FLOURIDE again!: There is an article today in... - Thyroid UK

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FLOURIDE again!

nightingale-56 profile image
77 Replies

There is an article today in The Daily Mail stating that Flouride is, once again, being considered to be added to drinking water. We had all this some years ago and they seem to not have learned anything since then. Do we have to fight all over again to get this stopped!

Does anyone have any scientific information that we could send Ministers to explain why this is a bad idea?

For those that do not know, Flouride was given to Hyperthyroid Patients to help 'kill off' the Thyroid Gland, earlier in the last Century (I think).

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nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56
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77 Replies
nellie237 profile image
nellie237

I thought we'd already lost this one.

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply tonellie237

I know I wrote to our Water Company and they said they did not add any extra flouride. Some water has it naturally occurring, but at least it is not something unnatural added.

nellie237 profile image
nellie237 in reply tonightingale-56

I've just checked mine - no fluoride added. I live in a 'very hard water' area, and have just found out that my water naturally contains 122mg/l of calcium. I've been looking at my calcium recently to try and increase it - ...this is good news for me (I think) as I drink a couple of litres a day with a bit of squash.

Like you, I don't agree with adding fluoride. I can't remember why, but I know that I read about it the last time this was in the press.

pennyannie profile image
pennyannie

Oh, snap that news !!!

I just read about this and a bigger picture has been painted in today's TImes, which reads that the NHS landscape is to change with the CCG s in the firing line and due to be disbanded, as the Government " seizes control of the NHS " :

Hey Ho !!

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply topennyannie

The article did go into further depth as per The Times (which I'll read later today, as my husband has this). A Council group (special needs) I volunteer with did know this information a couple of years ago, but it did not say then that Ministers would get involved. Do hope it doesn't mean things will get worse.

pennyannie profile image
pennyannie in reply tonightingale-56

Can it ?

I sincerely hope not ;

My only experience was to challenge an alternative thyroid hormone treatment to T4 :

My understanding is limited but it talks of reforms to scrap the forced privatisation and competition within the NHS and dozens of new management bodies are to be given control - and of course it finishes with the usual blurb of GP's. hospitals and social care working together to improve patient care.

I 'll not continue as I don't want to spoil the ending for you - I hope your husband irons it before you get your turn and at least its a more manageable size - I used to have to lay on the floor reading the broadsheets !!

Mostew profile image
Mostew in reply topennyannie

Wonder who will be in management .

Seems so odd for this government to be doing after giving contracts to their friends

pennyannie profile image
pennyannie in reply toMostew

Your guess is as good as mine !!

nellie237 profile image
nellie237 in reply topennyannie

Less Consultants/GP's and more 'clinical people' I expect. They talked about specialist centres for heart and diabetes a few years ago - and that never happened. Area's get modernised for specific purposes and then close within a year or two - somebody will be making a shed load of money somewhere.........

pennyannie profile image
pennyannie in reply tonellie237

Well, it's bigger than us, despite the fact we pay for it :

Me thinks I'll be having to stay self sourcing if I want to be able to stay put, just hope I don't fall off a cliff any time soon !!!

nellie237 profile image
nellie237 in reply topennyannie

Will it end up being run by Big Pharma..........fluoride/statins?

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply tonellie237

Do 'they' think we don't already know what flouride can do! Maybe they are the ones that need educating about flouride.

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply topennyannie

I can't think it will be any improvement on what we have now and could be worse!

pennyannie profile image
pennyannie in reply tonightingale-56

My sister who is a physiotherapist and works in the care home " industry " is encouraged as the service has become so splintered and a numbers game for accountants.

Good care can't be costed out to necessarily show a healthy balance sheet.

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply topennyannie

I di hope she is right and it makes things better. I think good care has been lost along the way.

pennyannie profile image
pennyannie in reply tonightingale-56

Yes - I hope so too - she has been saying this, and seen it first hand over the years and the effect it has on everyone's morale as the meaning of " care " as you and I understand it may not be there for everybody.

Enjoy the paper - I'm going in now for the puzzle pages - xx

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply tonellie237

We do have a local Diabetes Centre, but, of course, nothing special for Thyroid or Pituitary patients. With the diabetes Centre you can just phone the nurses for help if needed. It would be good to have this service for Thyroid patients too. The Pituitary Foundation is good for advice and has a specialist nurse to answer questions at certain times.

nellie237 profile image
nellie237 in reply tonightingale-56

We are supposed to have a 'Community Care Diabetes Team' too - all the clinicians/nurses ever say is "Yes, you're doing the right thing" and appointments to see the Consultant were being cancelled way before Covid. My daughter doesn't find it particularly helpful. A bit like thyroid care really - not much there.

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply tonellie237

I can't say I have used the service such for my son, but the nurses were more helpful than the Consultant.

SeasideSusie profile image
SeasideSusieRemembering

For those that do not know, Flouride was given to Hyperthyroid Patients to help 'kill off' the Thyroid Gland, earlier in the last Century (I think).

I haven't heard that. It was iodine solution that used to be used to treat hyperthyroidism before the current radioactive iodine treatment.

I haven't seen this article and I can't find it on Daily Mail online.

Marz profile image
Marz in reply toSeasideSusie

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

Not everyone's favourite but as a pharmacist there is some helpful information 🙃

nellie237 profile image
nellie237 in reply toMarz

I knew there was a valid reason I'd thought it was a bad idea.

Miffie profile image
Miffie in reply toMarz

Is this a “Marmite” style theory I wonder. I thought SeasideSusie was right in stating iodine was used. At least in the UK. Certainly I and my parents were told by the GP in the early 1960s that I would have to avoid iodine as diagnosed witn hypothyroidism. Obviously old school thinking but lots of treatment was better then for those of us with hypothyroidism. At least we all had NDT.

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply toMarz

Thanks for posting this Marz . I knew we had discussed this some years ago when it was brought up. Maybe they thought we had forgotten about it in the meantime!

pennyannie profile image
pennyannie in reply toSeasideSusie

It's also on the front page of the Times is that's easier to fish out :

SeasideSusie profile image
SeasideSusieRemembering in reply topennyannie

No, unfortunately, just a few lines then you need to subscribe. I'll just wait to see if it's on the TV news.

pennyannie profile image
pennyannie in reply toSeasideSusie

Oh, I'm sorry, I've cut the article out of my paper and already popped it in the post to my sister as otherwise I could have sent you mine !!

SeasideSusie profile image
SeasideSusieRemembering in reply topennyannie

Not to worry pennyannie I'm sure it will pop up somewhere where I can read it :)

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply toSeasideSusie

It wasn't in the health section SeasideSusie .

SeasideSusie profile image
SeasideSusieRemembering in reply tonightingale-56

It's OK, it eventually appeared in the Mail Online.

Kenley profile image
Kenley

I remember fighting this some years ago and writing to ministers. Fluoride did use to be given as a treatment to Hyperthyroid patients years ago. I'm in London, which currently does not have fluoride added to the water. There were figures to show that people in areas where fluoride was added to the water (the Midlands for instance) had much higher levels of hypothyroidism.

My heart sinks to hear that this has come up again. I thought we had one the battle. I feel like refusing to pay my water rates if this comes about. Need to dig out the scientific research, which did exist. Maybe more has been done since. We have to fight this one. It is outrageous to be forcibly medicated like this.

Marz profile image
Marz in reply toKenley

Dumbing down ?

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply toKenley

I agree with all you say Kenley . We should not have to fight this battle again, but I feel we must. Ministers do not seem to put two and two together and learn from the lessons of the past. Maybe we can look through past posts to see if there is anything of use to us now.

nellie237 profile image
nellie237

Apparently down to local councils at the moment. I found mine don't add fluoride on my water company site.

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministrator

A very brief visual on Effect of fluoride on endocrine tissues and their secretory functions.

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

Only the abstract is freely available.

Effect of fluoride on endocrine tissues and their secretory functions - diagram
Serendipitious profile image
Serendipitious in reply tohelvella

The full article can be downloaded here: sci-hub.se/downloads/2020-1...

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply toSerendipitious

Thanks for posting the full article Serendipitious . Not read it all, but this will be really useful.

jsy_girl profile image
jsy_girl in reply tohelvella

Thanks for this and for the map below.

I started down a right rabbit hole last night wondering if to invest in a water distiller for the kitchen 😂

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply tohelvella

Thanks for posting this helvella . We will need to add this to our 'armour'.

jsy_girl profile image
jsy_girl

Dr Barry Durrant Peatfield talks very strongly about how bad fluoride is for you and your thyroid in his book. It seems to be more north England that does put it in the water currently. I hope they aren’t thinking about it.

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply tojsy_girl

Hopefully, we have enough information to sway their thinking.

SeasideSusie profile image
SeasideSusieRemembering in reply tojsy_girl

Birmingham was the first area to have flouridated water in1964. It had a much higher incidence of hypothyroidism compared to Manchester (non-flouridated water)I was born in Birmingham and left in 1994. I remember reading about it in the Birmingham Evening Mail. I can't find the original article now but this is a more recent one:

birminghammail.co.uk/news/m...

I was the first in my family to have hypothyroidism, started when I was in my mid-20s and took 2 years to diagnose in 1975. My mother (lived in Birmingham all her live) then developed hypothyroidism when in her 60s, around the mid 1980s, then my sister-in-law developed it in her 40s in the 1990s (born and still lives in Birmingham).

Our water here in North Wales is not flouridated.

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply toSeasideSusie

Maybe it is not the only thing to cause hypothyroidism, but it surely doesn't help, especially those of us already with it. Thanks for posting the article from the Birmingham Mail.

jsy_girl profile image
jsy_girl

This has the link to both the times article and daily Mail article at bottom of it

richieallen.co.uk/uk-govern...

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply tojsy_girl

Well found jsy-girl.

jsy_girl profile image
jsy_girl in reply tonightingale-56

I can’t read the times one though which is annoying! Will keep eyes peeled for further articles

jsy_girl profile image
jsy_girl in reply tonightingale-56

NHS shake-up 'to cut bureaucracy and improve care' bbc.co.uk/news/health-55985910

BBC have done similar article on NHS shakeup today but it doesn’t mention fluoridisation.

Marz profile image
Marz

Quick on-line search will reveal a map of current areas that add flouride 🌻

Comorbidity profile image
Comorbidity

You can find out if your local water supply is fluoridated by contacting your water company.

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministrator in reply toComorbidity

I believe that all water operators are required to make such information - including a recent analysis of most local water supplies - available online. I have certainly found such information for every location I have ever tried to find. (Maybe about ten - across at least two countries.)

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply toComorbidity

I did that last time this was discussed so I hope they are not thinking of changing their minds now.

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministrator

I have included a map from the Open University of fluoride levels in England and Wales. It shows natural fluoride levels and areas which are fluoridated.

(Fluoridation is only currently practised in England.)

open.edu/openlearn/science-...

Comorbidity profile image
Comorbidity in reply tohelvella

Very interesting, thankyou!

Afaghieh profile image
Afaghieh

Hi nightingale-56I have flouride in my drinking water, when i open the tap fully water gushing out I can smell it. Apparently it's added because it protects the teeth so I hear.

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministrator in reply toAfaghieh

I don't think fluoride has any smell whatsoever. Chlorine and chlorine compounds - yes. Other substances, quite possibly.

The link below says the same - the author clearly is only trying to be clear about the odour/smell question:

greenreview.blogspot.com/20...

Afaghieh profile image
Afaghieh in reply tohelvella

Hi helvellaThanks interesting then i will ask Thames water!

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministrator in reply toAfaghieh

You can find out by simply going to their website! Enter your postcode:

wholesale.thameswater.co.uk...

Screenshot of Thames Water Quality page.
Comorbidity profile image
Comorbidity in reply toAfaghieh

Hi Afaghieh,

I have recently begun buying bottled water because the smell of chlorine is so strong when it comes out of my kitchen taps at the moment. I also collect the tap water and let it stand in a jug for a while before using it for drinking. That allows the chemical smell to dissipate. You could perhaps try that if your tap water is strong smelling.

At first I tried to raise it with my water company, but their website only allowed complaints on a very short list of topics, one of which was colour, but none of which was smell or taste! That is why I felt driven to manage the problem in the direct ways I have described.

Afaghieh profile image
Afaghieh in reply toComorbidity

HiYes, i do the same. There should be an email for your water company such as enquiries. that will do.

I have emailed thames water but they are very slow in responding.

Marz profile image
Marz

😥

penny profile image
penny

Not again! I thought that we all had a right to clean, safe drinking water; I don’t consider fluoridated water safe. We seem to be on a slippery slope to mass medication and the imposition of state control in our lives. ‘Healthism’ is something that Dr No talks about and the Big Brother approach to individual choice. Most dictators have done things ‘for the good of the people’ and ‘the people’ can be brainwashed to think that it is in their interests. What’s wrong with a toothbrush and fluoride-free toothpaste? If some don’t want to protect their teeth then that is their choice we shouldn’t all be forced to ingest poisons just for a few who choose bad teeth. Is this about health or saving money?

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply topenny

Maybe someone is trying to make money out of getting rid of flouride and not having to pay to actually get rid of it! It would be really good if they could educate most people about what vitamins and minerals actually help preserve and keep teeth strong.

Marz profile image
Marz

Me too ! All those hormones floating around - poor fish ! SAS - Surfers Against Sewage - also have a great deal to say - and rightly so !

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56

I think maybe some water companies added it. Our water company didn't though,but it does have naturally occurring flourine I think.

Marz profile image
Marz

Changing sex too !

Marz profile image
Marz

Maybe confusing it with humans !

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministrator

I asked our neighbour who was a structural engineer and he told me that it was iron - the industrial revolution obviously came at a cost in that area.

Could be the other way round! The industrial revolution occurred in that area due to the high level of iron in the geology. Resulting in high levels in the water supply.

Map of iron in England and Wales - but this will not necessarily be reflected in water levels:

dropbox.com/s/2fx2fmzt1jkig...

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply tohelvella

Thanks for that map helvella . We really do need to know what we (or they) are putting into our bodies.

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56

Only a few water companies add extra flouride, but in some it is naturally present. Sorry only just seen this reply Hidden .

katyfow profile image
katyfow

This is an interesting paper jech.bmj.com/content/69/7/619

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply tokatyfow

Thank you for posting this katyfow .

Ziburu profile image
Ziburu

Well you can hardly expect better from Johnson’s minions. Like him, they don’t do detail.His previous answer to the possibility that brexit could affect food/goods in the shops, was to the affect ...”no worries about running short, you’ll still be able to get the ingredients for Mars bars “No worries there then.

Ziburu profile image
Ziburu

My new dentist is also equally clueless as to the safety of fluoride. I asked him about fluoride in the rinsing water - his reply was that’s no worry to thyroid probs!!Equally with X-rays I pointed out it might be an idea to cover my throat to keep the X-rays away from my thyroid. Again his reply - oh that’s no problem!!

From a brief research I think he’s wrong on both points. Will go armed with scientific articles next time I visit , whenever that may be??

Comorbidity profile image
Comorbidity in reply toZiburu

Hi Ziburu,

Some private dentists do use a shield on the patient when taking x-rays .

But sadly, I have never known an NHS one take any such precautions for the patient (only for themselves).

Comorbidity profile image
Comorbidity in reply toZiburu

In fact, I have more than once been advised to apply neat fluoride to a tooth by a dentist.

Both times this was given to me, I experienced a strong reaction, as my mucous membranes tried to get rid of the poison. I could not stop needing to spit!

(I recommend anyone to reject treatment recommendations like that, which actually fail to address the root cause of one's problem.)

nightingale-56 profile image
nightingale-56 in reply toComorbidity

Comorbidity it would be good if you could also write to Matt Hancock and tell him this.

Comorbidity profile image
Comorbidity in reply tonightingale-56

Well, you have a point! I suppose any of us could write and challenge both the fluoride orthodoxy and the mass-medication issue. I think only the latter is likely to make any impression.

I don't think mass-medication would be a natural Conservative or libertarian approach to things, so it ought to be possible to exert some pressure on that front.

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