From: Dr. Mercola

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A new study shows that exposure to fluoride may lower children’s intelligence. Fluoride is added to 70 percent of U.S. public drinking water supplies.

More than 500 children aged 8 to 13 from two different towns were studied and tested.  One city had fluoridated water, and the other did not.

PR Newswire reports:

“About 28 percent of the children in the low-fluoride area scored as bright, normal or higher intelligence compared to only 8 percent in the ‘high’ fluoride area … in the high-fluoride city, 15 percent had scores indicating mental retardation and only 6 percent in the low-fluoride city.”

Sources:

Environmental Health Perspectives December 17, 2010

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

If you live in the United States, more likely than not you’re drinking tap water that contains added fluoride. The United States is one of only eight countries in the entire developed world that fluoridates more than 50 percent of its water supply, under the guise that it helps prevent and control tooth decay …

The sad reality is, however, that there is practically no difference in tooth decay rates between fluoridated and non-fluoridated countries, and no difference between states that fluoridate a high versus low percentage of their water.

Yet, while fluoride in drinking water does NOT decrease rates of tooth decay, numerous studies show that this chemical has an array of devastating health effects that are being imposed on you and your family whether you like it or not. One of those risks, as Dr. Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network, recently reported, is lowered intelligence in your children.

Fluoride May Harm Your Child’s Brain and IQ

Fluoride is known to interfere with basic functions of nerve cells in your brain. There are now numerous animal and human studies demonstrating the damage fluoride inflicts on your brain, including your pineal gland.

The latest study even accounted for other potential variables, such as lead exposure, iodine deficiency or a history of brain disease or head injury.

Even after accounting for this, about 28 percent of the children in the low-fluoride area scored as “bright, normal or higher intelligence” compared to only 8 percent in the high-fluoride area. Further, 15 percent of children in the high-fluoride city had signs of mental retardation, compared with only 6 percent in the low-fluoride city.

As Dr. Connett reported, there have been over 23 human studies and 100 animal studies linking fluoride to brain damage. This includes such effects as:

  • Reduction in nicotinic acetylcholine receptors
  • Reduction in lipid content
  • Impaired antioxidant defense systems
  • Damage to the hippocampus
  • Damage to the purkinje cells
  • Increased uptake of aluminum
  • Formation of beta-amyloid plaques (the classic brain abnormality in Alzheimer’s disease)
  • Exacerbation of lesions induced by iodine deficiency
  • Accumulation of fluoride in the pineal gland

Some of these effects have been observed even at low levels of exposure, such as 1 part per million (ppm) of fluoride in water. This is below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ‘safe’ drinking water level for fluoride, which is 4 ppm, and right around the levels used in water fluoridation programs, which Dr. Connett reports may range from 0.7-1.2 ppm.

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