,
greatly depressed. The use in 1937 of fluorotyrosine for this purpose showed how
effective this treatment was; but the effectiveness was difficult to predict and
many patients suffered total thyroid loss. So it was given a new role and
received a new name, Pardinon. It was marketed not for over-active thyroid
disease but as a pesticide. (Note the manufacturer of fluorotyrosine was IG
Farben who also made sarin, a gas used in World War II).

This bit of history illustrates the fact that fluorides are dangerous in general
and in particular highly damaging to the thyroid gland, a matter to which I
shall return shortly. While it is unlikely that it will be disputed that
fluorides are toxic - let us be reminded that they are Schedule 2 Poisons under
the Poisons Act 1972, the matter in dispute is the level of toxicity
attributable to given amounts; in todays context the degree of damage caused by
given concentrations in the water supply. While admitting its toxicity,
proponents rely on the fact that it is diluted and therefore, it is claimed,
unlikely to have deleterious effects.

They could not be more mistaken

It seems to me that we must be aware of how fluoride does its damage. It is an
enzyme poison. Enzymes are complex protein compounds that vastly speed up
biological chemical reactions while themselves remaining unchanged. As we speak,
there occurs in all of us a vast multitude of these reactions to maintain life
and produce the energy to sustain it. The chains of amino acids that make up
these complex proteins are linked by simple compounds called amides; and it is
with these that fluorine molecules react, splitting and distorting them, thus
damaging the enzymes and their activity. Let it be said at once, this effect can
occur at extraordinary low concentrations; even lower than the one part per
million which is the dilution proposed for fluoridation in our water supply.

The body can only eliminate half

Moreover, fluorides are cumulative and build up steadily with ingestion of
fluoride from all sources, which include not just water but the air we breathe
and the cooking.net">food we eat. The use of fluoride toothpaste in dental hygiene and the
coating of teeth are further sources of substantial levels of fluoride intake.
The body can only eliminate half of the total intake, which means that the older
you are the more fluoride will have accumulated in your body. Inevitably this
means the ageing population is particularly targeted. And even worse for the
very young there is a major element of risk in baby formula made with
fluoridated water. The extreme sensitivity of the very young to fluoride
toxicity makes this unacceptable. Since there are so many sources of fluoride in
our everyday living, it will prove impossible to maintain an average level of
1ppm as is suggested.

What is the result of these toxic effects?

First the immune system. The distortion of protein structure causes the immune
proteins to fail to recognise body proteins, and so instigate an attack on them,
which is Autoimmune Disease. Autoimmune diseases constitute a body of disease
processes troubling many thousands of people: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Systemic
Lupus Erythematosis, Asthma and Systemic Sclerosis are examples; but in my
particular context today, thyroid antibodies will be produced which will cause
Thyroiditis resulting in the common hypothyroid disease, Hashimotos Disease and
the hyperthyroidism of Graves Disease.

Musculo Skeletal damage results further from the enzyme toxic effect; the
collagen tissue of which muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones are made, is
damaged. Rheumatoid illness, osteoporosis and deformation of bones inevitably
follow. This toxic effect extends to the ameloblasts making tooth enamel, which
is consequently weakened and then made brittle; and its visible appearance is,
of course, dental fluorosis.

The enzyme poison effect extends to our genes; DNA cannot repair itself, and
chromosomes are damaged. Work at the University of Missouri showed {*filter*}
damage, targeting ovaries and testes. Also affected is inter uterine growth and
development of the foetus, especially the nervous system. Increased incidence of
Downs Syndrome has been documented.
Fluorides are mutagenic. That is, they can cause the uncontrolled proliferation
of cells we call cancer. This applies to cancer anywhere in the body; but bones
are particularly picked out. The incidence of osteosarcoma in a study reporting
in 1991 showed an unbelievable 50% increase. A report in 1955 in the New England
Journal of Medicine showed a 400% increase in cancer of the thyroid in San
Francisco during the period their water was fluoridated.

My particular concern is the effect of fluorides on the thyroid gland

Perhaps I may remind you about thyroid disease. The thyroid gland produces
hormones which control our metabolism - the rate at which we burn our fuel.
Deficiency is relatively common, much more than is generally accepted by many
medical authorities: a figure of 1:4 or 1:3 by mid life is more likely. The
illness is insidious in its onset and progression. People become tired, cold,
overweight, depressed, constipated; they suffer arthritis, hair loss,
infertility, atherosclerosis and chronic illness. Sadly, it is poorly diagnosed
and poorly managed by very many doctors in this country.
What concerns me so deeply is that in concentrations as low as 1ppm, fluorides
damage the thyroid system on 4 levels.

1. The enzyme manufacture of thyroid hormones within the thyroid gland itself.
The process by which iodine is attached to the amino acid tyrosine and converted
to the two significant thyroid hormones, thyroxine (T4) and liothyronine (T3),
is slowed.

2. The stimulation of certain G proteins from the toxic effect of fluoride
(whose function is to govern uptake of substances into each of the cells of the
body), has the effect of switching off the uptake into the cell of the active
thyroid hormone.

3. The thyroid control mechanism is compromised. The thyroid stimulating hormone
output from the pituitary gland is inhibited by fluoride, thus reducing thyroid
output of thyroid hormones.

4. Fluoride competes for the receptor sites on the thyroid gland which respond
to the thyroid stimulating hormone; so that less of this hormone reaches the
thyroid gland and so less thyroid hormone is manufactured.
These damaging effects, all of which occur with small concentrations of
fluoride, have obvious and easily identifiable effects on thyroid status. The
running down of thyroid hormone means a slow slide into hypothyroidism. Already
the incidence of hypothyroidism is increasing as a result of other environmental
toxins and pollutions together with wide spread nutritional deficiencies.

141 million Europeans are at risk

One further factor should give us deep anxiety. Professor Hume of Dundee, in his
paper given earlier this year to the Novartis Foundation, pointed out that
iodine deficiency is growing worldwide. There are 141 million Europeans are at
risk; only 5 European countries are iodine sufficient. UK now falls into the
marginal and focal category. Professor Hume recently produced figures to show
that 40% of pregnant women in the Tayside region of Scotland were deficient by
at least half of the iodine required for a normal pregnancy. A relatively high
level of missing, decayed, filled teeth was noted in this non-fluoridated area,
suggesting that the iodine deficiency was causing early hypothyroidism which
interferes with the health of teeth. Dare one speculate on the result of now
fluoridating the water?...

Displaces iodine in the body

Do you think it should be marketed?
Fluoridation of the nations water supply will do little for our dental health;
but will have catastrophic effects on our general health. We cannot, must not,
dare not, subject our ...

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