Toxic

Jun

2019

Waking Up from the Fluoride Nightmare

By Ben Fuchs | PharmacistBen
Flouride nightmare? Pesticides. Fumigants. Prescription drugs. There are lots of nasty industrial 21st-century chemicals in our environment yet one that is intentionally, willfully and purposefully spewed into the environment is among the most toxic pollutants of all—it’s also the most unstable of all the elements—and that is fluoride. It’s poisonous, in fact deadly, nature is not in dispute. Fluoride is highly, highly reactive, especially to biological tissues. It burns so hot that it is not only useless to pour water on top of a fluoride fire, but fluoride flames are so hot and intense, they will literally burn water!

Fluoride’s “Slick” Reputation

Interestingly fluoride’s powerful magnetic properties make it valuable for non-stick purposes. In fact, fluoride has a reputation for being “the slickest” of all the elements. Check out these interesting fluoride facts:

It’s the only substance a gecko (a type of lizard whose Velcro-like feet allow it to adhere to and walk on pretty much anything upside down and sideways) will fall off of every time.
Fluoride is used in catheters and biological devices as an anti-microbial agent because bacteria can’t stick to it either.
The most famous use of fluoride’s slipperiness is in Teflon™, which is a type of fluoride known as Polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE. When we cook with ordinary pans, reactions between the food we’re frying or otherwise heating and the pan we’re using create a stickiness. That doesn’t happen with fluoride and The Chemours Company (formerly DuPont) figured out that it could take advantage of this property with PTFE a.k.a. Teflon.

Fluoride’s Relationship to Chemical Pollutants and Pesticides

Fluoride compounds were also used as propellants for aerosol canisters until it was discovered that they can destroy ozone and release toxic hydrogen fluoride gas into the atmosphere to boot.

What’s more, fluoride in the form of chemicals known by the names R-12 and CFC-12 (also made by Chemours/DuPont in a joint venture with GM), burn so hot that it actually creates a cooling effect by sucking in all the energy around it. When this hot chemical is run through coils it can actually create cool air that can be channeled, effectively turning heat to cold. That’s how an air conditioner works. We know these fluorinated gas compounds as a chemical called Freon™, which is Chemours/DuPont’s brand name for these fluorinated compounds. This process of sucking in heat from the environment and then creating emission of cold is also used in refrigerators. Freon is technically a type of chemical-family halogenated hydrocarbon or specifically fluorinated hydrocarbon. Which basically means it contains the element fluoride, the same stuff that’s in our water.

On the upside, fluoride is a great pesticide and fumigant. It’s used on lettuce, turnips, mustard greens, apricot, kiwi and especially grapes. Fluoride kills bugs too, even bed bugs, in a chemical called Vikane® made by Dow.

Fluoride in the Water Supply

Fluoride is also an industrial waste added to water supposedly to prevent cavities. It’s the most “electronegative” element on the periodic table (electronegative refers to its “pulling power”). You can think of it as magnetism. Fluoride is highly magnetic. It attaches itself to other minerals very efficiently whether those minerals are calcium, magnesium, aluminum, sodium or tin (stannous). This magnetic property is what is so prized by dentists, as it allows fluoride to stick to enamel and supposedly prevent acid from breaking it down. This is the mechanism behind the supposed “dental benefits” of fluoride, backed by the government’s and dental authorities’ assurances that fluoride water, toothpaste, dental gels and mouth rinses are important for us and our children to use on a regular basis.

The best way to avoid fluoride is to not drink tap water. If you don’t have a choice, make sure you’re using lots of Vitamin C, which has anti-fluoride effects. You can also get a water distiller or reverse osmosis machine.

The Debate on Fluoride and Cavities

The government tells us that fluoride is good for us because it prevents cavities. That’s their pitch and the way they, as Edward Bernays put it, “engineered consent” for its addition to the water supply. But whether toxic fluoride is actually anti-caries (anti-cavity) is not a conclusive fact. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “The prevalence of dental caries in a population is not inversely related to the concentration of fluoride in enamel, and a higher concentration of enamel fluoride is not necessarily more efficacious in preventing dental caries.”

Fluoride is a Drug with “Direct” Effects

While fluoride’s dental health benefits remain controversial, what is a fact and not subject to debate or controversy is the toxicity and lethality that is linked to fluoride.

Remember, we are talking about a drug here. Unlike with all drugs, the use of fluoride comes with what are euphemistically called “side effects,” which in actuality are not side but DIRECT effects of drugging of the water supply. Fluoridation of the water is literally compelling human beings to medicalization, for our own best interest of course.

If you take a look at the package insert that drug companies provide with their products, you’ll see that one of the side effects of the medication sodium fluoride is gastric distress and ulceration. And according to the package insert, “sodium fluoride…should not be used in patients with gastric problems.”

The raises the question: how much of unexplained gastric health issues (including ulcers, IBS, ulcerative colitis, nausea and vomiting) is simply the result of excessive ingestion of fluoridated drinking water? Fluoridated water contains a little less than three fluoride pills per gallon. Remember, these are prescription medications considered to be so toxic that you need a doctor’s prescription to get them, yet for every quart of fluoridated water you drink you’re basically getting three-quarters of a fluoride pill, which according to the manufacturer’s own information, can cause a whole range of side effects, including bone and joint problems, skin rashes and exacerbation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), in addition to the digestion reactions.

Has any doctor ever told an RA patient that fluoridated water, by the drug manufacturers’ own admission, can make rheumatoid arthritis worse?

Research Points to More Fluoride-Related Risks…Related to Cancer

It is possible that even colon cancer may be related, at least partially, to fluoride ingestion. While there’s not a lot of research that links fluoride directly to cancer or of the colon, according to National Toxicology Program research published in 1990, there is some “equivocal” (uncertain) evidence of bone cancer-causing potential of fluoridated drinking water in male rats.

A paper entitled Fluoride – A Modern Toxic Waste presents the research of Dr. John Yiamouyiannis, which shows that fluoride, even in the tiniest of amounts, increases tumor growth rate by 25%, produces melanoma tumors, transforms normal cells into cancer cells, and increases the cancer-causing potential of other carcinogens.

And according to research biochemist and the former chief of cell chemistry at the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Dean Burke, who conducted studies on rats who drank fluoridated water, fluoride ingestion caused an increase in tumors, especially in the thyroid, bones and liver. Extrapolating from his research, Dr. Burke estimated that fluoridation had caused as of 1977 more than 10,000 cancer deaths. Other studies have linked fluoride-containing drugs, like the SSRIs, to increased incidence of breast cancer.

As far as the thyroid goes, when fluorine is present, iodine can be displaced form thyroid hormone. This equates to a functional hypothyroidism and given the fact that we are all ingesting significant amounts of this well-known anti-thyroid element, it’s hard to imagine that fluoride toxicity is not at least the partial cause of the hypothyroidism epidemic, which coincidentally (or perhaps not) has become a significant problem since the rise of fluoridation in the 1940s. In fact, it’s hard to distinguish between hypothyroidism and fluoride toxicity. Classic symptoms include the lethargy and tiredness that are the hallmark feature of hypothyroidism. In fact, the most obvious sign of fluoride toxicity is profound fatigue and lack of motivation and drive. According to many sources (although in fairness some people dispute this claim), this effect was exploited by the Nazis in World War II, who used fluoride to keep concentration camp prisoners docile.

Fluoride and Population Control

After the war, Charles Elliot Perkins, a researcher in chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, and pathology, was sent to Germany to take charge of the IG Farben chemical plants, where nerve gasses and other toxic chemicals used on civilian population and concentration camp victims were produced.

What Mr. Perkins discovered was that the purpose behind water fluoridation is to reduce the resistance of the masses to domination, control and loss of liberty. Perkins found that even the tiniest amounts fluorine, when ingested chronically, will reduce the individual’s power to resist authority.

In a letter to the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research, dated October 2, 1954, Mr. Perkins wrote:

“This plan was to control the population in any given area through mass medication of drinking water supplies. By this method they could control the population in whole areas, reduce population by water medication that would produce sterility in women, and so on. In this scheme of mass-control, sodium fluoride occupied a prominent place.

“Repeated doses of infinitesimal amounts of fluoride will in time reduce an individual’s power to resist domination, by slowly poisoning and narcotizing a certain area of the brain, thus making him submissive to the will of those who wish to govern him.”

Time to Wake Up from the Fluoride Nightmare

In 2001, the Caries Research Journal published research showing that fluoride accumulates in high levels in the pineal gland, which is responsible for melatonin production and therefore regulation of the body’s circadian rhythm (sleep-wake cycle), the onset of puberty in females, and protection of cells from free-radical damage. This phenomenon, referred to as “calcification” of the pineal gland, is promoted as normal effect of aging, yet research indicates this is only really a problem in the Western world.

This information is not new, yet fortunately there’s no shortage of natural alternatives to cooking with Teflon, drinking fluoridated water, using dental products with fluoride, taking SSRIs, and otherwise exposing yourself to this toxic poison. Fluoride may have interfered with the human sleep-wake cycle for decades but clearly it’s time to wake up!

Holy Basil May Be an Answer to Fluoride-Related Prayers

Some literature now suggests that the Tulsi (holy basil) plant can have anti-fluoride benefits. According to researchers at Rajasthan University in India, soaking 75 mg (a couple of pinches) of holy basil leaves in 100 ml of water containing over 7 parts per million of fluoride for 8 hours reduced fluoride concentration to just 1.1 parts/million. In addition, the powder also had fluoride-protection benefits and the researchers stated that holy basil can be used as a nutritional supplement for protection against fluoride-induced liver and kidney stress. As a bonus, the holy basil plant also contains other therapeutic compounds that have anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, analgesic, antiseptic, aphrodisiac, antibacterial and antifungal properties. In India and Ayurvedic medicine, holy basil is used to treat fevers, coughs and colds, lung disease, arthritis, diabetes and spasms, and it is even used as an insect repellant.

Vitamin C is Protective Against Fluoride Toxicity

One of the most important nutritional strategies for fluoride protection is the regular use of Vitamin C. According to an article published in the February 2014 edition of “Journal of Environmental Science, Toxicology And Food Technology”, fluoride treated animals that drank ascorbic acid water had less neurodegeneration that those given ordinary water. In addition, Vitamin C’s anti-oxidant effects can help mitigate some of the effects of fluoride toxicity. And, Vitamin C has chelating properties that may facilitate fluoride’s removal from the body.

Mar

2014

Anti-hypertensive Drugs

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Anti- hypertensive drugs are one of craziest of all medical pharmacological health strategies. Here’s why:
If your blood pressure is high enough that you need a drug then that means either:

a lot of blood-clogging, sludgy gook is impeding flow, resulting in a build-up of pressure, OR
blood vessels have narrowed restricting flow and resulting in pressure elevation. The blood vessels narrow (that’s called “stenosis”) from damage or as a manifestation of the stress response; it’s the body’s way of making sure the muscles and nerves have enough oxygen and nutrients to get us out of the jam (it thinks) we’re in.

The body is a pressurized system. Nutriated and oxygenated blood flows through the circulatory system forcefully pushed (pressured) by the rhythmic pumping action of the heart. From the heart, it enters into the large arteries then travels into smaller and smaller vessels until it reaches the tiniest capillaries which are in close contact with cells. And this is the ultimate goal of the “Journey of the Blood”: to reach a cell with nutrients and oxygen and then as it leaves on its return trip back to the heart, to drain away it’s wastes.

Thus, each of the 100 trillion cells that compose the human body depends on the free flowing of liquids for nutrition, detoxification, and oxygenation. Essentially, it is the force of blood flow (pressure) which acts to bathe and nourish cells and rinse away the cellular waste like your garden hose waters and rinses your plants.
A diagnosis of hypertension refers to a resistance to blood flow, i.e. increased pressure in the blood vessel. In other words, it becomes harder and harder for blood to make it to its ultimate destination, the capillaries and the cells. Ironically, the result of this increase in pressure is LOW pressure on the other side of the resistance, the capillaries and cells. At the level of a cell, which is where it counts, high blood pressure is actually LOW blood pressure! If you have a circulatory pressure problem, your problem is in the vessels NOT in the cells. You may have high blood pressure as measured at the level of the blood vessels (where a blood pressure cuff works), but there’s some kind of resistance that’s actually keeping the pressure low at a cell. That’s because the cell is on the other side of the resistance.

If you take a pharmaceutical anti-hypertensive that’s only going to make matters worse. If you take a beta blocker or calcium channel blocker drug that shuts down the pump (the heart), you may lower the pressure but that means even less flow to the already deprived cell. Likewise, if your drug widens the vessels (vasodilators) or reduces the blood’s fluid content (that’s how diuretics work). Ultimately, no matter what kind of drug you use, you’re going to have even lower pressure at the level of a cell, and more cellular starvation suffocation and toxification
In fact not only are these pharmacological interventions not going to make you any healthier, in true drug therapy style, they’re likely to make you even sicker! If cells depend on pressure for their nutrients and oxygen and blood flow, what is going to be the result of further reducing the pressure? Yup, starvation, suffocation, and toxification at the cell level; AND disease and degeneration at the human being level.

So let’s see: the health of the body depends on pressure; it’s entire fluid system (and 60 percent or more of the body is fluid) moves via pressure. Cells are fed nutrients via pressure, they’re delivered oxygen via pressure, and the same pressure that feed and breathes cells is required for rinsing away cells waste and toxicity. And what happens to the pressure when we take an anti-hypertensive. It drops.

Here’s the math: (Lowering blood pressure artificially, pharmacologically, = (Less cellular nutrition, oxygen, and detoxification). Now, who thinks that’s a good idea?

Perhaps we should be thinking about and addressing the causes of pressure building stagnation and stenosis, i.e; stress and digestive system sludge. One of the most important reasons for the stagnation of circulatory fluids that cause high blood pressure in the first place involves the lymphatic vessels, the body’s waste disposal system. The lymph, while often regarded as distinct from the circulatory system, is essentially one and the same. There are just as many miles of lymphatic vessels as there are blood vessels. And they are connected. They are in essence one system. Both branch out from centralized large vessels into teeny tiny capillaries at which point nutrients are dropped into tissues and cells and then picked up again for a return trip. At this point, an uptake between systems takes place and what was in the blood becomes the lymph and what was in the lymph becomes the blood.

The implications of the merging and unification of these two systems for blood pressure health is significant. It means that blood pressure actually depends on the fluidity and movement of two systems, not just one. While both the blood and the lymph are susceptible to sludge, the lymph in particular is vulnerable. It’s the main port of egress for gross gunk that accumulates from bad living and eating.
The good news is it’s real easy to address the health of the lymphatic system. Of course the most important move is to stop putting the toxins in it the first place. The lymph is especially prone to congestion from fat malabsorbtion. In addition to being a route for the elimination of toxins, it’s also a transport system for EFAs, and fatty vitamins and other dietary fats. Eat smaller amounts of fatty foods and make sure you’re getting your fatty nutrients, too.

One of the best ways to move the lymph and improve circulation is to get a rebounder. Lymph movement depends on muscle movement. Sedentary lifestyles all but guarantee lymphatic congestion. And that means poison congestion, not good! Even a brisk walk can get muscles to put enough pressure on the lymphatic vessels to move things around, deep breathing works too. Lungs are heavily muscle-ized. There are large concentrations of lymphatic system plumbing located next to these lung muscles and as they move, so does the lymph. You’ll bump up your pleasure hormones (endorphins) and improve your mental health, all while you’re safely and gently lowering your blood pressure without doctors or drugs.

Feb

2014

Subway to take out the Azodicarbonamide

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Last week Subway announced that they would no longer add azodicarbonamide to their dough. Apparently the multi- syllabic, difficult-to-pronounce, food conditioning chemical, (which is used in shoe leather and synthetic belts as well as fake food), while considered safe by the FDA, breaks down to form a well-known carcinogen called urethane. In addition to being found in all manner of synthetic and rubberized non-comestible products, azodicarbonamide is used as a dough softener, which means it makes bread mushy and squishy allowing to be swallowed more quickly, presumably so we’ll eat more of the stuff. Food processors know that the faster a food slides down a customer’s gullet, the more of that food said customer is likely to eat. They call it “throat slip” and it’s these kinds of taste tricks and palatability plots hatched by food scientists that make indulging in fast fare such a risky proposition.

While it’s really nice for the folks at Subway to take out the azodicarbonamide (whose use is completely banned in Europe and Australia), there’s a lot of other chemicals added to their processed bread that should also raise a red flag. One of the worst is bromide, which supposedly gives bread an elastic quality that makes it seem more substantive than it really is. That way even though the stuff effortless slips down your throat you still think you’re eating something substantial and real. Bromide is a hormone disrupter that can negatively affect the skin, brain and kidney and is especially problematic for the thyroid gland. And according to a June 2012 article published in the journal “Cancer Cause Control”, bromide derivatives are associated with increased risks for stomach
cancer.

Although when we think about bread most of us have a warm fuzzy feeling, (throughout history a warm loaf has come to represent home, health and happiness) between emulsifiers, softeners, conditioners, flavor enhancers, sweeteners, improvers and preservative our 21st century modern version of the stuff represents less the staff of life and more the sickle of death.

Lest anyone think “whole grain” bread is any better than the squishy, soft, white, processed, “play” dough you get at a fast food joint like Subway, you might be interested to know that in reality there’s no such thing, at least from a legal perspective. Whole grain actually isn’t really made with any whole grain. It’s a composite, a processed pastiche of various proportions of the germ, (the good stuff) highly nutritious backed with minerals and vitamins, the bran (that’s where the fiber is), and the starch (the insulin spiking, diabetes causing sugar).

According to an article published last week in the Journal Food and Nutrition Research, while the term indicates the inclusion at least some of each of the three components, there are no standards legal or otherwise, and significant variances exist in how much of the good stuff has been used in a particular loaf of bread. The authors of the article proposed what they considered to be the “most comprehensive definition of the ‘whole grain’ term to date”, which take into account various factors including grain types,
pseudo-grains (which according to the authors include quinoa and amaranth), and milling procedures; all of which impact nutritional value. Unfortunately, the proportion issue, that is how much of each particular grain component is in a given loaf of bread, is a subject that is not addressed by the proposed definition and guidelines.

Dec

2013

Bad Drugs

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

There are a lot of bad drugs out there. Calcium channel blockers can prevent cells from using calcium an important nerve conducting mineral. Not good! Steroid drugs like prednisone suppress the immune system making the body more susceptible to infections. They also suppress growth and repair and can accelerate the development of degenerative disease. Antibiotics impair gut health, diuretics induce the loss of precious minerals like zinc and selenium and magnesium, and anti-osteoporosis drugs like Fosamax and Boniva can cause a horrible jaw affliction called osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ), which is basically a rapid decay and death of the jawbone. According to lawyers for ONJ victims, the potential connection of incidences the jawbone disease to the use these types of drugs was not unknown to manufacturers of the medications who are currently being targeted by a class action investigation as well as multiple individual injury lawsuits.

Among the most toxic classes of drugs are the beta blockers. These drugs work by suppressing (blocking) the nerves that activate cardiac muscle. Technically, they block the “beta” nerves which are a component of the electrical enervation system of the heart. And that’s why doctors love these things so much. They slow down the heart. And what’s so great about slowing down the heart? Well, the way the medical model professionals look at it, by slowing down the electrical activity of the heart you can slow down pumping action thereby reducing the pressure of blood flow. That’s why if you go to your doctor and get diagnosed with hypertension, the odds are pretty good you’re going to leave the office with a prescription for a beta blocking drug like atenolol or propranolol or metoprolol. Doctors also love to use beta blocking drugs for arrhythmias and tachycardias, both of which can be caused by high heart muscle activity. In the addled and convoluted logic of iatrochemical health care (using dugs to create health), shutting down the heart is a good thing because it can slow down hyperactivity and lower blood pressure by reducing pumping action

And if you have a heart attack you can also expect to get put on a beta blocking drug and not just temporarily. Doctors feel that dumbing down the heart by reducing its pumping strength can reduce post heart attack mortality, and many heart attack patients are told they will have to take their beta blocking heart toxic drug for the rest of their lives. If you have pulmonary disease in addition to a history of heart attacks it’s almost a guarantee,. According to an article from the New England Journal of Medicine 90 percent of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) patients who have had a myocardial infarction (heart attack) are put on beta blocking drugs.

If you’ve had a heart attack and you don’t want to submit to a medical mugging and doctor drugging and prescription poisoning, you can always relax the heart and strengthen cardiac contractions using dietary and nutritional strategies. Deep breathing (inhalation and exhalation) can slow and strengthen heart muscle contraction. Magnesium 1000-2000mg a day can help. Lithium Orate (10mg a day), GABA (500mg at night), CoQ10 (100mg a day), and Vitamin C (5000mg a day), and the B-complex can all provide significant cardiac relaxation effects too. Finally, cortisol can cause a quick jolt of cardiac activity. And nothing will amp up cortisol faster than a rapid rise in insulin and the subsequent low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). That means, for all, if you’re dealing with a cardiac health issue, you’d be well advised to stay away from cereals, breads, pasta, and refined flours and sugar and other insulin spiking foods that can induce hypoglycemia.

Nov

2013

Cryptosporidium Contamination

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Drinking water contaminants which include disinfection by-products, brain numbing fluoride, and cancer causing trihalomethanes are never pleasant to think about. But perhaps the most disgusting and dangerous, and unfortunately wide-spread, of all tap water pollutants is the deadly cryptosporidium bacteria which moves into its new digs in the water supply post-departing it’s old home in human and animal fecal material. That’s right, it’s a short hop for the excrement loving microbe from elimination from man and animal intestines, to the water supply, then to your tap, and then to you and your family’s drinking water. How delicious!

Up until recently, chlorination was the most effective way to deal with cryptosporidium contamination, but recently it has come to light that many of the parasites of poop are learning to adjust. So-called chlorine resistant cryptosporidium are responsible for one of the more common of the water borne diseases and can be the source of serious intestinal distress that can last for weeks. Because it takes 7-10 days for the symptoms of cryptosporidiosis to show up, you may not realize what caused your diarrhea, abdominal pain and low grade fever. All are associated with the parasitic infection. According Jack Barber of Water Wise Purification Systems, up to 63 percent of all water borne illnesses may be directly caused by chlorine resistant cryptosporidium cysts which are super hard “eggs” just waiting for the right opportunity to hatch or sprout, or otherwise come to life.

The best way to avoid crap-tosporidium is to stay away from human waste, the most likely source of infection, and be very careful of tap water. Basically water has to be pasteurized to assure that it is cryptosporidium free. Distilled water works, too. In fact distilled water is pretty much the safest source of water going. Not only does it free the water of parasites like cryptosporidium, but a good steam distiller is the most effective of all water purification systems. It can eliminate heavy metals, solid materials of all kinds, as well as the prescription medications that are showing up increasingly in tap water. A good distiller can get rid of fluoride, too. Pretty much all of the 85,000 different chemicals that are listed in the Federal registry, and that can show up in tap water, are removed by steam distillation.

And don’t believe the silly stories about distilled water leaching minerals out of your bones. While it’s true distilled water is empty water and “hungry” for minerals, it can’t steal them from your skeleton which guards its precious bone hardening substances very carefully. Distilled water may however help solubilize calcium deposits that can harden soft tissues of the body. And distilled water is a circulatory system purifier too. It can help improve elimination of toxic substances that may be in blood and lymphatic fluids.