The addition of fluoride containing salts to drinking water supplies is controversial. The purpose of such additions, we are told, it to reduce the prevalence of dental caries. However, even if this is true, and evidence is equivocal on this point, this still means that a large number of people are being exposed to a medicine without their consent. Fluoride is toxic to humans, and evidence suggests that it may have detrimental effects on human metabolism through impairment of organ and brain function. With regard the latter, fluoride may be able to alter neurochemistry. A number of studies have investigated the effects of fluoride on mood. For example, in one study, researchers administered 0.3 or 40 ppm fluoride to mice for 90 days. The researchers then exposed the mice to experimental stress to induce either depression or anxiety. The results of the research showed that the addition of fluoride to water at higher concentrations had no effects on depression, but did significantly increase anxious behaviour in the mice.
Therefore fluoride added to drinking water may have anxiogenic effects. The ability of fluoride to alter brain neurochemistry was demonstrated in another study where mice were exposed to sodium fluoride of different concentrations at age 4 weeks. Compared to water treated controls, the mice exposed to sodium fluoride showed significant behavioural changes that were indicative of alterations to brain neurochemistry. In particular, the mice exhibited behaviour that suggested they had developed cognitive deficits and anxiety and depression. This supports other studies that have also demonstrated that sodium fluoride administration has the potential to cause memory and learning difficulties in rats. In humans, it has been shown that the intelligence quotient of children living in high fluoridation areas is lower than in children living in low fluoridiaton areas. In other human studies, reaction times and abstract thinking was lower in areas with fluoridated water compared to non-fluoridated water supplies.
Eat Well, Stay Healthy, Protect Yourself
RdB