Thyroid and Fluoride: Is Your Toothpaste Killing Your Thyroid?
Many people probably don’t think twice about the toothpaste they use to brush their teeth. Keeping your teeth clean and healthy is a good thing. But did you know that there is an ingredient in toothpaste that can harm your health? Contrary to popular belief, fluoride is not as good for you as you thought.
What is Fluoride?
To explain, we’ll need to go back to high school chemistry. Fluorine is in the halogen class on the periodic table, and fluoride is the negative ion of fluorine. Fluoride is a toxic byproduct of the aluminum and fertilizer industries. What these industries would normally have to dispose of as toxic waste is now sold to American cities to fluoridate their water. Studies indicate that fluoride is a neurotoxin that decreases the IQ of children. Not only is it a poison, but 50% of what you ingest accumulates in your body.
Fluoride was Used to Treat Hyperthyroidism, an Overactive Thyroid
In the 1930’s, fluoride was used in a product called fluorotyrosine, manufactured by a German pharmaceutical company named Bayer. Fluorotyrosine was used to treat hyperthyroidism, which is an overactive thyroid. It poisoned the enzymes in the thyroid gland and slowed down the production of thyroid hormones. Unfortunately, some patients’ thyroid glands were so poisoned by fluorotyrosine that their glands were destroyed. Many patients suffered complete loss of thyroid function with this treatment. Consequently, the use of this drug for the treatment of hyperthyroidism was discontinued and, instead, it was used as a pesticide.
Over your lifetime, you accumulate a toxic load of fluoride in your fat cells. The abnormal changes in the protein structure, caused by fluoride exposure, damage the normal biochemical reactions in your body. In response, your immune system produces antibodies to destroy these abnormal proteins, which can ultimately lead to an autoimmune reaction to the thyroid gland.
How Fluoride Affects Your Thyroid
When introduced into the human body, fluoride acts as a poison in your system and inhibits the activity of enzymes necessary for the production of thyroid hormones. Enzymes are specialized proteins that stimulate biochemical reactions within our cells. Fluoride exposure can ultimately lead to an autoimmune reaction to the thyroid gland. Common forms of autoimmune thyroiditis are Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, and Grave’s disease, a less common disorder that causes an overactive thyroid gland. The enzyme poisoning effect of fluoride can eventually extend to your genes and damage your chromosomes. This can lead to a host of adverse health problems from abnormalities in newborn babies to cancer.
Fluoride’s Direct Impact on the Thyroid
While fluoride has adverse effects on the immune system and triggers autoimmune disease, including autoimmune thyroiditis, it also negatively affects the thyroid gland by:
1. Poisoning the enzymes in the thyroid gland that produce thyroid hormones;
2. Adversely affecting the thyroid hormone receptors on all the body’s cells; preventing the adequate uptake of thyroid hormones;
3. Inhibiting the production of TSH from the pituitary gland;
4. Displacing iodine, which is essential for producing thyroid hormones.
Official Warnings About Fluoride
The Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), which is required by the federal government for all hazardous products, lists the following warning about chronic exposure to fluoride:
“Chronic Exposure to Fluoride: Chronic inhalation and ingestion may cause chronic fluoride poisoning (fluorosis) characterized by weight loss, weakness, anemia, brittle bones, and stiff joints. Effects may be delayed. Chronic exposure may cause lung damage. Laboratory experiments have resulted in mutagenic effects. Chronic exposure to fluoride compounds may cause systemic toxicity. Skeletal effects may include bone brittleness, joint stiffness, teeth discoloration, tendon calcification, and osteosclerosis. Animal studies have reported the development of tumors.”
Toothpaste Warning: A more familiar warning may be the one you can find on the back of your fluoridated toothpaste. The wording goes like this: “If more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a poison control center right away.”
How to Reduce Fluoride Exposure
Fluoride may be found in tap water, toothpaste, nonorganic foods, pesticides used in farming, dental products, and numerous other commonly used products. So what can you do to prevent exposure to fluoride? Some simple steps can go a long way:
• Make sure that you have a filtration system that removes fluoride from your drinking water. Fluoride in city water supplies could be an unrecognized cause of hypothyroidism in the United States.
• Use nonfluoridated toothpaste. Fluoride free toothpaste and fluoride free mouthwash are readily available at most stores today.
• Check the labels on processed foods and home cleaning products.
• Take oral iodine, which displaces fluoride and allows it to be discharged from your body. Iodoral is a product that contains iodine and potassium iodide.
So, the next time you go buy toothpaste, or any personal products, think about what you are exposing your body to and be sure to read the labels carefully. This is just one more way to protect your overall health.
Do you have symptoms of hypothyroidism?
Take our symptom checker quiz to find out if you have symptoms of hypothyroidism. Our doctors are experts at diagnosing and treating low thyroid function. Call our Wellness Consultants today at 281-698-8698 for a complimentary wellness consultation to schedule your visit with our medical team. It would be our privilege to help you get on a path of health and wellness, naturally.
Related Content
15 Reasons to Avoid Fluoride in Water
Your Thyroid Gland: How it Works and Natural Support
Interview with Christopher Bryson, Author of The Fluoride Deception
Donna Curry
What do say to a Pediatrician who recommends flourinated water for baby?
Hotze Team
Dear Donna,
Thank you for your question. Here is a post that may be helpful: http://makeshift-worm.flywheelsites.com/2015/02/15-reasons-to-avoid-fluoride-in-water/ It is best if you do your own research on fluoride so that you can make an informed decision and make the decision you feel is best for your baby. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Hotze Team
Liz Wickham
Could the logical next question be: does the pharma industry benefit from negligently damaging thryroid glands with fuoride because it then makes money from selling synthyroid/levothyroxine? those are the third most prescribed drugs in the UK and I guess similarly in the US
Liz Wickham
Brenda Kenfield
Why is this poison allowed in our water and toothpaste?
Cassiopeia
Profits over people. Every time.
M. Campbell
When I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in 2003 (as a 36 year old woman), a visiting houseguest told me: Go off fluroide. I thought she was a little nutty, but I was aware that literally every woman I knew my age was on synthroid, and that seemed bizarre to me. and right before I was diagnosed I had been taking a high fluoride supplement for “gum disease” (which didn’t remotely help, by the way). So I filled my scrip, but before going on the synthroid, I gave fluoride-free living a try. No more fluoridated toothpaste or tapwater (unless it was wellwater)… which meant no Starbuck’s 🙁 . Absolutely everyone, including naturopathic doctors, told me it was physically impossible to reverse hypothyroidism…. but within two years my thyroid levels were completely normal. all my energy was back! I was stunned, because I didn’t really think it would work. I am 51 now and my thyroid is healthier than ever. My TEETH by the way are also healthier than ever… but I am careful to drink spring water with a high mineral content, which I suspect helps keep them mineralized. Drinking “purified” water or distilled water can leach minerals from your teeth and bones, I’ve heard. Best not to look into the history of fluoride in our drinking water. In the years since I went off fluoride a great expose was published on it, also a video version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBZRb-73tLc . Fluoride in the US is a major TOXIC industrial waste of the aluminum and uranium mining industries (it’s used as a solvent to purify those substances from rock). In the 1940’s it was costing the companies $3./gallon to dispose of such a toxic waste. So they cooked up some pretty shady science to convince the govt to let them dump it into the drinking water on the premise it would save teeth. Not sure how the government thought it was ok to force this “medication” on its citizens without their consent…. but truth is that it is actually a deadly poison, not a medicine. It has marginal effects on teeth (I was a fluoride poster child, brushing fanatically as a child, yet with more cavities than you can imagine), actually causing them to become brittle as well as doing the same to bones. I raised my kids fluoride free (and yes they ate lots of sugar) and they have amazing teeth – go figure. Enough said. If you’re on synthroid, I probably wouldn’t go off it now, but do your kids a favor and save them if it’s not too late.
Ingrid
Thank you for this post. My 86 y/o father was put on synthroid a few months ago and I take him to a new dentist and the hygienist gives him a tube of Clinpor 5000 to use everyday. 1.1% sodium fluoride, can you imagine? Since when does a hygienist prescribe the dental care without knowing about his thyroid condition? He never saw a licensed DDS, the hygienist did all the diagnosing and recommendation. What a crock and we don’t have insurance, out of pocket. I never let him use it and will be taking it back to the dental office and give them this article. I was appalled. He has dementia and wouldn ‘t have remembered to use it anyway.