The Effects of Fluoride on the Thyroid Gland

[JohnwithanhD]

I feel sorry for the horses if indeed this was caused by fluoridated water. The article is easy to find, but those seeking balance may like to know that the magazine it is published in is Namaste magazine, which states:

"Namaste is a magazine that gives you the opportunity to take that step back to give you a wider view, bring
you the news the mainstream media WON’T, give you health information the pharma-cartels HIDE and
the medical profession may not even know. We will endeavour to reveal what our politicians DARE NOT."

"There are powerful forces at work, manipulating and subverting our justice and governmental systems. Thus,
the all pervading deception is going unchecked by the People, as long as we are kept uninformed by the media, entertained and dumbed down by chemicals. There are only a few lone voices in the wilderness, sadly often quickly discredited or just simply ignored by so many."

You might expect this magazine to be hostile to fluoridation.

It is however important to remember that horses are not the same as people. (This is the reason that testing of drugs on rats or monkeys can never be entirely relied on.)

John

[JohnwithanhD]

Very few "facts" are irrefutable. Good science will recognise that.

> your postings lack any insight or scientific foundation

Well, I am not a scientist but it is important to have balance. I don't pretend to offer original insight. Your links are, I think, all to anti-fluoridation sites, so I would expect them to select evidence that suits them. The links I posted earlier mentioned both pro- and anti- fluoride positions. I could select websites that promote fluoridation and select evidence to back them up, but I don't see the point.

So many products are toxic in excess (including fluoride, I have no doubt). How much is too much will always be a matter of debate. I don't worry about the natural fluoride in my water, I don't worry about the fluoride in tea, I don't worry about the tiny amount added to my toothpaste. Car exhausts and pesticide residues probably do more damage to people than fluoride (certainly to asthmatics).

In your opinion, should I worry that the water in my area naturally has 1mg/l of fluoride? (I just checked on the Thames Water website). This is about the same amount as would be in artificially fluoridated water (the legal limits are 1.5mg/l but it usually stops at 1mg/l).

I don't have an axe to grind about this, and I can sympathise with your heartfelt feelings on this, but some balance is necessary in order that people can make up their minds.

John

[JohnwithanhD]

Sorry Yasmin, I find that article you linked to rather incoherent. Fluoride occurs naturally in our water here where I live, which is more than could be said for asbestos or uranium - certainly to any great extent, anyway. There are trace elements of fluoride, zinc, magnesium, etc in our water, our soil, etc. here in the UK.

The fact that the same people recommended fluoridation as recommended the use of uranium or asbestos is irrelevant (and emotively charged hyperbole, to be quite honest).

The human body is a wonderful thing. Most people's bodies either need or can deal with a certain excess of those minerals and toxins. Even asbestos can be tolerated to an extent though it's not really recommended! (I have a garage/shed lined with asbestos cement sheets which pose more of a hazard if they are disturbed than left alone. They are however only a maximum of 10% asbestos, and it's not the appallingly hazardous type).

Some people are more sensitive to some elements or toxins than others. Hence we have people with nut allergies or allergies/sensitivities to wheat, etc. There is a problem there for society and for individuals in how we deal with this. There is no ideal solution! And capitalism unfortunately interferes in the form of vested interests when it comes to any decision making in what we think of as a democracy.

Day to day, we probably cause our bodies more damage breathing in car exhausts. There are toxins in the exhausts of most cars which cause large parts of the country to exceed EU/WHO norms (and if you look at some of these toxins, they make the toxicity of fluoride pale into insignificance,and what's more, they go straight into our lungs). But we still all drive, or take buses, and get things delivered to us.

Fluoride isn't asbestos or uranium and it is all too easy to link them in an emotive manner.

I really am not a pro-fluoridation campaigner or anything of the sort. The anti-fluoridation campaigners might be entirely correct, but I am personally more concerned about airborne toxins and pesticide residues in food. I also get a bit suspicious with an over-emotive linking of unrelated substances (uranium, asbestos, fluoride). I could knock up a similar article that linked car exhausts with the gases used in Nazi death camps if I wanted to (but I won't); this would be no less of a tenuous link than the linked article.

John