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Health officials delayed report linking fluoride to brain harm

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Re: Health officials delayed report linking fluoride to brain harm

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now is it still necessary? An experiment in Windsor, Ontario (across the border from Detroit, MI): > Yemmi Calito's children are patients of Dr. Meriano. The two oldest kids were raised on fluoridated water in Windsor and both have healthy teeth. Her two youngest weren't, and they've had to be treated for serious tooth decay. Calito said their oral hygiene habits are the same. > "The younger two I feel they have mo…

Hot take: why don’t we stop the root cause of the problem, instead of the insestuous habit of layering on symptom management on top of symptom management. Stop giving kids these insanely high levels of sugar. No soda is a great start. Same thorn in my side is this completely crazy trend that this new life-long injection Ozempic/Wegovy is being suggested for kids 12 and up. Like what? It also atrophies muscle, tendons…

Sugar is everywhere in everything. Reducing kids intake of sugar requires a level of vigilance bordering on isolation from society, especially since human children seem genetically programmed to crave sugar and simple carbohydrates. If it’s around most kids will eat little else.

I kind of remember this from being a kid. Until I was a teen anything with complex or savory tastes was absolutely disgusting. Only carbs, sugars, and very simple flavors and textures seemed edible. It changed when I got to around 12-14 when suddenly a salad was okay and some vegetables started to taste good. Another few years and I’d eat all kinds of things. Became a bit of a foodie by college.

It’s got to be some relic of early hominid evolution. My speculation is that in nature there are a lot of savory things that are toxic. So kids have a natural aversion to them until they are old enough to have learned the tribal knowledge about what is okay to eat. Sweet and carby things are usually safe to eat. If a kid eats random berries or grains thats probably okay. Random mushrooms or plants might kill them. Random sources of protein can also contain parasites or nasty infections.

Re: Health officials delayed report linking fluoride to brain harm

#362
post #347
post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That study is for children. Oral health problems take years to surface and looking at adults would be a better way to measure these things. Having lived in both the US and France, I can say that it’s been my experience that Americans have “nicer” looking teeth. Whether that translates into anything medically relevant is apparently really difficult to prove.

WHO produced the exact same data but for adults. I did see similar results there (several EU countries above US). You gave no references as response, instead giving another personal experience.

And? I was very clear that this was anecdotal and responding in a thread about the aesthetic aspect of teeth.

I’m sorry I didn’t dig any deeper than the link that was presented but it was about adolescent kids. And no one is saying that these differences show up in young people.

Re: Health officials delayed report linking fluoride to brain harm

#363
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I use Sensodyne for a completely unrelated reason: it does not contain Sodium Laurel Sulfate. I have not had a cavity in my entire life, and I'm over 45.

What's the connection between the first and second claims you make? does SLS cause cavities?

Toothpaste with SLS causes ulceration (canker sores) in some individuals (myself included). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphthous_stomatitis

Re: Health officials delayed report linking fluoride to brain harm

#364
post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hot take: why don’t we stop the root cause of the problem, instead of the insestuous habit of layering on symptom management on top of symptom management. Stop giving kids these insanely high levels of sugar. No soda is a great start. Same thorn in my side is this completely crazy trend that this new life-long injection Ozempic/Wegovy is being suggested for kids 12 and up. Like what? It also atrophies muscle, tendons…

> why don’t we stop the root cause of the problem, instead of the insestuous habit of layering on symptom management on top of symptom management. Super simple answer: one requires everyone change their individual habits. Difficulty - very hard. The other requires no change at all on the individual level. Difficulty - very easy. Be careful with falling into the "public health initiatives are just a bandaid" trap. I w…

A sugar tax would have the same effect, it's a single change that's very easy to implement. 10,000% should do.

Re: Health officials delayed report linking fluoride to brain harm

#365
I’ve heard from someone who worked in a water district that they didn’t add fluoride to water for dental health, that was a spin they put on it. Not sure how true it is though.

After the city treated and purified the water, they needed something to add in to keep it from reacting with the city’s pipes. Otherwise the water will eat the pipe and you get dirty water full of pipe delivered to the tap.

They needed something that was cheap, relatively safe to drink, and available in large quantities- fluoride checked those boxes. Supposedly they came up with the dental spin to sell the solution to the public.

Re: Health officials delayed report linking fluoride to brain harm

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hot take: why don’t we stop the root cause of the problem, instead of the insestuous habit of layering on symptom management on top of symptom management. Stop giving kids these insanely high levels of sugar. No soda is a great start. Same thorn in my side is this completely crazy trend that this new life-long injection Ozempic/Wegovy is being suggested for kids 12 and up. Like what? It also atrophies muscle, tendons…

It’s probably worth noting that genetics is probably a significantly big factor than affects cavities, similar to lots of other stuff. Some folks can eat sugar foods and not brush twice a day and have no issues, while others who even floss daily end up with bad teeth. Not saying you shouldn’t reduce sugar intake, that’s not my point - but - factors like genetics are very important too, and fluoride might help for suc…

So this may be useful to someone - I lost that genetic lottery and had lots of issues / most teeth patched up / painful cleans. Until recently, when I moved to a new dentist who said "oh, you've got lots of calcium buildup, you should be taking vit D+K2". This sorted out most of my issues almost immediately. I wish someone told me that 30 years ago...

So apparently there's a few things that trivially impact your dental health besides usual cleaning and few people seem to know about them.

Re: Health officials delayed report linking fluoride to brain harm

#367
post #322
post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there might be some confounders at play here. Consider this excerpt from Wikipedia's article on 'Tooth brushing': > In the United States, although toothbrushes were available at the end of the 19th century, the practice did not become widespread until after the Second World War, when US soldiers continued the tooth brushing that had been required during their military service.[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki…

Different communities added fluoride at different times, it’s not hard to adjust for other factors when you’re drowning in such data.

Outsife the US, fluoride is added to tooth paste. Sounds like a better idea to me.

Re: Health officials delayed report linking fluoride to brain harm

#368
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only two countries, Germany and Switzerland, have fluoridated salt.

Salt fluoridation schemes are reaching more than 100 million people in Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Cuba as well as 85% of Switzerland and 67% of Germany.

That was in the context of “the entire EU”.

Re: Health officials delayed report linking fluoride to brain harm

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is funny. However Ill postulate this: Why wouldn't someone go to where the most interesting work is to be found though? You don't become a military doctor if you don't find it interesting stitching up bullet holes. And vice versa, you don't become a military doctor if you're not interested in working on the same.

Thats a very HN opinion. Sometimes people pick careers for factors other than how interesting they are.

And sometimes they pick locations based on something other than "statistics" and "rankings."

Re: Health officials delayed report linking fluoride to brain harm

#370
post #347
post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That study is for children. Oral health problems take years to surface and looking at adults would be a better way to measure these things. Having lived in both the US and France, I can say that it’s been my experience that Americans have “nicer” looking teeth. Whether that translates into anything medically relevant is apparently really difficult to prove.

WHO produced the exact same data but for adults. I did see similar results there (several EU countries above US). You gave no references as response, instead giving another personal experience.

My original response were specifically about references. But sorry if it sounded more aggressive than it was. I mistook you for the original person I replied to, which made me answer more direct than maybe was necessary. Also, it was my bad for not linking the actual reference for WHOs adult data. I'll link it here instead [1]. That said, on second look it is from 2000, so it is much older than the one on children. Maybe not as reliable. I remain am quite sceptical to the claim that there is an actual difference between in oral health between EU and US though. And my original response were to someone saying preventive care is completely non-existent in EU, which is simply demonstrably wrong.

[1]: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/66521

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