Ibs and fluoride

IBS and Fluoride

Testimonial from Len Harley, Banbury, Oxfordshire

About 12 years ago I experienced a total cure of my IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) an
intractable, mystery disease that now affects up to one third of Britons.
Good news you might think? The problem is that a garden accident led to my discovering the cause as Fluoride! (I have proof that it was the cause). Recently I discovered that I am not unique. I have spoken to a doctor/lecturer in Analytical Chemistry at Surrey University, Guildford. He has done work on Fluoride, and he found that Fluoride toothpaste caused his own IBS. (He is not much of a tea drinker). When his symptoms recurred he discovered his wife had bought Fluoride toothpaste again!
Both he, and 2 leading Consultant/Specialists on IBS that I have corresponded with on this
issue, do not dismiss this link out of hand. Rather they confirm that nobody has looked for it!
(Even though the evidence that Fluoride attacks the gut exists).
My story

I pul ed a steel stake out of the ground; straight into my mouth, causing dental injuries. This
meant a few days without hot drinks. To my utter amazement I realised I was suddenly, totally
free of the Irritable Bowel Syndrome that had plagued me daily for about 10 years with bloating,
tummy cramps and anal mucus.
I suspected coffee, but, in every subsequent test I did, it was tea that would bring back the cramps within an hour or two every time. I researched tea to discover why it might cause IBS. Most notable was that tea contained more fluoride than any other edible plant. I found out that a symptom of fluoride-poisoning is gut pain and remembered that Canadian researchers had blamed toothpaste for IBS. So, out went the fluoride toothpaste as well as the tea! I went from daily gut pain to total cure!Since that day I have been IBS-free…….except for a period when I went to live in Feering, Essex. At that time I could only blame tea for certain. But the symptoms crept back, so I enquired of the local water supplier if they fluoridated. “No we don’t” they replied, “but you have the highest natural fluoride in the country and dilution is used to get it down to the W.H.O maximum!” I changed to bottled water and the IBS totally disappeared again! This may not amount to a ful -blown “double-blind medical trial, ”but it did give a “blind” corroborative proof.
I had moved to many areas at that period. I did not have, and could not have anticipated an IBS
recurrence, since the water at Feering was not even “officially” fluoridated.
I pride myself on a rigorously scientific mind so I was prepared to believe that (however unlikely)
it was only my IBS that was caused by fluoride. I remained suspicious however, because the
enormous rise in IBS was “coincident” with the rise in fluoride-ingestion from water, toothpastes,
pesticides, non-stick cookware and mouthwashes.
Then, I was dismayed to learn a couple of years ago, that the knowledge that fluoride causes IBS has been in the scientific domain for a long time! Professor A. K. Susheela, director of the Fluorosis Research and Rural Development Foundation in New Delhi, has done 30 years research in this field and is a senior advisor to the Indian government. She, and her team, are one of the foremost authorities on Fluoride, having published over 100 papers on the subject! She proved how long-term fluoride intake damaged the gastric mucosa and microvil i leading to IBS. Notwithstanding this, there has been a scientific/medical tendency to be pro-Fluoride in order to appear “anti-crank”. Nevertheless some scientist/doctors now accept a “Fluoride-induced non-ulcerative dyspepsia”. It amounts to “Fluoride induced IBS”. (IBS is a catch-al , default description for a col ection of symptoms. When a cause is found, it gets a new name!) In her evidence to the British Minister of Health in 1998, Professor Susheela highlighted the gastro-intestinal changes from excess fluoride. “This ‘non-ulcer dyspeptic’ complaint includes nausea, vomiting, cramps, gas, constipation followed by diarrhoea.” She concluded that, "such symptoms were related to fluoride ingested via water, food or even dental products". Perhaps you are sceptical about these events because Fluoride has been given a positive, cosy image. Consider the fol owing facts I discovered subsequently to my cure: The American “Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products” (5th. Edition) rates fluoride only slightly less toxic than arsenic, and more toxic than lead! This made it a useful rat poison. And yet their Environmental Protection Agency permits 250 times more Fluoride than lead, in water. Is this logical? Moreover there is a goal of zero to be achieved for the, less poisonous, lead! If we found that lead or arsenic hardened teeth would we add them to water? Well Fluoride is just as toxic, with scores of proven detrimental effects on the body. Why are we pursuing Fluoridation when medical/expert opinion is becoming more sceptical about it, and whilst Ireland is considering reversing Fluoridation and 98% of Europe is against it? The Fluoride used has no drug approval; in fact it is an industrial waste, from fertiliser or smelting-plant chimney-scrubbers. It contains heavy metal impurities including Arsenic, Lead and Antimony as well as Uranium 238. And it is il egal to discharge it into the environment, or dump it at sea…A cynic might wonder if it’s put in the water supply so that each time we wash the car, or flush the toilet we conveniently tip an industrial waste into the environment in a manner that is otherwise il egal. It was one thing for Americans to solve a toxic waste problem in this manner, but to export this idea to tea-drinking nations like Britain and Ireland was downright irresponsible. Recent Taiwanese research, published in “Nature” magazine, found huge variations in the Fluoride content of different teas. This means control of the Fluoride dose is impossible. The concentration of Fluoride in tea could be as much as 41 times the optimum to reduce dental fil ings! Even this dental “optimum” is not necessarily good for our general health. If you drink tea you are probably already getting too much Fluoride, as I certainly was. But we can choose to avoid tea, we cannot avoid water. Fluoride is a thyroid suppressor, formal y used to treat over-active thyroid glands. There are literally hundreds of studies on the thyroid-toxicity of fluoride. Furthermore, Chlorine (which is added to our water) and mercury (which is in our teeth-fil ings) are also thyroid suppressors. The aluminium in tea enhances this effect. We seem to be conducting a multi-pronged assault on the thyroids of a whole generation and many people claim that a large percentage of the population is suffering from sub-clinically low thyroid function. Research, published in 2001, also showed that fluoride calcified the vital pineal gland in the brain with potentially far-reaching consequences. It would seem that the only argument for Fluoridation is the dental health argument. But even this is hotly contested. I can do no better than refer you to a paper published in “The Irish Medical Journal” by Dr. Don MacAuley (Dental Surgeon). He was a supporter of Fluoridation but changed his mind only after looking deeper into Fluoride at the request of some of his patients. His dental-school training had not supplied these perspectives. He outlines some of the multitudinous toxic affects of this poison. (It seems naïve to me, to assume that a substance that has profound effects on teeth and bone would have no other effects on our bodies, particularly on the digestive tract through which it passes). This would not be so alarming were it not such a powerful poison. (Please find his paper attached here:-) Even if the dental health argument were uncontested, it would not justify ignoring all the powerful arguments against Fluoride’s effects on other components of human health.
This compulsory mass-medication breaks every rule of medical prescribing. We are not seen,
nor examined, our medical history is not taken, no account is taken of existing or past intake of
this substance. Its known toxicity and side-effects (or individual susceptibility) are disregarded.
We may not need it, and, even if it does us great individual harm, we can be forced to take it
against our wil .
I do not believe for one minute that I am unique. Apart from the Doctor/Lecturer mentioned
above, my own daughter had chronic gut pain until we refused her tea and changed the children to
Fluoride-free toothpaste (I am not a “crank”. I had even kept the children on Fluoride
Toothpaste….now this appears naïve!)
Because of Government moves on fluoridation I feel condemned to get IBS again at some point in the future, so I cannot remain complacent. The question for me is how to move it forward? I feel the best chance is to publicise "the possibility of a link between Fluoride and IBS". This would provoke enough IBS sufferers to conduct their personal trials (They need to be told to cut out tea as well as obvious Fluoride sources). The weight of anecdotal cures, which, I believe, wil ensue, wil generate the interest and demand for proper, conclusive research. If Fluoride is at the root of much IBS it may take a very long time to discover it. if we do nothing. The kind of "flook" events that led to my rejection of tea, fol owed by my unanticipated relapse on moving into a high natural Fluoride water supply area, wil be very rare. The fact that people ingest Fluoride from diverse sources also means "accidental exclusions" wil be rare. So where wil the "anecdotal push" come from? I feel so frustrated, knowing that mil ions might be helped, but that, on the contrary, government plans to Fluoridate wil cause more suffering. Suggested Protocol for Fluoride Exclusion
If you have IBS, and want to see if Fluoride is causing it, try giving up tea, fluoride toothpastes/mouthwashes, kelp, non-stick coated cookware, and fluoridated water. (Use bottled, and don’t soak in the bath in Fluoridated areas). Consult your doctor about Fluoride-containing medicines such as Prozac. Perhaps you wil be totally cured as I was.
You might also buy a bottle of tamarind paste/concentrate from an Indian grocers. Tamarind
helps eliminate fluoride from the body. Indeed the recent trend to replace tamarind with
tomatoes in cooking has been blamed for the increase of fluorosis in India.
Resources:

Source: http://www.healthychoices.co.uk/IBS_&_Fluoride.pdf