Fluoride and the thyroid
We’ve discussed the many invisible ingredients in our tap water with fluoride being one of them. We’ve also touched upon the dangers of each individual ingredient and just what they can do to our health over a long period of time but here we’re going to delve a little deeper. This article will be looking at fluoride and its affect on your thyroid.
Why is fluoride in our drinking water?
Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral and can be found in water in differing amounts dependent on which area of the UK that you reside in. Fluoride can also be found in certain foods such as tea and fish as well as a lot of our toothpastes and mouthwashes. The main reason it’s now manufactured and subsequently added into our public
…show more content…
One particular published study during this period of time found doses of a mere 2 to 3 milligrams of fluoride (a dose that many people receive in their tap water) were sufficient enough to reduce the thyroid activity in patients suffering from hyperthyroid. Fluoride was first used as an anti-thyroid treatment due to research that began way back in the 1800’s. This research linked the ingestion of fluoride to something known as goitre. Goitre is a swelling of the thyroid gland that happens due to a hypothyroid condition. In the ‘Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards’ report in 2006, the National Research Council reported ‘several lines of information’ which indicated an effect that fluoride had on the function of the thyroid. In addition to this, the National Research Council discussed research that linked fluoride to have an impact on parathyroid activity along with the impairment of tolerance to glucose and the timing of sexual maturity. In light of such findings, the National Research Council then recommended that further research be carried out on various aspects of endocrine function with particular attention being paid to the possible role of disease development or even mental states. In spite of this, fluoridation continues and warnings go …show more content…
On the contrary, altered thyroid function can be associated with an intake of fluoride as low as 0.05-0.1mg of fluoride per kg of bodyweight per day. If you happen to suffer from an iodine deficiency then you could notice an alteration with a dosage as little as 0.03mg/kg/day. This means for a person of 70kg (that’s roughly 154lbs), just 3.5mg of fluoride per day could end in a thyroid dysfunction. The most recent analysis relating to exposure was taken by the US Environmental Protection Agency. They estimated that an average adult was consuming around 3mg of fluoride per day with some regularly ingesting up to 6mg per day. What they found to be even more concerning however were the doses for children. With an average 14kg child (around 30lbs), the fluoride intake of more than 0.7mg per day were enough to put them at risk yet figures showed children within this weight range to be consuming around 1.5mg of fluoride each and every day and in some cases more. This meant that children were consuming more than twice the amount that was necessary to alter the thyroid function. Chronic exposures such as this could have a seriously detrimental impact along with life-long effects on the intellectual, social and even sexual development of children as they
Fluoride has been used by people for many decades. The most common use is in toothpaste. Fluoride was added to toothpaste to lower the amount of dental cavities that one gets, and works by protecting the enamel (outer hard layer over the tooth). Another use of fluoride is in drinking water. It was added to drinking water to also help with tooth decay. Many people are debating whether or not this is truly safe. In the essay, “The Fluoride Conspiracy”, by Laurie Higgs, she talks about the use of fluoride drinking waters and dangers it brings by using logos, pathos, and ethos.
While safety has been an issue frequently raised by those opposed to fluoridation, scientific data from peer-reviewed clinical research provide overwhelming evidence that the adjustment of fluoride levels in drinking water to the optimal level is undoubtedly safe. Hundreds of studies on fluoride metabolism have tracked the outcomes of ingested fluoride. Ingested fluoride essentially travels three metabolic pathways. It is either excreted by the kidneys, absorbed by the teeth or taken up in the skeleton. At optimal levels fluoride has never been demonstrated to cause skeletal fluorosis or other bone problems.
One of the biggest sources of fluoride in your child's life is tap water. The EPA has a guideline that requires municipal water in the US to contain no more than 4 mg of fluoride per liter of water, or 4 ppm. However, to find out how much is in your local water supply you can simply call the phone number on your water bill and ask.
According to World Health Organization data obtained from a study on 12 year old’s levels of tooth decay, fluoride has had very little effect, if any at all, on tooth decay. Countries such as Japan, Italy, and Iceland, who are non-fluoridated countries, actually have about the same level of tooth decay decrease as countries that have fluoridated water. Fluoride is considered a drug, according to the FDA, which means that it is a medical treatment. Medical treatments are not to be given unless the patient agrees to the treatment, therefore, placing fluoride into the public water supply violates informed consent seeing as how citizens are not given the opportunity to vote on the matter. Even if people could vote on the situation, not all people are going to agree with and since it is considered a drug, it
In those case the person have to control the levels of fluorides because in most cases the levels are greater than FDA/CDC recommend but most people don't treat their water to lower the amount of fluoridation. In the case cities water systems fluoridation is monitored and adjusted to meet certain standards, low enough not to cause harm yet high enough to aid in preventing tooth decay. Tooth decay is a big health problem if not controlled. Which one the the water supply systems did you read about that was causing the health
Department of Health and Human Services address some of the public concerns about water fluoridation such as its effects on health and its ethical implication in the community. Some of the concerns express by the public were: safety of fluoride additives, fluoride’s impact on the brain, specifically citing lower IQ in children, effects of fluoride in the endocrine system, and cost effectiveness. In all cases, it was determine that in a concentration of 0.7 milligrams per liter, fluorided water was safe for consumption. Legal implications about community water fluoridation have been thoroughly reviewed by the U.S. court systems and the results have always being that water fluoridation is a proper means of promoting public health and welfare. Also, it is important to have in mind, that the state and local governments decide whether or not to implement water fluoridation after considering evidence regarding its benefits and
Today, all U.S. residents are exposed to fluoride to some degree, and widespread use of fluoride has been a major factor in the decline in the national prevalence and severity of dental caries. Although this decline is a major public health achievement, recent speculations have begun to surface after the release of several research studies conducting the safety and efficacy of ingesting this chemical. In fact, according to research published in Lancet Neurology, the highly prevalent chemical was reclassified as a developmental neurotoxin by the Harvard School of Public Health as of March 2014 (Grandjean & Landrigan, 2014). Fluoride is now believed to pose adverse effects during child neurodevelopment, influencing hippocampal regions associated with intelligence. This proclamation, however, wasn’t the first. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) screens and prioritizes chemicals for developmental neurotoxicity, and in turn assembles a list of chemicals that are toxic to the developing mammalian nervous system. The chemicals are assigned to one of three groups based upon the strength of evidence for neurotoxicity: no evidence, minimal evidence, and substantial evidence. Fluoride has been categorized as a developmental neurotoxin due to substantial evidence as of 2009
Fluoride in drinking water has been a hot topic in the past decade. Some communities are all for it and some are completely against it. With such a range of opinions on the matter some organizations have took it upon themselves to present the pros and cons of the fluoride to the public so they can make informed decisions. Often times these surveys are bias to one side or the other, so I shall be giving information on both sides of the issue, the future outlook, and my personal opinion in order to help inform you to decide on your own.
This article talks about some facts of water fluoridation. First this article addresses when fluoride was first put into the water and why it was put there. The article explains the health issues that could possibly come from the fluoridation of water. These issues include skeletal fluorosis, kidney disease and dental fluorosis. The article also talks about how the amount of fluoride each person gets cannot be controlled very well. This article acknowledges more of the negative side effects of water fluoridation rather than talking about the positive. However the weakness of this article is that the author privileges the negative
Fluoridation of drinking water addresses the health issue of tooth decay and the related dental problems associated with it.1 Fluoride is associated with this health issue since fluoride has been recognized as an important nutrient for healthy teeth.1
In 1945 Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first city to put fluoride in their water. Many people don’t think about what actually is in water, they think nothing of what it could contain when they drink it. Most don’t think about the fluoride that is in the water they are drinking in the moment. Even less know why there is fluoride in their water. The reason being is that the government puts fluoride in our water to control us.
You went into a room that was dark with a woman who wearing a wedding dress that looked like it has been worn for years, by then you might be surprised. This character is Miss Havisham. In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Miss Havisham represents social classes and the lessons in our lives that come to place. The social class, the lessons you learn, and the personality of Miss Havisham are things that are involved in Great Expectations. You should keep your personality out and try to be a good person. Miss Havisham is a wealthy lady who is important to Pip and his family she plays a big role in this novel.
i. Although defenders of fluoride continue to claim that there are no dangers in using fluoride for dental care, the facts speak for themselves. Dr. Edward Group, who in his 2015 article “The Dangers of Fluoride” stated that “Every year Poison Control centers receive thousands of calls from people
The Earth is dying. That is what environmentalists say all the time today. It shows up on the news now and then but proceeds to quickly disappear from people’s thoughts and minds. The experts warn and warn, but no one seems to listen. People are more concerned with cat videos than with the health of the one habitable planet they have. From a young age, people are told to think about the future, theirs, and this planet’s. Yet only a few people really do and actually care. The human population has grown uninhibited around the world and must decrease if the planet is to stay habitable.
Virtue ethics is considered as one of the three major approaches in normative ethics. The founding fathers of Virtue ethics are Plato and more particularly Aristotle. “It suffered a momentary eclipse during the nineteenth century but re-emerged in the late 1950’s in Anglo-American philosophy” (Virtue Ethics , 2012). The re-emergence had an effect on the other two approaches. The consequence of this is the fact that is now necessary to distinguish “virtue ethics” from “virtue theory. Kant’s virtue theory has conveyed philosophers’ attention to Kant’s “Doctrine of Virtue” and the utilitarian’s have developed consequentialist virtue theories. “A virtue such as honesty or generosity is not just a tendency to do what is honest or generous, nor