3 Lesser Known Sources of Fluoride Harming Your Thyroid

What does fluoride do within your body?

First, we need to develop a good understanding of just how fluoride became popular and inserted itself into the public consciousness. So, fluoride is part of the matrix of bone, tendon and ligament growth. All of these thrive when fluoride is present.

This is most thought of in terms of dental health, and the growth and strength of our teeth. This has led us to believe that fluoride is good, and has even normalized fluoride’s presence in our lives.

The mainstream thought process involved has concerned dental health and dental enamel. Even though the research on fluoride’s role on cavities has been a bit on the ambiguous side.

What we can understand is that topical fluoride can actually have a positive effect on reducing the risk of cavities and cavitation. Especially those gels that we might come across at the dentist – they do make a difference!

Last but not least, before we really dive into the role fluoride plays in our thyroid’s health, about the negative effects of fluoride. There actually has also been some more negative research which has shown the role fluoride plays in some stomach cancers¹. This is obviously something we need to seriously consider.

But, that will have to be another conversation. We are here today to talk about fluoride and your thyroid.

Fluoride and Your Thyroid

Let’s think about the way that our thyroid gland works. It starts by taking in iodine. Which is concentrated and then made into a hormone, and then releases these active hormones throughout your body. When we start to think about root causes, we need to think about the kinds of things which can disrupt this cycle.

The two things which can be key disruptors are:

• Too little or too much iodine, and
• Things that block the thyroid’s uptake

Either of these can be a part of the cycle which triggers autoimmunity. Furthermore, things that slow down iodine uptake can slow down the thyroid independent of autoimmunity. Basically, this is what fluoride does!

When you have above a certain amount of fluoride in your system, you will take that into your thyroid instead of iodine. All thanks to that element of competition.

Ultimately, this will make your thyroid less able to create those important hormones which are then sent throughout your body². When that growth is stunted, we know that we are in a dangerous place (Read: How to test your thyroid, the definitive guide).

In fact, there have been treatments which utilize fluoride in order to slow down the thyroid. In cases of hyperthyroidism and Graves’ disease³. This is not recommended without guidance, obviously. But, it can be used in order to slow down the thyroid.

Where do we get fluoride from?

Now that we know how dangerous fluoride can be for the performance of our thyroid, we need to consider where we might be getting it. As it happens, there are actually some pretty common places where we can get fluoride into our systems. It can be found in:

• Fluoridated water – plain and simple. It is best to avoid drinking straight from the tap and going with something like reverse osmosis treatment for your water.
• Dental treatments – you can skip the fluoride during dental treatments. If you simply maintain good dental hygiene in your day-to-day life: brushing, picks, these are all good ideas to do every single day.
• Fluoridated toothpaste – while you might not absorb much fluoride simply by using toothpaste, it is not advisable that you eat your toothpaste. But, in the case of your thyroid, I would encourage avoiding it altogether. That’s because we want to avoid anything that might be slowing us down unnecessarily.

Less Likely Sources of Fluoride

There are even some sources of fluoride that you might not have expected. Here is where you also might be able to find fluoride in your day-to-day:

• Certain teas (mostly in black tea, a little in green tea and the least in white tea)
• Gelatin, cartilage, or bone tissue – this is especially concerning when we think about the recent popularity of bone broth. All of that bone tissue does have fluoride, and while it is not being talked about much, it can have a detrimental effect on your thyroid.
• Fluoridated bottled water – some bottled waters advertise having fluoride, and some do not, but bottled water is good to avoid altogether. It is way better to go with reverse osmosis and take with you a water bottle with its own carbon filter.

Action Steps To Avoid Fluoride

Luckily, there are definitely some things we can do to avoid the potentially damaging effects of fluoride on your thyroid. Here is what we need to focus on:

• If you are managing your thyroid, avoid denser sources of fluoride.
• For dental purposes, you can do better without fluoride as well. There are a whole bunch of fluoride-free toothpaste on the market. So I suggest that you seek those out in your local drug store.

If you are trying to address other things in your life, we need to consider alternatives that can steer us away from denser sources of fluoride (as I previously mentioned). One of these is white tea, which has a small enough amount that it is okay.

Another would be for those who are trying to avoid autoimmune gastritis and want to help their gut flora. In my personal experience, the effects of resistant starch in your diet (Read: Don’t resist this starch) can have just as beneficial an effect as bone broth on your gut – often even better!

Understand Your Body

If you are at all feeling like fluoride has had a negative effect on your thyroid, consider taking the thyroid quiz (Click Here) today to clear up some of that confusion. This way, you can get a better idea of where you stand on your thyroid health. The next steps you might need to take to get your health back where it needs to be.

1 – https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/water-fluoridation-and-cancer-risk.html
2 – http://www.webmd.com/women/news/20150225/fluoride-in-drinking-water-tied-to-higher-rates-of-underactive-thyroid
3 – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3169868/

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here is how I can help you now:

1. Schedule a Thyroid Second Opinion with me, Dr. C, Click Here for Details
2. Need a Personalized Supplement? Check out My Thyroid Specific Formulations
3. Download and use my Favorite Recipes Cookbook Here
4. Check out my podcast Medical Myths, Legends, and Fairytales Here

Dr. Alan Glen Christianson (Dr. C) is a Naturopathic Endocrinologist and the author of The NY Times bestselling Adrenal Reset Diet, The Metabolism Reset Diet and The Thyroid Reset Diet.

Dr. C’s gift for figuring out what really works has helped hundreds of thousands of people reverse thyroid disease, lose weight, diabetes, and regain energy. Learn more about the surprising story that started his quest.