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REJUVENATION FORUM >
IS FLUORIDE REALLY AS SAFE AS YOU ARE TOLD - 1
IS FLUORIDE REALLY AS SAFE AS YOU ARE TOLD - 1
Aug 22, 2006
Part 1
This article is provided courtesy of Dr. Mercola. His
website is www.mercola.com
http://www.mercola.com/2002/feb/9/fluoride_safety3.htm
Fluoride is added to the water supply of most American
cities for the ostensible purpose of dental hygiene. The
reader will be amazed to find out that such a thing is not
only unlikely, but actually the reverse of the ongoing
reality
The U.S. has been fluoridating drinking water for so many
decades that we hardly think about it. Very few articles
appear about fluoridation in newspapers and magazines any
more.
At least chlorine will evaporate from a glass of water if
you let it sit for an hour or so. No such luck with
fluoride. Even cooking, food processing, filtration, or
digestion doesn't remove fluoride. Goes right up the food
chain. Accumulates in fat cells.
This Is No Accident.
What would you do if you suddenly found out that fluoride
was not safe at all, but was actually a carcinogenic
industrial waste?
What would you think if you suddenly found out that
fluoride doesn't stop tooth decay at all, but actually
causes teeth to rot and crumble, and by the same mechanism
also causes osteoporosis?
And after you found out all this, would it surprise you
that all federal health agencies have known these facts for
years, but have been controlled by the political interests
of the nuclear arms, aluminum, and phosphate manufacturers
to keep it a secret?
Why would they do that? So that, in the total absence of
scientific proofs, a toxic industrial waste could be passed
off on the public as a nutrient with necessary health
benefits, to the tune of $10 billion per year. Or more.
Is a deception of this magnitude possible for the
sophisticated, discerning American public? Perhaps Lance
Ito could answer a question like that.
Let's start at the beginning.
What Is Fluoride?
Fluorine is an element. It is a gas, never occurring in its
free state. In microscopic amounts complexed with other
minerals, it is often listed as a trace mineral, a nutrient
for human nutrition.
This has nothing to do with fluoride or fluoridation. The
fluoride added to 90% of drinking water is hydrofluoric
acid which is a compound of fluorine that is a chemical
byproduct of aluminum, steel, cement, phosphate, and
nuclear weapons manufacturing.
Such fluoride is manmade. In this form, fluoride has no
nutrient value whatsoever. It is one of the most caustic of
industrial chemicals. Fluoride is the active toxin in rat
poisons and cockroach powder.
Hydrofluoric acid is used to refine high octane gasoline,
to make fluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons for freezers
and air conditioners, and to manufacture computer screens,
fluorescent light bulbs, semiconductors, plastics,
herbicides, -- and toothpaste.
It also has the ability to burn flesh to the bone, destroy
eyes, and sear lungs so that victims drown in their own
body fluid."
Once in the body, fluoride is a destroyer of human enzymes.
It does this by changing their shapes. You'll remember from
the Enzymes chapter that in human biochemistry, thousands
of enzymes are necessary for various essential cell
reactions that take place every second we're alive.
(Howell) Without enzymes, we'd die instantaneously.
Once in the body, fluoride is a destroyer of human enzymes.
It does this by changing their shapes. In human
biochemistry, thousands of enzymes are necessary for
various essential cell reactions that take place every
second we're alive. Without enzymes, we'd die
instantaneously.
Enzymes trigger specific reactions in the body. One way
they do this is by having the exact shape necessary, like a
key in a lock.
Fluoride Changes The Shape Of The Enzymes So That They No
Longer Fit.
Since enzymes are proteins, once they've been changed,
they're now foreign-looking. The body now treats them as
invaders, even though they're part of that body. This is
known as an autoimmune situation - the body attacks itself.
Another way to look at it: enzymes are long-chain proteins
held in certain shapes. Hydrogen bonds are the velcro
strips that hold the enzyme in a certain shape. Fluoride
comes along and hydrolyzes the enzyme: cuts the Velcro
strips away. The shape collapses. No more enzyme; now just
a foreign protein.
Starting Point
The most thorough explanation of the origin, action,
diseases, and politics of fluoride was presented in a book
called Fluoride the Aging Factor by John Yiamouyiannis,
PhD.This book is the result of 25 years of research and
working behind the scenes of the fluoride phenomenon. Big
money generally means big monkey business, you may have
noticed by now, and fluoride is right up there. Dr.
Yiamouyiannis was the science director of the National
Health Federation. He then went on to head the Safe Water
Foundation. Dr Y can tell you all about monkey business.
No one can comment intelligently about fluoride in the U.S.
without dealing with the issues raised in his pivotal book.
It is simply a review of the literature on fluoride up to
1994. Dr. Y starts by citing hundreds of international
studies of fluoridation that have been conducted all over
the world since the 1930s. After awhile, there seem to be
just two types:
• Studies that were really looking to find out about
fluoride
• Studies that were trying to cover up what had already
been discovered
Examples Of The Former:
Taylor Study, University of Austin: fluoride concentration
of 1PPM (parts per million) increases tumor growth rate by
25%
Fluoride is more poisonous than lead, and just less
poisonous than arsenic - Clinical Toxicology of Commercial
Products -- 1984
"A seven ounce tube of toothpaste, theoretically at least,
contains enough fluoride to kill a small child." -
Procter&Gamble, quoted in Fluoride the Aging Factor p14
Fluoride supplements should not be given to children under
three years old - 1992 Canadian Dental Association Proposed
Fluoride Guidelines, Dr. Limeback
Fluoride Accelerates Your Aging Process
Austrian researchers proved in the 1970s that as little as
1 ppm fluoride concentration can disrupt DNA repair enzymes
by 50%. When DNA can't repair damaged cells, we get old
fast. Fluoride prematurely ages the body, mainly by
distortion of enzyme shape. Again, when enzymes get twisted
out of shape, they can't do their jobs. This results in
collagen breakdown, eczema, tissue damage, skin wrinkling,
genetic damage, and immune suppression. Practically any
disease you can name may then be caused.
All systems of the body are dependent upon enzymes. When
fluoride changes the enzymes, this can damage:
• immune system
• digestive system
• respiratory system
• blood circulation
• kidney function
• liver function
• brain function
• thyroid function
Things wear out too fast - the young body becomes old.
The distorted enzymes are proteins, but now they have
become foreign protein, which we know is the exact cause of
autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, arthritis, asthma, and
arteriosclerosis.
Collagen Is The Body's Glue and Fluoride Ruins It
That's not just a metaphor; when collagen breaks down,
tissues simply lose their substance, their framework.
Fluoride dissolves the body's glue simply by preventing new
collagen from being formed.
DR Y gives a masterful explanation of fluoride's disruption
of collagen. Not only is the collagen incorrectly formed,
it is wrongly mineralized.
Some collagen, like bones and teeth, should be mineralized
in order to give it hardness. Other collagen structures,
like ligaments, tendons and, and muscles, should not be
mineralized, in order to keep them flexible and resilient.
Fluoride mineralizes the tendons, and muscles and
ligaments, making them crackly and painful and inflexible.
At the same time fluoride interferes with mineralization of
bones and teeth, causing osteoporosis and mottling or
dental fluorosis.
Fluoride Ruins Your Teeth
Wait a second here! I thought that was the whole reason why
we fluoridated water in the first place - to prevent
cavities and build strong teeth, right?
Wrong again. And this is where politics and dog-wagging
have eclipsed science. DR Y gives an exhaustive review of
the scientific literature of the past 40 years proving
beyond a reasonable doubt that fluoride interferes with
tooth formation, causing permanent discoloration and actual
crumbling. The process whereby teeth are discolored and
crumble from fluoridation is know as dental fluorosis.
The US Public Health service has known since the research
of its own Dr. HT Dean in 1937 that as fluoride levels
rose, so did the percentage of children with dental
fluorosis, in a study of 15 major American cities.
The same findings were evident in a University of Texas
study comparing dental fluorosis in children who lived in
fluoridated and unfluoridated areas of Texas.
Dr. Segretto found a 35% higher incidence of fluorosis in
children who drank water with fluorine concentration of
1-1.4 PPM, compared with those whose water was in the .3
PPM range. This little study was written up in the Journal
of the American Dental Association.
Yiamouyiannis goes on and on, citing one peer-reviewed
study after another, all coming to the same inescapable
conclusion: The More Fluoride In The Water, The More Tooth
Malformation And Discoloration.
It's beyond controversy, when you view these studies from
all over the world - New Zealand, India, Denmark, England,
Ireland, Italy, Illinois - same finding. Even with this
consistent finding across the board, the standard level of
fluoridation recommended for dental health in the US is 1
part per million.
How Is This Possible?
A major gain for antifluoridation happened in the past few
years, which most people haven't even noticed. The FDA
required all toothpaste manufacturers to print a warning on
the label that if more than a pea-sized amount of
toothpaste is swallowed, the local Poison Control Center
should be notified.
The American Dental Association and other defenders of
fluoride have testified and continue to insist that dental
fluorosis is a "cosmetic condition" and is not a health
issue! Permanent malformation of the teeth is a little more
serious than cosmetic - but even if it weren't, how can a
additive whose only alleged purpose is to benefit teeth
destroy teeth?? In their current website, the ADA actually
challenges this FDA warning on toothpaste labels, saying
that it is unnecessarily strict.
Paul Connett, PhD explains that spots on the teeth and
dental fluorosis are just an indication of damage to other
parts of the body: "The teeth are windows to what's
happening in the bones."
Fluoride And Osteoporosis
Bone is collagen. We already saw how fluoride disrupts the
formation of enzymes necessary for collagen production. So
it's no wonder then that the thin brittle bones
characteristic of osteoporosis are the result of
fluoridation.
This is no false claim. DR Y cites the 1990 study of
541,000 cases of osteoporosis that found a definite
connection between hip fractures in women over 65 and
fluoride levels. The study was written up in JAMA. Several
other major studies are cited, massive amounts of research,
again all reaching the same conclusion -
the undeniable correlation of fluoridation with
osteoporosis and hip fracture in the elderly.
Bone Is Living Tissue.
It is constantly being replaced with new cells, and having
old cells removed. Bone building is a finely balanced,
complicated process. Fluoride has been known to disrupt
this process since the 1930s. Dr. Alesen, who was the
president of the California Medical Association, clearly
explains what fluoride does to bone formation.
He cites dozens of international scientific studies proving
beyond a shadow of a doubt that fluoride has caused
thousands of cases of osteoporosis, skeletal thinning,
fractures, "rubber bones," anemia, and rickets.
Fluoride also causes osteoporosis by creating a calcium
deficiency situation. Fluoride precipitates calcium out of
solution, causing low blood calcium, as well as the buildup
of calcium stones and crystals in the joints and organs.
Dozens of other studies, like the Riggs study in the 1990
New England Journal of Medicine, showed that fluoride
treatment of osteoporosis in the elderly actually increases
skeletal fragility, i.e., more fractures.
It's the same mechanism at work: incorrect mineralization,
as we saw above. Thin old bones lose calcium; young bones
age too rapidly by over-mineralization.
Using fluoride as a treatment for diseases like
osteoporosis has always been a particularly dumb idea,
because of side effects known beforehand:
• general arthritis
• stomach pain
• nausea
• vomiting
• bone spurs
• bone inflammation
• kidney fibrosis
• dental fluorosis
Other mineral contaminants like lead and strontium-90 are
damaging to human bone just by means of their occupying
space where they don't belong. They are inert. The
difference with fluoride is that it is biochemically
active. With all the diseases caused by fluoride, the
common thread is " ... virtually all these ill effects can
be traced to the effect of fluoride on enzymes or proteins,
as well as a possible direct effect on the DNA molecule
itself."
Above we saw how fluoride changes the all-important shape
of enzymes, thereby rendering them not only useless, but
actually foreign antigens.
Cancer And Fluoride
By now we all know how cancer begins with one cell whose
inner blueprint - its DNA - has been screwed with.
Remember those Velcro hydrogen bonds? Guess what other
shape they hold together. The double helix - DNA. This
turns out to be the exact mechanism of fluoride as a
carcinogen.
Austrian and Japanese researchers both found that a
concentration of 1 PPM fluoride causes disruption of the
body's ability to repair its own DNA. Without this most
basic cell function, cancer is promoted, and tumor growth
is accelerated. That's standard fluoride level in US city
water: one part per million.
On p. 65 of his book, Dr. Yiamouyiannis provides an amazing
chart of some 19 major scientific studies conducted in
universities all over the world, together proving beyond a
doubt that fluoride causes genetic damage.
End of story.
Except that on p 68, there is another list of world studies
proving the same thing with plants and insects - genetic
alteration from fluoride.
Chief chemist of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Dean
Burk when confronted with mountains of data, stated before
Congress:
"In point of fact, fluoride causes more human cancer death,
and causes it faster than any other chemical."
- Congressional Record 21 July 1976
Can That Be Misconstrued?
Burk and Yiamouyiannis completed a monumental research
project in 1977 in which they compared cancer death rates
in 10 fluoridated and 10 non-fluoridated US cities between
1940 and 1970. The results are on p75 of Fluoride the Aging
Factor.
The unmistakable fact is that the graph shows that for the
first ten years (1940-1950), when none of the 20 cities
fluoridated, the average cancer deaths were virtually
identical. But after 1950, there is a major increase in
cancer deaths in every single one of the fluoridated
cities, while the nonfluoridated cities remain clustered
together at a much lower level of death.
They actually put a number on it:" ... 30,000 to 50,000
deaths each year from various causes may now be
attributable to fluoridation. This total includes 10,000 to
20,000 deaths attributable to fluoride-induced cancer every
year."
These findings were first confirmed, then denied by the
National Cancer Institute (what a surprise). Finally the
research was upheld as valid in two separate state courts,
Pennsylvania and Illinois.
Ask yourself, why are findings of a scientific study being
disputed in court? The usual pattern whenever valid
research threatens big money.
Another study by the New Jersey Health Dept., cited by Dr.
Y, found a 50% increase in bone cancer among young men in
fluoridated areas. (Cohn)
Dr. William Hirzy, an officer in the EPA explains:
"Fluoride is a broad-spectrum mutagen. It can cause genetic
damage in both plant and animal cells."
Once again, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Hundreds
of scientific studies conducted and reported in the most
credible universities and agencies throughout the world for
the past 25 years have found an unmistakable correlation
between fluoridation and cancer deaths. Even the
professional opinion makers can't just make all this data
vanish. All they can do is what they're trained to do:
change the subject. And keep repeating how safe and
effective fluoride is.
Brain Damage = Low IQ
Penetrating observation. The earliest reference to brain
disruption from fluoride exposure is found in a recently
declassified secret Manhattan Project memo (1944):
"Clinical evidence suggests that C616 [uranium
hydrofluoride] may have a rather marked central nervous
system effect with mental confusion, drowsiness and
lassitude ... "
How can all these studies be dismissed and ignored? Many of
them are from the most prestigious of scientific journals.
And the message has been consistent for the past 40 years -
fluoride is a poison.. What kind of power can contradict
such a cogent, overwhelming body of work?
Only one thing -very good -- $$$$$$$$! Got it on your first
guess!
So Then Why Are We Fluoridating, For The Last 60 Years?
Unrestricted research into almost any area involving health
care is really a tiresome business - it's the same boring
story over and over:
A Toxin in Search of A Market.
First a chemical is created, then an angle is figured out
on how to mass market it. Then a disinformation program is
put into place to create a permanent smokescreen for the
actual scientific data.
As we saw with ADD, antibiotics, the history of
pharmaceuticals, HRT, heart drugs, chlorination, and now
fluoridation - the pattern is consistent.
With billions of dollars in play, the chemical industry can
afford to choreograph its two most willing marionettes: the
media and the medical profession.
I didn't make this up; I wish it were otherwise. It's
embarrassing to be a human when you find out what's been
going on.But we digress.
Fluoridation. A certified poison, by all the government
agencies and scientific agencies cited above. Where does
the money come in? Toxic disposal. The rise of the EPA
since the 1970s. The increase in environmental
consciousness as a political tool for creating the illusion
of safety in recent decades.
Here's the short version: fluoride is a toxic byproduct in
the manufacture of nuclear arms, aluminum, cement, steel,
and phosphates.
Millions of tons of this poison are produced every year.
Imagine the cost of containing and disposing of those
mountains of waste every year. It's in the billions.
But what if lobbyists from these industries could present
"scientific studies" paid for by the industries, and
provide for a continual stream of media presentations about
the health benefits of fluoride, and create unimaginably
lucrative positions for "research" and "education" within
the American Dental Association and the AMA, and do all
these things in a consistent and unending way, year after
year?
What are the economic advantages of that? Simple: instead
of paying money to dispose of toxic waste, money could now
be made by selling fluoride to the water companies of the
nation.
They'll use the public water supply as a sewer for
industrial wastes. And now with these new billions added
instead of subtracted, there's plenty to go around, for
everyone involved. Out of the Red, into the Black.
Somewhere Machiavelli smiles.
Dark Alliance
Up until 1931, the American Dental Association and the US
Public Health Service recognized that fluoride caused
dental problems, and that every effort should be made to
remove such contamination from drinking water. (Fluoride
the Aging Factor, p 140)
By 1980, the ADA's tune had changed a little:
" ... there is no evidence implicating naturally occurring
fluorides as a health hazard even at eight parts per
million."- ADA News 24 Mar 1980
Following this? In the face of all the decades of our best
research, this arrogant and groundless pronouncement, by
the profession to whom we have entrusted our teeth, is
saying that our water could have 8 times as much fluoride
as it has now, and still be perfectly safe!
The Players: ALCOA Aluminum, mega-giant producer of
aluminum, was founded by Andrew Mellon, who was also
appointed Secretary of Treasury, since he seemed to know
something about money. ALCOA funded a top research facility
known as the Mellon Institute. In 1931, a Mellon Institute
report by Gerald Cox suggested that 1 PPM fluoride added to
drinking water would be good for the teeth. That was it. No
studies, no comparisons, no data. All previous research
studies had shown that fluoride was toxic.
Stay with me now. The US Public Health Service (USPHS) at
that time was under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of
Treasury - Andrew Mellon, who also owned ALCOA.
The USPHS sponsored some research put out by their own Dr.
HT Dean, manipulating data so that it "proved" that this
same figure of 1 PPM resulted in reduction of tooth decay.
So now there were two studies, one by Cox and one by Dean,
both funded by agencies controlled by ALCOA, both
supporting this arbitrary figure of 1 PPM fluoride that
should be added to the water to lower tooth decay.
Next problem: sell it to the American Medical Association
and the American Dental Association.
This took years. Even in 1943, an article in JAMA described
fluoride as a poison that damaged enzyme systems even at a
concentration of 1 PPM. The article showed concern about
25,000 tons of fluorine released into the atmosphere every
year from the phosphate fertilizer industry. (JAMA, Sept
18, 1943).
The following year Journal of the American Dental
Association ran another article warning that fluoridated
water caused osteoporosis, goiter, and spinal disease. They
stated that "the potentialities for harm far outweigh those
for good." (JADA, 1 Oct 1944)
So how did fluoridation get started then, with all this
information - thousands of negative scientific papers and
only two favorable studies? ALCOA money, that's how.
In 1944, ALCOA hired an attorney named Oscar Ewing at a
salary of $750,000 per year. That same year Ewing was
appointed to the Federal Security Administration. The USPHS
was a division of the Federal Security Association. So now
ALCOA's boy was in a position to control the policies of
the Public Health Service.
Ewing chose his PR man for fluoridation: Edward Bernays,
the nephew of Sigmund Freud.
Continued Next Issue...
To continue parts 2 and 3 Go to www.mercola.com and search
Fluoridation.
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