Heavy Metal Detox

Tap water is not safe to drink. Whoever thought that would happen?

From one of hundreds of University hospitals and Geology departments, comes the statement “Diseases are apparently related to drinking water with heavy metals such as Lead, Cadmium, Copper, Molybdenum, Nickel, and Chromium. Renal failure is related to drinking water with lead and cadmium, liver cirrhosis to copper and molybdenum, hair loss to nickel and chromium, and chronic anemia to copper and cadmium.”

Many people do not know that fluoride is a type of heavy metal.

Water is not safe to drink, unless it is purified, or unless it is spring water from a verified, pure source. No matter how much your local Water Department claims purity of the local water supply, the sad fact is that thousands of toxins, carcinogens, obesogens, fungi, chemicals, and heavy metals are in your tap water, if you live in a civilized, first world country.

Fluoride in water, is more toxic than lead, and only slightly less toxic than arsenic. It is an exceptionally dangerous chemical. Double-blind published research shows that a build -up of fluorides in the body leads to fibromyalgia, skeletal fluorosis, weak and damaged bones, heart and arterial disease, reduced intelligence, ADD / ADHD (attention deficiency hyperactive disorder) and a variety of other degenerative diseases that vary according to each individual.

The damage is not immediate, and can take twenty or more years to show up as behavioural disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, hypothyroidism, hip fractures, bone cancer, osteoporosis, other cancers, kidney damage, and a wide variety of other disorders.

Fluoride will eat through metal and plastic pipes, and corrode stainless steel and other materials. It will dissolve rubber tires and melt concrete. This is what could be in your drinking water – all in the name of saving children from cavities, which is highly questionable, according to many researchers.

Other common uses for fluoride include: rat and cockroach poisons, anesthetics, hypnotics and psychiatric drugs.

“The prolonged ingestion of fluoride may cause significant damage to health, and particularly to the nervous system”, according to Valdez-Jimenez, lead researcher of a study published in June 2011. “It is important to be aware of this serious problem and avoid the use of toothpaste and items that contain fluoride, particularly in children as they are more susceptible to the toxic effects of fluoride.”

Fluorine, bromine and chlorine are toxic. They are goitrogens that lower the level of iodine in the thyroid gland, and disrupts its function.

Consequently, goiters appear, which are large swellings in the throat, when there is insufficient iodine in the diet, causing thyroid disorders.

Fluoride poisoning can be manifested in seemingly harmless symptoms, such as white spots in teeth (dental fluorosis), or chronic problems, such as arthritic joints, or more serious problems, including respiratory disease or cancer, or a complex of problems, whether acute or chronic.

Many drugs contain fluorides as an active component, such as antibiotics and anaesthetics.

Fluorides tend to accumulate in the body rather than being easily excreted. For this reason, they are also added to many pharmaceuticals so that the active components are not quickly flushed away.

Other symptoms of fluoride poisoning are: arthritis – stiff, painful joints with or without swelling, painful feet in the morning, asthma (especially after showering in chlorine-filtered water), bony, painful lumps where tendons and ligaments attach to bones, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), feeling cold all the time, feeling cold soon after a hot bath or shower, colic in bottle-fed babies, diabetes insipidus (a kidney ailment) which manifests itself as excessive thirst, increased water consumption that does not relieve thirst, dry throat and irritated eyes, and frequent urination, especially at night.

Also on the fluoride toxicity list are: moving black spots (scotoma, or floaters) in front of your eyes, fatigue, weakness and brain fog after bathing or showering in chlorine-filtered water, food intolerances that seem to come and go, gastrointestinal problems, irritable bowel, nausea, diarrhea without apparent cause, heartburn and upper bowel pain especially after drinking a full glass of water, gum disease – irritated or bleeding gums despite good hygiene and diet, (gums heal when you use un-fluoridated toothpaste), heart palpitations and increased heart rate without exertion, kidney disease – worsening symptoms, kidney stones, hives, blisters, rash on stomach or back within an hour of drinking fluoridated water or after bathing or showering in chlorine-filtered water, teeth loosening or needing to be extracted despite good hygiene and diet and underactive (hypothyroid), overactive (hyperthyroid or Grave’s disease), goitre and nodules.

And the list goes on. Fluoride causes bone fracture, disrupts your immune system, increases the aging process, increases the absorption of lead, causes muscle disorders, causes bone cancer, reduces melatonin production, leads to the early onset of puberty, lowers thyroid function, disrupts the synthesis of collagen which can lead to osteoarthritis, damages sperm and increases infertility, inhibits the formation of antibodies and inactivates about 62 enzymes in your body.

Most pesticides contain fluorides and if you have been eating those crops that are subject to heavy spraying, chances are you have been ingesting fluoride, unless you have been washing your fruits and vegetables thoroughly and in un-fluorinated water.

A large number of non-organic produce items can contain shocking levels of fluoride-based pesticide – potatoes and iceberg lettuce may be two of the largest offenders.

In fact, iceberg lettuce can now be laced with a startling 180 parts per million (ppm) of fluoride – 180 times higher than the ‘recommended’ water fluoridation level. This ‘health’ food could actually be corroding your body with heavy levels of fluoride.

But what other seemingly-healthy produce items contain high amounts of fluoride? Citrus fruits are actually allowed to contain 95 ppm’s of sodium fluoride. Potatoes can have as much as 22 ppm’s on the outside and 2 ppm inside. Raisins are allowed 55 ppm’s.

Fluoride interacts with the bonds which maintain the normal shape of proteins. With distorted protein, the immune system attacks its own protein, the body’s own tissue. This is what auto-immune diseases are about.

Fluoride in drinking water, damages the immune system by inhibiting the migration rate of white blood cells to infected areas. Fluoride  interferes with phagocytosis (the destruction of bacteria and other foreign agents by white blood cells), and induces the release of superoxide free radicals in resting white blood cells.

Fluoride accumulates to a very high level in the pineal gland, but not in the brain because of the “blood-brain-barrier”. The pineal gland is outside this barrier. This accumulation of fluoride in the pineal gland contributes to calcification of the gland, with the attendant side effects, notably, the reduced production of melatonin.

HOW TO DETOX FROM FLUORIDE

A) The only effective way to detox from fluoride, is with iodine. Loading the body with iodine, displaces fluoride from cell receptors, and flushes the fluoride out of the body in urine.

The best dietary source of iodine is seaweed. Sea vegetables like wakame, nori, kombu (kelp), arame, and dulse are the richest edible sources of iodine. Just one tablespoon of dried dulse flakes contains about 750 mcg of iodine.

Other good iodine sources include seafood (salmon, lobster, scallops, cod and shrimp).  You can also find seaweed supplements like kelp tablets at most health food stores.

Iodine is important in many ways, even outside of fluoride detox, but the reality is that fluoride directly attacks the thyroid. The key here is that iodine, preferably nascent iodine (which is the best quality), helps to remove sodium fluoride through the urine as calcium fluoride.

Cleansing your system of fluoride is not the same as getting rid of mercury or arsenic. Fluoride does not act like any heavy metal. It’s a halide, which means that it binds to iodine receptors in the body, and displaces iodine.

Detoxing from fluoride by using iodine, may trigger symptoms like headaches, agitation, and palpitations, as the fluoride is released. To minimize those effects an iodine detox should be gradually increased, and an iodine detox should include a nutritional plan, as well as unrefined sea salt, selenium, vitamin C, and a vitamin B complex.

At the same time, as with any cleanse, your liver will need additional support. Liver cleansing foods include garlic, turmeric, flaxseeds, milk thistle, lemons, limes, cilantro, pectin and avocados.

And always drink plenty of water when detoxing. Divide your weight by two and drink that number of ounces of fluoride-free water each day to help flush the toxins.

Even though iodine may be the best way to detox from fluoride, studies show that other methods may help reverse the damage done by fluoride in the body: