The Thyroid Nutrition and Fluoride Connection
The Thyroid Pandemic
Are you one of the 27 million Americans suffering from a thyroid condition? Have you been told that you will have to be on medication for the rest of your life or get treated with a radioactive therapy to destroy your thyroid gland?
There is an increasing amount of disturbing evidence that one of the factors that could be causing the thyroid pandemic is the presence of fluoride in our drinking water. It’s not the only one but it certainly is one of them.
This should not be surprising. According to a 2006 report by the National Research Council of the National Academies, fluoride is “an endocrine disruptor in the broad sense of altering normal endocrine function.” You might have guessed it; the thyroid is part of the endocrine system.
What The Thyroid Does
The thyroid gland produces thyroid hormones, which are needed by every cell in our body. A shortage or excess of thyroid hormones throw us out of whack causing symptoms like interrupted metabolism (weight issues, fatigue), memory loss, depression, anxiety, hair loss, infertility, high blood pressure, constant joint pains and many more.
The thyroid gland binds with iodine to produce one of the thyroid hormones, called T4, also known as an inactive hormones (as it does not do much for us). T4 is then transported to the intestine and the liver where it gets converted to T3, the active hormone that our body is actually using to function properly.
Fluoride’s Interference With Iodine
We are now finding out that fluoride inhibits iodine’s ability to bind with the thyroid gland. This means if we drink water with high amounts of fluoride, our thyroid is interrupted and cannot produce enough T4. Insufficient T4 means insufficient T3. It is also believed that fluoride slows down the conversion of T4 to T3 hormone, which could explain why in spite of being on medication like Synthroid many people feel far from well. Again, this could be just one reason amongst many others, such as toxic load of the person, poor diet, chronic stress, food intolerances (find out what your are with the Elimination Diet Guide), etc.
In the case of people with hyperthyroidism (excessive thyroid hormone production) you might think this is a desired outcome to see your thyroid function reduced. Well, not really. People with hyperthyroid are known to have a high level of toxicity from water, food, stress, heavy metals, as well as nutritional deficiency and imbalances. Ingestion of fluoride will make the toxicity and imbalances even worse, it’s therefore key to address the quality of drinking water too. Learn about the seven sources of toxins with the Thyroid Detox Program and ways to start reducing your exposure today.
Even the Government Is Backing Off Fluoride Now
The fact that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has announced plans to lower the recommended level of fluoride in drinking water is showing us that the government is finally making the connection between our health, our thyroid and the water we are drinking.
Would I Get Tooth Decay?
Think of it this way: most countries in the world do not add fluoride to their drinking water and they don’t have tooth decay any more than we do. In fact, most of the European countries declared addition of fluoride to any food and liquid substances outright illegal. The United States is one of 8 countries in the world that still adds fluoride to its drinking water.
So, What Can I Do?
The truth is: removing fluoride from water is very difficult and expensive as the only commercially available filtration system is reverse osmosis. My recommendation therefore is: do what you can and get a water filter that reduces the amount of fluoride in your drinking water. The two brands I recommend are Berkey Filters (you need to add the fluoride remover) and I personally use Kitchen Defender.
Do what you can, but do something! Reduction of fluoride will not only help your thyroid but will also help your family stay healthy and happy for the years to come.
References
1. http://thyroid.about.com/library/articles/blfluoridefinder.htm
[…] On the periodic table, iodine is represented by a capital letter “I” and is located in the same column as fluorine and chlorine. For that reason, fluorine and chlorine can displace iodine in the body, causing health problems. You can learn about how drinking water with fluoride affects the body here. […]