Fluoride

Photo by Brodie Vissers from Burst

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.