Fluoride is routinely added to tap water, dental products, table salt and milk in both the United States and Canada.
Now, the Daily Mail is reporting that a new study conducted by leading experts from Harvard and the University of Michigan in the U.S., McGill University in Canada, and Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health, has determined that children born to mothers who have been exposed to fluoride are more likely to have a low IQ in later life.
This is hardly surprising, when you consider the fact that sodium fluoride is an industrial byproduct that also doubles as an insecticide.
The research team tracked 287 mother-child pairs from Mexico as part of a project called Early Life Exposures in Mexico to Environmental Toxicants (ELEMENT), which followed the health outcomes of a group of women who were pregnant between 1994 and 2005, as well as the long-term health of their children.
Urine samples were taken from the women when they were pregnant, and then from each child between the ages of 6 and 12 to determine fluoride levels and their effects on “verbal, perceptual-performance, quantitative, memory, and motor abilities at age four and once more between the ages of six and 12.”
After adjusting for other factors that might impact neurodevelopment, the team found that children who themselves were directly exposed to fluoride did not seem to be as badly affected, but those whose mothers were exposed to it while they were pregnant had much lower IQs in later life – each 0.5 milligram-per-liter increase of fluoride in a pregnant woman's urine corresponded to a further drop in intelligence scores for her child.
It is interesting to note that Mexico doesn’t even add fluoride to its water supplies – the fluoride these pregnant mothers were exposed to was only what naturally occurred in the water and from fluoride added to certain salts.
“Our study shows that the growing fetal nervous system may be adversely affected by higher levels of fluoride exposure,” Dr. Howard Hu, the study's lead author, and a professor of environmental health, epidemiology and global health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, told the Daily Mail. “It also suggests that the prenatal nervous system may be more sensitive to fluoride compared to that of school-aged children.”
This is not the first study to link fluoride exposure to neurodevelopmental issues, and the effects are not limited to children exposed to fluoride while in the womb.
In 2016, a study published in The Lancet – the world’s most respected medical journal – found that fluoride is a developmental neurotoxin, just like arsenic, lead and mercury. The journal noted that these neurotoxins are the cause of the “pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity” related issues being observed among children today, including ADHD, dyslexia and other learning impairments. (Related: Water fluoridation linked to ADHD, obesity and depression.)
Since fluoride is so pervasive in North America, it can be difficult to avoid it. So, what can you do to mitigate its harmful effects?
One of the best natural neuro-protective compounds known to humans is curcumin, one of the active components of turmeric. Turmeric is a popular spice used in many Asian and Indian dishes, and is also known for its amazing medicinal properties. A study recently published in Pharmacognosy Magazine revealed that curcumin can help to mitigate the neurotoxic effects of fluoride.
Another option is to purchase a high-quality water filter like the Big Berkey to ensure that your family is getting the cleanest possible water.
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