(NaturalNews) Consuming sodium fluoride, a toxic chemical commonly added to US water supplies to allegedly help prevent tooth decay, definitively causes neurodegenerative damage in the brain, spinal cord, and sciatic nerve. These are the findings of a recent study published in the, and ones that, by all scientific standards, put to rest the failed myth that fluoride consumption is in any way safe.Conducted by K. Pratap Reddy of Osmania University in India, the study confirms that fluoride chemicals "cross the blood-brain barrier and alter the structure and function of neural tissue." Repeated exposure to fluoride chemicals in test rats was found to lower body weights; reduce the organic somatic index of their brains; and contaminate their hippocampus, neocortex, cerebellum, spinal cord, and sciatic nerve tissues with persistent fluoride chemicals.The blood-brain barrier is the body's natural way of protecting the brain and central nervous system from damage by harmful toxins. In other words, it is meant to allow only nutrients and other beneficial metabolic products access to the brain, while filtering out all other materials.But fluoride chemicals possess uniquely harmful characteristics that allow them to bypass this protective barrier and lodge themselves within brain tissue. The end result is a cascade of neurodegeneration throughout the brain and central nervous system, which in turn can lead to a host of severe and potentially deadly conditions, some of which are irreversible.Compared to rats not given sodium fluoride , those given the chemicals as part of the study experienced "vacuolation of Schwann cells with enlarged axons and disrupted myelin sheaths" in their sciatic nerves; "irregular nuclei with normal nucleoli, vacuolated cytosol and axons with split myelin," in their spinal cords; and altered morphology in cerebellar tissue that resulted in "dumbbell shaped and [crenulated] nuclear membrane."You can read the full study for yourself at:In simple terms, these changes signify severe neurological damage that can manifest itself in a variety of different ways. Lowered IQ, reduced cognitive function, learning disabilities, and hyperactivity are some of the forms of brain damage caused by fluoride consumption."Who in their right mind would risk lowering their child's intelligence in order to reduce a small amount of tooth decay, for which the evidence is very weak?" asked Tara Blank, PhD, the Fluoride Action Network's (FAN) Science and Health Officer, after the release of a Chinese fluoride study earlier this year that found similar results.