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You are right Mark, I have nothing to back this up, call it mothers intuition, call it a huge coincidence, but I have no evidence that it was anything else either. So, with the doctors unable to find something, we are going with the fluoride.Kids do get childhood illnesses and grow out of things, with no rhyme or reason and this may have been the case with my son. We too are happy that he is healthy now, but because of the 'coincidence' of the fluoride being in his system at the same time he was sick, you can't blame us for being wary of fluoride.I totally understand what you say about the cavities and tooth decay and all that this might bring. That overall it may have more benefits and that science has proven this. But what if science has missed the alternative? What if the researchers are looking at the wrong end of the stick? Who know what we will discover in the future, decades down the line, where something we assumed was good for us because science told us so today, will end up damaging us in the future? For now, we have chosen to take on tooth decay (regular dentist visits) and have a healthy liver and immune system for our son.
There is no evidence that fluoride causes liver damage:
"However, extensive scientific research has uncovered no evidence of increased risks of cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, Alzheimer's disease, birth defects, or Down's syndrome."
If you attribute your son's problems to the vitamins, why blame the fluoride and not something else in the product?
Because the water fortified with fluoride also caused his numbers to rise.I have stated that there is no evidence, that this may have been a coincidence, I just wanted to tell my story. People can take from it what they like, but I really don't feel like I have to defend myself for my decisions and thoughts. This is exactly why I hesitated in commenting, but thought it an important story to tell.
One of the hardest thing for people without any training in science to understand is that anecdotal (personal) accounts and isolated small scale research papers like this one are simply not significant evidence of efficacy or not, safety or not.
What is needed to sort out all the possible co-factors and determine causality, efficacy, safety and so on is very large scale studies, properly randomized, with blind controls, etc., or meta analysis of large numbers of studies, such as the Centers for Disease and the World Health Organization conduct. And both of those organizations endorse the use of fluorides for improving public dental health.
It makes me wonder, if there (this was 3 years ago) is not a lot of research done on the effects of fluoride and liver, or other organ damage, are we missing something? Could kids being diagnosed with auto immune, and going through all kinds of meds and tests and who knows what, be 'cured' by something as simple as taking fluoride away from their system?My purpose in this post is not to open up another argument, just to throw our story out there. For us, we will always be wary of fluoride, whether rightly or wrongly.
What you are doing is making the assumption that fluoride is what was causing your child's problems without anything to back it up other than you stopped giving your child fluoride with vitamins. You yourself state there is nothing "scientific" about this.
I am happy your son got better after being afflicted with such a disturbing problem.
Sometimes, people just randomly start to get better from problems that afflict them. No particular reason can be found for it.
What science has firmly established is that fluoride prevents tooth decay. The reduction in cost from tooth decay can be calculated as being several billion dollars per year. Let's not stop at just financial cost though. Tooth decay is often painful. Significantly, reducing tooth decay makes life more pleasant for lots of people who have trouble finding or affording a dentist. That's not the end of either. Sometimes, complications result from tooth decay. Its not unknown for the infection that decay causes in a tooth's root system to spread. There are documented cases of people dying from infections that spread to their brain because of tooth decay. Significantly reducing tooth decay is not a small matter. It is a significant public health achievement that occurred only because of widespread water fluoridation.
We can't make public policy based on a handful of anecdotal personal experiences that can't be scientifically proven. We have to make it based on what science really does show. I think all water supplies should be fluoridated and that all people opposing fluoridation should have the option of buying bottled water or filtration system for their home that removes the fluoride. Just so long as they pay for it.
thres a hellofalot of personal experiences though, read Diana Bucklands site and what she and many other professionals think of fluoride... think once twice and twice again.. Home - donsabi too talks a lot of sense.. This is a route Im taking for dental health. "coconute oil pulling"... according to scientific research by doctors on one of our TV shows , this actually works.. they were sceptical at first but after tests they found that this works better than all the mouthwashes, which by the way are jam packed with chemicals.. another money making scheme or industry we can without.. wasnt gingivitis invented to sell this junk.
But the problem is that your "hellovalot of personal experience" doesn't add up to the truth, and it is really quite a small group compared to the mainstream.
Here's some intelligent discussion about the difference between science, which is provable, and pseudoscience, which is not.
If you suffer from thyroid problems you should be doubly concerned. Since fluorides were introduced in municipal water we have had a surge of thyroid issues.
Leave it to Fox News, quoting an advocacy piece by the wife of a radio celebrity, to completely mislead the public about this news.
EPA lowered the maximum fluoride level, that's all.
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