Multiple studies dating back to the 1970s link fluoride exposure to thyroid and other cancers

Fluoride displaces necessary iodine in the thyroid gland

(NaturalNews) As scientists struggle to explain why thyroid cancer rates have more thanin the U.S. since the mid-1970s, nobody's addressing the elephant in the room that is artificial water fluoridation and the confirmed toxicity of fluoride chemicals when they enter the thyroid gland.A study published last year attempted to explain away the thyroid cancer epidemic in the U.S. today, blaming it not on more actualof the disease, but rather on more. The problem, say researchers from Dartmouth University, is that thyroid cancer is supposedly overdiagnosed and overtreated."The incidence of thyroid cancer is at epidemic proportions, but it doesn't look like an epidemic of disease," believes Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. "[I]t looks like an epidemic of diagnosis," he's quoted as saying byIt's a plausible hypothesis, actually: Just like with prostate cancer, testing regimens for thyroid cancer oftentimes pick up benign cancers that never would have developed into anything serious. Meanwhile, many of those diagnosed undergo invasive procedures, such as having their thyroids completely removed, that were never even necessary."This means that a lot of people are having their thyroids removed for a cancer that was never going to bother them," said Dr. Welch, suggesting that, as more people become aware of thyroid cancer and have their necks examined to look for problems, they're being misdiagnosed.But what about the fluoride connection? Sure, some folks are being misdiagnosed as this study suggests, but it's surely not misdiagnosis that's primarily responsible for the more than 300% rise in thyroid cancer rates over the past 40 years. So what is it?A study published just this year showed that fluoride ingestion is directly associated with rising rates of underactive thyroid, or hypothyroidism. Published in the, the paper "raises questions about the safety of community fluoridation," to quote the words of one of its authors.After looking at thyroid health in two separate communities in England, one that fluoridates its public water and one that doesn't, researchers determined that fluoridated areas are much worse off in the cancer department. And this was at water fluoridation rates of 0.3 parts per million (ppm), an amount far lower than what the average municipal utility in the U.S. dumps into city water."I think the results clearly demonstrate an increased risk of hypothyroidism associated with areas of [high] water fluoridation," stated Professor Stephen Peckham, lead author of the study from the University of Kent in the UK.Multiple studies by Dr. Dean Burk, the former head of the Cytochemistry Section at the National Cancer Institute, have also drawn connections between fluoride exposure and cancer . Dr. Burk's research dating back to 1977 revealed that fluoride ingestion led to the growth of thyroid follicular cell tumors in mice."Analysis of the results in rats showed that animals who drank fluoridated water showed: an increase in tumors and cancers in oral squamous cells, a rare form of bone cancer (osteosarcoma), and an increase in thyroid follicular cell tumors," reads a paper by Dr. Lita Lee, Ph.D., entitled "Fluoride - A Modern Toxic Waste.""A rare form of liver cancer (hepatocholangiocarcinoma) occurred only in animals who drank fluoridated water," it adds.As we've previously covered, fluoride also displaces iodine in the thyroid gland. Iodine deficiency is widespread and increasing in frequency, and studies have shown that repeated exposure to fluoride , including in laced municipal water, makes iodine deficiency much worse than it would otherwise be."Iodine is the basic building block of the T3 and T4 hormones and thus an adequate iodine intake is essential for the proper functioning of the thyroid gland," explains the Fluoride Action Network."When iodine intake is inadequate during infancy and early childhood, the child's brain can suffer permanent damage, including mental retardation. (Iodine deficiency is the leading cause of mental retardation throughout the world.)"From a neurological perspective, there really isn't an "optimal" fluoride level at all, apart from zero. Fluoride isn't a nutrient, and the kind added to municipal water isn't anything like the naturally occurring calcium fluoride already present in many water sources. Public awareness about this distinction, as well as the link between fluoride exposure and thyroid damage, needs to grow.To learn more about the dangers of fluoride, visit the Fluoride Action Network: