as communities across the united states began debating whether or not to add fluoride to
their water supply in the 1950s and 60s fluoride proponents claimed that there was no legitimate
scientific opposition to fluoride but in fact in the late 1940s and early 50s there
was a significant debate over the merits of fluoridation within the scientific medical
and dental communities fluoride proponents dismissed any opposition to water fluoridation
as cranks and quacks although their legitimate concerns had a significant
impact on anti-fluoridation referendums in communities across the united states opposition
to water fluoridation was quickly relegated to the fringes within the scientific medical and
dental communities and by the early 1950s long before the early trials had been completed most
dentists doctors and biochemists agreed that water fluoridation could help prevent tooth decay
without harming anyone we now know this to be completely untrue however what makes this story so
interesting is that the benefits of fluoridation do not seem to be as great as was initially touted
by proponents today controlled studies show that fluoridation reduces cavities by approximately
15 to 35 percent far less than the 66 reduction initially claimed by researchers and public health
officials cavity rates have plummeted in both fluoridated and unfluoridated communities and
it's unclear exactly why children get fewer cavities than they did 60 years ago however
fluoridated toothpastes and better dental care undoubtedly play a significant role today most
researchers believe that the effects of fluoride are predominantly topical making fluoridated
toothpaste a much more effective intervention than researchers thought it would be in the 1950s
and 60s hey what's up guys my name is zach and welcome to nutrition library where we
take an evidence-based approach to nutrition and supplementation if you're new to the channel do me
a huge favor and hit the red subscribe button that's below this video so you can stay up to
date with all of our future content thank you so much so in today's video we're going to be talking
about what i believe to be one of the biggest public health blunders of the last century the
fluoridation of the public water system and so what i hope to do in this video today is
to present enough data uh to convince you of one primary thing fluoride is extremely toxic to human
health and in particular men's health so without further ado let's go ahead and jump right in
now fluoride was somewhat accidentally discovered in the early 1930s when it was discovered to cause
unsightly tooth deformities and those that consumed it in high amounts however during
the early stages of research it was discovered that low doses of fluoride actually seemed to
be somewhat protective against tooth decay and by 1942 the u.s public health service was considering
a study that would artificially add fluoride to city water supplies in order to assess its
effects on tooth decay however they first needed to assess whether fluoride would cause any harm
and there were several important concerns here mainly that fluoride would have a negative
systemic impact on the body everyone recognized that high fluoride intake led to tooth deformity
but was there any possibility that fluoride would affect the body in other ways well two articles
published in 1937 that revealed cases of crippling fluoride toxicity seemed to indicate that it would
however this research was often overlooked frank mcclure the u.s chief of the laboratory
of biochemistry admitted at the time that quote epidemiological studies of the non-dental effects
of fluoride are extremely few in number and very limited in scope and mcclure wasn't the only
detracting voice at the time public health researchers margaret and h.v smith warned
in 1942 that quote the range between toxic and non-toxic levels of fluoride ingestion
is very small any procedure for increasing fluoride consumption to the so-called upper
limit of non-toxicity would be hazardous and as the fluoridation debate continued into the 1950s
an mit nutrition researcher named robert s harris concerned with the long-term effects
of fluoride consumption testified before congress as follows the literature indicates that fluoride
at one part per million in water supplies can effectively reduce the incidence of carries in
children in certain areas the literature does not indicate however that the continued ingestion of
fluoride at this level is harmless in 1952 there were still highly respected scientists expressing
concerns about fluoridation and as communities across the united states debated the possibility
of adding fluoride to the water supply in the 1950s and 60s proponents regularly stated that
dentists doctors and scientists were unanimous in their approval however this is simply not
factual now a lot of you guys at this point are probably asking yourself the question zach what
does this have to do with me well in short after 70 years of intense debate and intense research
i think that there are two primary things that have become extremely abundantly clear one is
that fluoride is an extremely potent endocrine disruptor and is especially destructive to the
male endocrine system and two is that fluoride is an extremely potent neurotoxic chemical which
clearly inhibits neurological development and what i essentially want to do throughout the
rest of this video is present to you guys the clinical data to essentially prove these two
statements starting with fluoride's effects on the endocrine system now in 1994 a massive u.s
population-wide meta-analysis was performed to determine the effects of normal fluoride intake
on reproductive capacity and the results were extremely alarming the researcher of this study
eventually concluded that and i quote for each region separately the annual total fertility
rate was regressed on the fluoride measure and socio-demographic co-variables most regions
showed an association of decreasing total fertility rate with increasing fluoride levels
meta-analysis of the region-specific results confirmed that the combined result was a negative
tfr to fluoride association there is no evidence that this outcome resulted from selection bias
inaccurate data or improper analytical methods and after decades of research that suggested
that fluoride had a negative impact on the endocrine system this becomes the first clinical
observational trial to demonstrate that fluoride does indeed have negative effects on the human
endocrine system now in this study that was published just two years later took a more
targeted approach to assess the specific effects of fluoride on testosterone levels
and the researchers here concluded that and i quote circulating serum testosterone and skeletal
fluorosis patients were significantly lower than those of the control decreased testosterone
concentrations in skeletal fluorosis patients and in males drinking the same water as the patients
but with no clinical manifestation of the disease compared with those of normal healthy males living
in areas non-endemic for fluorosis suggest that fluoride toxicity may cause adverse effects on the
reproductive system of males living in fluorosis endemic areas now my immediate reaction after
reading these two abstracts of these two clinical trials was to ask the simple question of like well
what's the magnitude of effect here how big of an effect is fluoride having on testosterone levels
and this is where it gets a little bit weird the full text of these abstracts is not linked
anywhere and i mean anywhere on the internet whatsoever and this is literally the first time
after years of research that i've ever seen something like this and so it's literally
impossible to assess the magnitude of effect that fluoride is having on testosterone levels except
to take the the researchers word that it quote significantly lower testosterone levels however
lucky for us we do have some research out of china that gives us a much clearer picture of the
negative impact of fluoride on testosterone levels the researchers in this study found that fluoride
levels at merely three milligrams per liter was associated with a 40 reduction in testosterone
levels fluoride was actually so potent at reducing testosterone levels in young men that their levels
were comparable to the oldest tested demographic youth with high fluoride intake were associated
with the testosterone levels of a 55 year old now to further my point here let's go to this
study that was published just two years ago that comes out of mexico city that set out to assess
the effects of fluoride on the onset of puberty in boys and the researchers here concluded that quote
childhood fluoride exposure at the levels observed in our study which was fluoride exposure from
municipal water sources was associated with later pubertal development among mexican boys
at age 10 to 17. and so not only does it appear that fluoride intake is destructive to fertility
destructive to testosterone levels but it also appears that when consumed earlier in life it
actually delays the onset of puberty now at this point in our conversation i do think it's worth
noting that there is literally not a single study that detracts from this research every
single study that has ever been performed on the relationship of fluoride to male testicular
function has shown a negative impact every single one however the effects of fluoride actually go
far beyond the male endocrine system and fluoride is actually probably more well established as a
neurotoxin than it is a endocrine disruptor and because of the research presented thus far as
well as countless other studies that have been performed in animal trials in 2006 the national
research council was requested to perform the largest meta-analysis up into that point and the
conclusion of the nrc was as follows fluoride has the ability to interfere with the function of the
brain studies of populations exposed to different concentrations of fluoride should be undertaken
to evaluate neurochemical changes that may be associated with dementia considerations should be
given to assessing the effects of chronic exposure effects that might be delayed or occur late in
life and the review of the literature actually led the nrc to eventually recommend that the epa
lower uh the maximum contaminant level of fluoride in the water system and eventually led the epa to
admit that there is quote substantial evidence of developmental neurotoxicity now when it comes
to the actual clinical research on the neurotoxic effects of fluoride it's actually really difficult
to choose from because of just how much damning research there is however there are a couple
of uh recently published meta-analysis that are especially damning that i want
to jump into real quick the first one being this meta-analysis that was published in 2019 where the
researchers concluded that and i quote the recent epidemiological results support the notion that
elevated fluoride intake during early development can result in iq deficits that may be considerable
recognition of neurotoxic risk is necessary when determining the safety of fluoride contaminated
drinking water and fluoride use for preventative dentistry the notion that fluoride is primarily a
developmental neurotoxicant means that fluoride an element like lead mercury and arsenic can
adversely affect brain development and exposures much below those that cause toxicity in adults
and in this meta-analysis that was published in the same year the researchers concluded that
and i quote fluoride as a neurotoxin has been proven in several animal studies a
2006 national review council report stated that it is apparent that fluorides have the
ability to interfere with the function of the brain and the body by direct and indirect means
some individuals appear to be highly sensitive to fluoride as shown by case studies and double
blind studies in one study which lasted 13 years the results showed that about one
percent of patients given only one milligram of fluoride each day developed negative reactions
fluoridation of community drinking water is considered unethical because individuals are
not being asked for their informed consent prior to medication it is standard practice to obtain
consent for all medication and this is one of the key reasons why most of western europe has ruled
against fluoridation it is a violation of human rights a direct violation of the nuremberg code
that states that research or even routine medical procedures must be done with the
voluntary cooperation of the subject who must be fully informed of the risks or benefits of
the procedure in which they are involved now this is all absurdly alarming um however i do want to
leave you guys with a few practicals of what do we actually do with this research and the first one
is just obviously stop drinking tap water and literally any water that doesn't explicitly state
that's fluoride free my family and i in light of the research that i did for this video
have exclusively switched over to reverse osmosis water which is one of the only
processes that is known to completely eliminate contaminants from water along with things like
vapor distillation now unfortunately it's also worth noting here that your run-of-the-mill
water filters at home like your brita filter or the filter that's in your refrigerator
do not filter out fluorides unfortunately and so again your best bet is to either stick with one
exclusively reverse osmosis water or two vapor distilled water now my family and i personally
buy several gallons of reverse osmosis water every week and then re-mineralize it at our home however
there are some reverse osmosis systems that you can purchase on the internet that you can hook up
to your water system at home that also do the same job now another practical thing that you can do is
just simply share this video and this is literally the first time that i've ever asked you guys to do
that but that's just because how strongly i feel about this subject if we can't rely on
our regulatory bodies to protect us we have to take on the responsibility ourselves to protect
ourselves and one of the simple ways that you can do this is just by simply staying informed and
helping those that you love stay informed now if you guys are new to this conversation on natural
hormone optimization i would highly recommend go ahead and getting a at-home blood test to test
your personal hormone profile everyone is at a completely different place when it comes to their
hormone profile and so being able to implement a strategy that is geared towards your personal
profile is extremely important so if you guys are interested in this there is a link in the
description where you guys can find the absolute best hormone test uh on the market but other than
that guys if y'all haven't downloaded any of the supplement guides that i've got on my website
there's also gonna be a link in the description to that but other than that guys i think that's
all i have for this video um if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment
down below subscribe if you haven't already and i will see you guys next time thank you so much