THE EFFECTS OF FLUORIDE ON THE THYROID GLAND

[Guest guest]

The Effects Of Fluoride

On The Thyroid Gland

By Dr Barry Durrant-Peatfield

MBBS LRCP MRCS

Medical Advisor to Thyroid UK

9-22-5

 

There is a daunting amount of research studies showing that the

widely acclaimed benefits on fluoride dental health are more imagined

than real. My main concern however, is the effect of sustained

fluoride intake on general health. Again, there is a huge body of

research literature on this subject, freely available and in the

public domain.

 

But this body of work was not considered by the York Review when

their remit was changed from " Studies of the effects of fluoride on

health " to " Studies on the effects of fluoridated water on health. "

It is clearly evident that it was not considered by the BMA (Britsh

Medical Association), British Dental Association (BDA), BFS (British

Fluoridation Society) and FPHM, (Faculty for Public Health and

Medicine) since they all insist, as in the briefing paper to Members

of Parliament - that fluoridation is safe and non-injurious to

health.

 

This is a public disgrace, I will now show by reviewing the damaging

effects of fluoridation, with special reference to thyroid illness.

 

It has been known since the latter part of the 19th century that

certain communities, notably in Argentina, India and Turkey were

chronically ill, with premature ageing, arthritis, mental

retardation, and infertility; and high levels of natural fluorides in

the water were responsible. Not only was it clear that the fluoride

was having a general effect on the health of the community, but in

the early 1920s Goldemberg, working in Argentina showed that fluoride

was displacing iodine; thus compounding the damage and rendering the

community also hypothyroid from iodine deficiency.

 

Highly Damaging To The Thyroid Gland

 

This was the basis of the research in the 1930s of May, Litzka,

Gorlitzer von Mundy, who used fluoride preparations to treat over-

active thyroid illness. Their patients either drank fluoridated

water, swallowed fluoride pills or were bathed in fluoridated bath

water; and their thyroid function was as a result, greatly depressed.

The use in 1937 of fluorotyrosine for this purpose showed how

effective this treatment was; but the effectiveness was difficult to

predict and many patients suffered total thyroid loss. So it was

given a new role and received a new name, Pardinon. It was marketed

not for over-active thyroid disease but as a pesticide. (Note the

manufacturer of fluorotyrosine was IG Farben who also made sarin, a

gas used in World War II).

 

This bit of history illustrates the fact that fluorides are dangerous

in general and in particular highly damaging to the thyroid gland, a

matter to which I shall return shortly. While it is unlikely that it

will be disputed that fluorides are toxic - let us be reminded that

they are Schedule 2 Poisons under the Poisons Act 1972, the matter in

dispute is the level of toxicity attributable to given amounts; in

today's context the degree of damage caused by given concentrations

in the water supply. While admitting its toxicity, proponents rely on

the fact that it is diluted and therefore, it is claimed, unlikely to

have deleterious effects.

 

They Could Not Be More Mistaken

 

It seems to me that we must be aware of how fluoride does its damage.

It is an enzyme poison. Enzymes are complex protein compounds that

vastly speed up biological chemical reactions while themselves

remaining unchanged. As we speak, there occurs in all of us a vast

multitude of these reactions to maintain life and produce the energy

to sustain it. The chains of amino acids that make up these complex

proteins are linked by simple compounds called amides; and it is with

these that fluorine molecules react, splitting and distorting them,

thus damaging the enzymes and their activity. Let it be said at once,

this effect can occur at extraordinary low concentrations; even lower

than the one part per million which is the dilution proposed for

fluoridation in our water supply.

 

The Body Can Only Eliminate Half

 

Moreover, fluorides are cumulative and build up steadily with

ingestion of fluoride from all sources, which include not just water

but the air we breathe and the food we eat. The use of fluoride

toothpaste in dental hygiene and the coating of teeth are further

sources of substantial levels of fluoride intake. The body can only

eliminate half of the total intake, which means that the older you

are the more fluoride will have accumulated in your body. Inevitably

this means the ageing population is particularly targeted. And even

worse for the very young there is a major element of risk in baby

formula made with fluoridated water. The extreme sensitivity of the

very young to fluoride toxicity makes this unacceptable. Since there

are so many sources of fluoride in our everyday living, it will prove

impossible to maintain an average level of 1ppm as is suggested.

 

What Is The Result Of These Toxic Effects?

 

First the immune system. The distortion of protein structure causes

the immune proteins to fail to recognise body proteins, and so

instigate an attack on them, which is Autoimmune Disease. Autoimmune

diseases constitute a body of disease processes troubling many

thousands of people: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Systemic Lupus

Erythematosis, Asthma and Systemic Sclerosis are examples; but in my

particular context today, thyroid antibodies will be produced which

will cause Thyroiditis resulting in the common hypothyroid disease,

Hashimoto's Disease and the hyperthyroidism of Graves' Disease.

 

Musculo Skeletal damage results further from the enzyme toxic effect;

the collagen tissue of which muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones

are made, is damaged. Rheumatoid illness, osteoporosis and

deformation of bones inevitably follow. This toxic effect extends to

the ameloblasts making tooth enamel, which is consequently weakened

and then made brittle; and its visible appearance is, of course,

dental fluorosis.

 

The enzyme poison effect extends to our genes; DNA cannot repair

itself, and chromosomes are damaged. Work at the University of

Missouri showed genital damage, targeting ovaries and testes. Also

affected is inter uterine growth and development of the foetus,

especially the nervous system. Increased incidence of Down's Syndrome

has been documented.

 

Fluorides are mutagenic. That is, they can cause the uncontrolled

proliferation of cells we call cancer. This applies to cancer

anywhere in the body; but bones are particularly picked out. The

incidence of osteosarcoma in a study reporting in 1991 showed an

unbelievable 50% increase. A report in 1955 in the New England

Journal of Medicine showed a 400% increase in cancer of the thyroid

in San Francisco during the period their water was fluoridated.

 

My Particular Concern Is The Effect Of Fluorides On The Thyroid Gland

 

Perhaps I may remind you about thyroid disease. The thyroid gland

produces hormones which control our metabolism - the rate at which we

burn our fuel. Deficiency is relatively common, much more than is

generally accepted by many medical authorities: a figure of 1:4 or

1:3 by mid life is more likely. The illness is insidious in its onset

and progression. People become tired, cold, overweight, depressed,

constipated; they suffer arthritis, hair loss, infertility,

atherosclerosis and chronic illness. Sadly, it is poorly diagnosed

and poorly managed by very many doctors in this country.

 

What concerns me so deeply is that in concentrations as low as 1ppm,

fluorides damage the thyroid system on 4 levels.

 

1. The enzyme manufacture of thyroid hormones within the thyroid

gland itself. The process by which iodine is attached to the amino

acid tyrosine and converted to the two significant thyroid hormones,

thyroxine (T4) and liothyronine (T3), is slowed.

 

2. The stimulation of certain G proteins from the toxic effect of

fluoride (whose function is to govern uptake of substances into each

of the cells of the body), has the effect of switching off the uptake

into the cell of the active thyroid hormone.

 

3. The thyroid control mechanism is compromised. The thyroid

stimulating hormone output from the pituitary gland is inhibited by

fluoride, thus reducing thyroid output of thyroid hormones.

 

4. Fluoride competes for the receptor sites on the thyroid gland

which respond to the thyroid stimulating hormone; so that less of

this hormone reaches the thyroid gland and so less thyroid hormone is

manufactured. These damaging effects, all of which occur with small

concentrations of fluoride, have obvious and easily identifiable

effects on thyroid status. The running down of thyroid hormone means

a slow slide into hypothyroidism. Already the incidence of

hypothyroidism is increasing as a result of other environmental

toxins and pollutions together with wide spread nutritional

deficiencies.

 

141 Million Europeans Are At Risk

 

One further factor should give us deep anxiety. Professor Hume of

Dundee, in his paper given earlier this year to the Novartis

Foundation, pointed out that iodine deficiency is growing worldwide.

There are 141 million Europeans are at risk; only 5 European

countries are iodine sufficient. UK now falls into the marginal and

focal category. Professor Hume recently produced figures to show that

40% of pregnant women in the Tayside region of Scotland were

deficient by at least half of the iodine required for a normal

pregnancy. A relatively high level of missing, decayed, filled teeth

was noted in this non-fluoridated area, suggesting that the iodine

deficiency was causing early hypothyroidism which interferes with the

health of teeth. Dare one speculate on the result of now fluoridating

the water?...

 

Displaces Iodine In The Body

 

Do you think it should be marketed?

 

Fluoridation of the nation's water supply will do little for our

dental health; but will have catastrophic effects on our general

health. We cannot, must not, dare not, subject our nation to this

appalling risk....

 

References

 

L Goldemberg - La Semana Med 28:628 (1921) - cited in Wilson RH,

DeEds F - " The Synergistic Action Of Thyroid On Fluoride Toxicity "

Endocrinology 26:851 (1940).

 

G Litzka - " Die experimentellen Grundlagen der Behandlung des Morbus

Basedow und der Hyperthyreose mittels Fluortyrosin " Med Wochenschr

63:1037-1040 (1937) (discusses the basis of the use of fluorides in

anti-thyroid medication, documents activity on liver, inhibition of

glycolysis, etc.).

 

W May - " Behandlung der Hypothyreosen einschlieblich des schweren

genuinen Morbus Basedow mit Fluor " Klin Wochenschr 16: 562 - 564

(1937).

 

Sarin: (GB: isopropyl methylphosono-fluoridate) is a colorless,

odorless volatile liquid, soluble in water, first synthesized at IG

Farben in 1938. It kills mainly through inhalation.

 

Cyclosarin (GF) and Thiosarin are variants. Pennsylvania Department

of Health

http://www.dsf.health.state.pa.us/

health/cwp/view.asp?a=171 & q=233740

 

Sarin: (GB: CH3-P(=O)(-F)(-OCH(CH3)2)

 

Source: A FOA Briefing Book on Chemical Weapons

Gerhard Schrader, a chemist at IG Farben, was given the task of

developing a pesticide. Two years later a phosphorus compound with

extremely high toxicity was produced for the first time. IG

Farben: " ...the board of American IG Farben had three directors from

the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the most influential of the

various Federal Reserve Banks. American IG Farben. also had

interlocks with Standard Oil of New Jersey, Ford Motor Company, Bank

of Manhattan (later to become the Chase Manhattan Bank), and AEG.

(German General Electric) Source: Moody's Manual of Investments;

1930, page 2149. "

 

http://reformed-theology.org/html/

books/wall_street/chapter_02.htm

 

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