“Fluoride is likely to cause decreased melatonin production and to have other effects on normal pineal function, which in turn could contribute to a variety of effects in humans.” (National Research Council 2006).
The Pineal Gland Has Highest Levels of Fluoride in Body
As a calcifying tissue that is exposed to a high volume of blood flow, the pineal gland is a major target for fluoride accumulation in humans. In fact, the calcified parts of the pineal gland (hydroxyapatite crystals) contain the highest fluoride concentrations in the human body (up to 21,000 ppm F), higher than either bone or teeth. (Luke 1997; 2001). Although the soft tissue of the pineal does not accumulate fluoride to the same extent as the calcified part, it does contain higher levels of fluoride than found than in other types of soft tissue in the body — with concentrations (~300 ppm F) that are known in other contexts to inhibit enzymes. While the impacts of these fluoride concentrations in the pineal are not yet fully understood, studies have found that calcified deposits in the pineal are associated with decreased numbers of functioning pinealocytes and reduced melatonin production (Kunz et al., 1999) as well as impairments in the sleep-wake cycle. (Mahlberg 2009).
Fluoride and Earlier Puberty in Girls
In the United States, children are reaching the age of puberty at earlier ages than in the past — a trend that carries health consequences, including a heightened risk for breast cancer. Some evidence indicates that fluoride, via its effect on the pineal, could be a contributing cause to this trend. In animal studies, for example, fluoride exposure has been found to cause a decrease in the amount of circulating melatonin and lead to an accelerated sexual maturation in females. (Luke 1997). Similar findings have been reported in two epidemiological studies of human populations drinking fluoridated water. In the first published fluoridation safety experiment in Newburgh, New York, the authors found that girls living in a fluoridated community reached puberty five months earlier than girls living in a non-fluoridated community. (Schlesinger 1956) Later, in 1983, Farkas reported that postmenarcheal girls were “present at younger ages in the higher fluoride town than in the low-fluoride town, although the reported median ages were the same.”
April 6, 2006 - Boys who drink fluoridated water have an increased risk of a deadly bone cancer, a new study suggests.
Elise Bassin, DDS, completed the study in 2001 for her doctoral dissertation at Harvard, where she now is clinical instructor in oral health policy and epidemiology. The study finally was published in the May issue of Cancer Causes and Control.
Bassin and colleagues' major finding: Boys who grew up in communities that added at least moderate levels of fluoride to their water got bone cancer -- osteosarcoma -- more often than boys who drank water with little or no fluoride.
The risk peaked for boys who drank more highly fluoridated water between the ages of 6 and 8 years -- a time at which children undergo a major growth spurt. By the time they were 20, these boys got bone cancer 5.46 times more often than boys with the lowest consumption. No effect was seen for girls.
I think these studies at least warrant some looking into even at the most fundamental level. I know it's easier to ignore things and just trust that the people who are in charge have our best interest in mind.
