The Effects Of Fluoride On The Thyroid Gland
By Dr Barry Durrant-Peatfield MBBS LRCP MRCS
Medical Advisor to Thyroid UK
9-9-4
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
These
figures would be worrying enough, since they mean that iodine
deficiency, which results in hypothyroidism (thyroid hormone cannot be
manufactured without iodine) is likely to affect huge numbers of people.
What makes it infinitely worse, is that fluorine, being a halogen
(chemically related to iodine), but very much more active, displaces
iodine. So that the uptake of iodine is compromised by the ejection, as
it were, of the iodine by fluorine. To condemn the entire population,
already having marginal levels of iodine, to inevitable progressive
failure of their thyroid system by fluoridating the water, borders on
criminal lunacy.
I would like to place a scenario in front of those
colleagues who favour fluoridation. A new pill is marketed. Some trials
not all together satisfactory, nevertheless, show a striking improvement
in dental caries. Unfortunately, it has been found to be thyrotoxic,
mutagenic, immunosuppressive, cause arthritis and infertility in
comparatively small doses over a relatively short period of time.
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.
Dr Barry Durrant-Peatfield
obtained his Medical degrees in 1960 at
Guy's Hospital London. He left the NHS in 1980 to specialise in thyroid
illnesses drawing inspiration from the work of infamous Dr Broda Barnes,
at the Foundation that bears his name, Connecticut, USA. He has been a
medical practitioner for over forty years specialising in metabolic
disorders during which time he became a leading authority in the UK for
thyroid and adrenal management. For over twenty years he also ran a
successful private clinic and became a nation-wide leading authority on
thyroid and adrenal dysfunction, but clashed with establishment medicine
in the management of thyroid illness. He is the author of The Great
Thyroid Scandal (see opposite page), he currently lectures at
nutritional colleges in London as well as conducting his own teaching
seminars. Barry will shortly be opening a diagnostic clinic in the UK
for thyroid and adrenal disorders where he will provide advice on
diagnosis and treatment with special interests in nutritional aspects.
For further information contact: Dr B Durrant- Peatfield 36A High St,
Mersham, Redhill Surrey, RH1 3EA.
Tel: 44 (0)1737 215462 Email: info@drpeatfield.com
Web site: http://www.drpeatfield.com
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 http://www.opcw.org/resp/html/nerve.html 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
Fluoride is a poison. Fluoride was poison yesterday. Fluoride is poison today. Fluoride will be poison tomorrow. Water fluoridation has been a big fib. Our Board of Health promotes fluoride because this policy was created by big money and big money runs our State and the State provides money to the cities and towns. It's all about the money and not about your health. Public schools promote fluoride because schools are about jobs and jobs mean lots of money, your health is secondary to money according to Public School policy and the State or big money. Where are the churches in this debate? Maybe they are afraid to lose their tax deduction. When in doubt, get it out.
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