Fluoride.
After a visit to the dentist last year, I was chit-chatting with the dental hygienist who was doing my yearly cleaning. She mentioned that she gave fluoride drops to her son, not much older than my little Ollie. She said there was no question about it, "it was going to give him strong, beautiful teeth."
Something about this made me concerned. Everyone seems to have a strong opinion on fluoride. Sort of reminded me of the whole vaccination debate. Either people are "for" it, or "against" it.
I feel that after some research over the past 6 months, we have some answers for our family. Especially since my 11 month old will soon be brushing his ivory! I want to do what's best for my family. All my life I have used toothpastes and mouthwashes that contain fluoride, but some of these studies and journals made me think again.
I wanted to see some of the scientific evidence and detail on the effectiveness of fluoride. Was it really necessary? After all, why would they put it in drinking water? In my search for answers, I found this Canadian study from 2001. It seemed that whether or not they added fluoride to water, it made no difference to the presence of cavities. Wait, what? Did I read that right? (fluoridealert.org/articles/colquhoun)
I was even more shocked to find that ingesting fluoride can have negative affects on your brain (even your IQ), thyroid, bones, and kidney's. I felt uneasy knowing that it was in my toothpaste, black tea, certain de-boned meats, table salt, and even in some children's vitamins (fluoridealert.org). And the last bit of crazy? It is proven that even low doses of fluoride are neurotoxic (poisonous to your brain). In fact, the sodium fluoride they dump into the water largely comes from China and can be contaminated with lead, arsenic, and even aluminum (Mercola.com, Reuters.com). Sound yummy?
Doctor Osmunson (a dentist, and missionary's kid who grew up in Kenya) promoted fluoride for 25 years, until some solid studies showed him that it wasn't safe to use. He talks about how toothpaste ads always show large amounts of toothpaste on the toothbrush; but, in reality, we are only supposed to be using a pea sized amount each time (so, we should only be going through a tube of toothpaste every 6 months-year!) He raises some fantastic questions in this awesome video where he shares his story with Doctor Joseph Mercola. Check it out, here. You won't regret it.
So, it seems that fluoride doesn't have any benefits. It seems that fluoride can hurt your family. If your city water has fluoride, check out these amazing Berkey water filters. They are the best filters you'll find, removing all harmful things in your water, including fluoride. Speaking of Berkey's, I'm thirsty!
Maybe next time you and your kidlets are at the dentist, you want to ask for a fluoride-free cleaning? Maybe you'd like to change to a fluoride-free toothpaste? Or maybe you want to start making some positive changes for yourself and your family by investing in the most amazing water filter out there?
It's all a personal choice, and in the end, we do what we believe is best. So please, for the sake of your family, be conscious about fluoride.
theHealthNuttyProfessor's New Year's Resolution? Read labels. Know what I'm buying. Know what products contain harmful things to ingest or put on my skin.
Let's educate ourselves. And finally, let's look out for each other!
If you'd like to see what toothpaste our family uses and loves, check out the brand Tom's, here.
Until next time, Stay healthy ya'll!
References:
Video: http://www.fluoridealert.org/fan-tv/prof-perspectives/
http://www.fluoridealert.org/
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/11/dr-bill-osmunson-on-fluoride.aspx
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/24/idUS127920+24-Jul-2012+PRN20120724
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