flouride, what the heck? page

[LockieKermit]

So im 16. Im physically fit and mostly eat good, however, I happend to come by a video on flouride saying how bad it was.

This has freaked me out, what supposedely flouride can do to you. Seeing as im active, I obviously need the water but everyime I go for a glass, I feel really bad for drinking it knowing that im drinking this stuff. It would also be waaaaaaaaaaaay to expensive to buy bottled water consistently, what do I do? is drinking tap water even that bad??

Id like to note that where I live (Melbourne, Australia) our water is ragarded as some of the cleanest in the world.

Should I just drink tap water and not worry about it, its stressing me out, and confusing me. It seems for that everything I eat is healthy and not healthy for me.

Nuts are good for you, nuts aren't good for you, nuts are good for you in this amount, these types of nuts are better for you. This stick of celery is good for you, CELERY IS BAD FOR YOU IT GIVES YOU CANCER, carrots are evil, carrots are good.

This is exaggerated obviously but you get my point I hope.


Lockie

[MamaGrok]

Fluoride is a waste product. When I moved from the country to the city to go to college, I developed brown spots on my teeth called fluorosis, which is just one minor complication. (Oddly, one dental hygienist tries every time I see her to convince me it was b/c I *didn't* have fluoride growing up on well water. Every time she sees the spots and muses on that, I tell her they appeared only *after* I moved away from home.) Try the Fluoride Action Network and a story of how it affected some horses. Then hit fluoridealert.com and get the ADA's side of the story.

IF fluoride protects from cavities, it is only topically. Ingesting it is nonsense. Countless municipalities have begun to de-fluoridate their water supply. I buy two gallons of quality water each week for my family (we're far less thirsty now that we don't consume sugar and tons of grains, so it's enough even for the 7 of us) and use the fridge filtered water for the balance, although that filters only chlorine, not fluoride. It tastes so much better, anyway. It's certainly *more* expensive than tap water, but hardly a truly high expense. About $5/week.

That said, stress is worse for you than fluoride. If it's really stressful to research these things, take a break from it, do what you know, be at peace, and maybe revisit it later.

[LockieKermit]

yeh I agree. To be honest, it probaly wouldn't be that bad if I bought some bottled water, it isn't that expensive and just had 50/50 but like I said im 16...and my family already thinks im paranoid about my health

It doesn't help though that I have anxiety issues, while alot better now, can worsen when you stress out about things like this.

When im older and I am rich (yeh right) ill be able to afford all this stuff, but at my age, hell no.

Like I said, its all confusing, thanks for the info though.

[Clint]

Ingesting fluoride can ONLY affect developing teeth (teeth that haven't erupted yet). Dental fluorosis occurs during this stage. Also, well water isn't necessarily fluoride-free. Well water, unlike city water isn't regulated, so the only way to tell how much fluoride is in your water is to have your water tested.

[MamaGrok]

I know that's the prevailing wisdom on fluorosis, and even fluoridealert.org says the same thing, but what other explanation is there for developing it suddenly at 18 years old? I didn't have the "risk factors" for any of the other things I've seen can possibly create similar "staining," like tobacco, coffee, sodas, certain drugs, or certain illnesses.

My mother did live in town before & during pregnancy with me, and my first few years, so that's certainly a possibility, but still doesn't account for the rather sudden appearance of the spots which look just like all pictures of "mild fluorosis" I've seen. Regardless, it would still be due to fluoridation of the water supply.

[Clint]

Are you sure what you have is fluorosis? "Mild" fluorosis creates white spots or streaks, not brown. Only severe and, possibly, moderate fluorosis causes brown staining. If all sources, even the one you recommend, state that developed, erupted teeth can't get fluorosis you may want to look at other possibilities for the staining. You may have fluorosis, but fluorosis spots don't stain like the other parts of the teeth. Maybe the browns staining was due to other factors that stained the non-fluorosis parts of your teeth and the rest didn't stain proportionately. There could be a myriad of possibilities.


P.S. To the OP. I'm not arguing for/against the fluoridation of water here. Like Mamagrok said, you'll probably do more damage stressing over it than actually drinking the water. Do the best you can with the resources you have and tweak and improve when you can.

[MamaGrok]

You're right; a better description of it is white staining. The net effect of the appearance is a white & browning mottling because of the different colors of different areas. Looks just like this.

[MamaGrok]

Do the best you can with the resources you have and tweak and improve when you can.

Ah, this is such an important life lesson. You do what you know, and when you know better, you do better - but even then sometimes it's out of your hands. There are things I *know* I should do, but I'm just not in a place in my life where I have the resources yet, whether those are financial, physical, emotional, moral, or spiritual resources. I trust that I'll be able to when it's most needed for me, and change will come not a moment too late. There may be some consequences to not doing it all perfectly right now, but none of us can - it's all part of the overarching plan that is the best one for me, the big picture of which I can't see right now.

[arice]

Reading about the toxic effects of fluoride is one of the things that convinved me to invest in a good water filter last year. Reverse osmosis systems remove fluoride, but the cost of replacement parts and filters can add up pretty quickly. So, I ended up buying a Berkey filter which is supposed to remove over 95% of fluoride. The filters are somewhat expensive, but it ends up costing less than one-fourth what it was costing to buy the three-gallon jugs over time.

[periquin]

out