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Just how bad is fluoride?

811 views 17 replies 13 participants last post by  Junegoddess 
#1 ·
I know it's bad. I don't need convincing. I just... is it worth $250 a year?

We were happily house hunting, and on the verge of house buying... when we got some bad financial news and it all came to a screeching halt. We're going to have to stay where we are, renting, for another two years.


I've been here two years already, never knowing during that time how long it'd be (waiting for my husband to recover from his war wounds) and therefore put up with a lot that I'd normally like to change. If I'm stuck here for two more years, I'm a-gonna make some changes! The first of which was a call to Culligan to rent a water softener. We have some of the hardest water on the planet down here, and while I appreciate the extra mineral boost, from what I've read it's not really in an assimilable form, and it breaks our appliances. And makes our towels scratchy. It has to go.

For an extra $250 a year, they can install a reverse osmosis water filter in the kitchen. That's pretty much the only way to get rid of the fluoride, from what I understand. I used to have an Aqua-something filter attached to the tap, one of the only good filters that's an option for renters, but the hard water broke it.
I could buy another water filter.... but the $250 for Culligan includes the price of filter replacements. Seems like a pretty good deal. Not great, but pretty good.

If I remember right, fluoride can cause problems with the thyroid. I'm pretty sure my thyroid is fine. I'd like to keep it that way. If two more years won't make a difference, maybe I should save the money (or spend it on chiropractic for the rest of my pregnancy!)

So, yeah... how bad is fluoride?
 
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#3 ·
Keep in mind that reverse osmosis strips the water of all minerals, which is also not good. BUT you could add minerals back in by putting drops of Concentrace in the water you drink.
 
#4 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mbravebird View Post
Keep in mind that reverse osmosis strips the water of all minerals, which is also not good. BUT you could add minerals back in by putting drops of Concentrace in the water you drink.
I did not know this. ARRRGG. Why can't it just be easy to have healthy water?
 
#5 ·
Yes, I'm sure San Antonio fluoridates the water, and yeah, I know RO water means no minerals. I need minerals. Minerals are good. I'm pretty sure that water softeners take out most of the minerals, too... that's what the softening process IS. Getting the calcium out, mainly, but other stuff goes with it.

Dh is really reluctant to pay the extra money.

And now I'm wondering if maybe I should try to find a system we could BUY for $250. Isn't RO the only way to remove fluoride? I think it is...

I've heard about a couple of different super-awesome water filtering systems that take out all the bad stuff, return minerals to the water, and also give it some sort of magic, living vibration thingy. Sounds weird when I describe it... the actual details make a little more sense. Anyway, it's basically Perfect Water. Yay. Costs thousands of dollars, plus filters and mineral disk thingies.

:

I know water is important. Really really important. But I still can't pay that much for it, ya know?
 
#6 ·
I have seen some portable filters (ie, you pour the water in the jug and it filters it) that remove fluoride. FWIW, I have done nothing and use my fluoridated/chlorinated-but-mineral-rich water without a filter. But I do have a chlorine filter on the shower head.
 
#7 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mbravebird View Post
Keep in mind that reverse osmosis strips the water of all minerals, which is also not good. BUT you could add minerals back in by putting drops of Concentrace in the water you drink.
...which will also add small amounts of fluoride back in. I've found it especially odd that a number of the brands that I've seen linked around here don't list the fact that fluoride is one of the "other minerals found in sea water." I found out only because I bought the NOW Ionic Minerals product which is basically ConcenTrace plus some flavoring. I've found it interesting when one compares the listing of minerals in the NOW product and the one from the Trace Minerals website. It all seems a bit deceptive to me.

That being said...at least this particular fluoride is one found naturally in sea water and not some industrial residue.
 
#8 ·
Fluoride is a toxin that your body and teeth don't need. It's just another water contaminant that should be eliminated.

Besides damaging your thyroid, fluoride weakens bones, and is linked to cancer.

Fluoride's adverse health effects are here: http://www.FluorideAction.Net/health

The only way to save the $250 AND preserve your health is to get your city to stop adding the fluoride in the first place.

Educate your neighbors, petition, lobby, call, email, phone and visit your legislators and tell them you want fluoridation ended. If enough people do that, elected officials find it easier to fight back against rich special interest groups lobbying for you to consume more fluoride than is healthy for you; but beneficial to them.

Fluoride also gets absorbed in baths and inhaled via showers. Many foods are made in fluoridated areas and have an unlabeled amount of fluoride in them.

Fluoridation needs to be stopped nationally, also. join that effort here:
http://congress.FluorideAction.Net
 
#9 ·
The Berkey filter, from what I understand, has a "flouride reduction element" option. Don't know how much of the flouride gets removed, but you might look into it. It's a tabletop filter, so not as convenient as one in your sink, and I don't know how it would work with your water-softening set-up. It runs a bit more than $250, but not much more, though extra filtering options would obviously add to the cost. It's what I'd like to get when we get around to coughing up the money.
 
#10 ·
Is the difference between Culligan and buying your own RO that Culligan would treat the whole house, all the faucets?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karamom View Post
I did not know this. ARRRGG. Why can't it just be easy to have healthy water?
I know. I feel the same way. We have a well, so we're not in such a pickle, but our last well was contaminated with lead and we lived in a farming area, so we bought a filter anyway.

We haven't tested the water with our current well, but we use the filter anyway, because 80% of all well water in the US tests positive for pesticide contaminants, and we have old pipes so there's a lead issue too.

We ended up going with the aquafina filter, because it has an ionic process that doesn't strip all the minerals and that alkalinizes the water a little bit. It's in the $150 range, I think.

I need to be better about adding concentrace to our water, though.
 
#11 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by leila1213 View Post
I have seen some portable filters (ie, you pour the water in the jug and it filters it) that remove fluoride. FWIW, I have done nothing and use my fluoridated/chlorinated-but-mineral-rich water without a filter. But I do have a chlorine filter on the shower head.

Yeah, after the hard water busted our last filter, I just gave up and have been drinking tap water for the last year and a half. I have a chlorine filter on the shower (but not the bath), but can't seem to remember to replace it every 6 months like I'm supposed to.

The Culligan water softener will remove all the chlorine from the whole house, which will be nice. We are absolutely getting that one. That's about $500 a year.
The addition of the water filter on the kitchen sink is what I'm debating. I'll look at the Berkey. I'm not too worried about anything in the water beyond the fluoride. We have good water here, thanks to it coming from an aquifer. Mother Nature filters it pretty well.
 
#12 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by phroggies View Post
The Berkey filter, from what I understand, has a "flouride reduction element" option. Don't know how much of the flouride gets removed, but you might look into it. It's a tabletop filter, so not as convenient as one in your sink, and I don't know how it would work with your water-softening set-up. It runs a bit more than $250, but not much more, though extra filtering options would obviously add to the cost. It's what I'd like to get when we get around to coughing up the money.
The Berkey website has filters starting at $209 and going up from there. I think you have to buy a special filter that takes out the fluorine, but I know people that have replacement filters that have lasted for longer than 2 years without having to change or replace them.

I agree, when I have some spare money, we are definitely buying a Berkey.

ETA: Berkey's website. http://www.berkeyfilters.com/
 
#15 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mbravebird View Post
Keep in mind that reverse osmosis strips the water of all minerals, which is also not good. BUT you could add minerals back in by putting drops of Concentrace in the water you drink.
Yeah, yeah to this. fluoride-bad and no minerals-bad.
 
#16 ·
I have always lived in apartments and am usually broke and cant spend extra on filters. I have always gotten around this. In tx, we found a spring and would fill up our jugs once a week. It was a pure fresh water spring in Canton, TX. (miss that place)

In AR, we were given a distiller and used that to distill the water and made sure it was done into a glass jar because distilled water is completely stripped and will try to create an equilibrium right when it touches the plastic and absorb the plastic toxins. RO filters will do the same thing. So we would filter it into a glass jar and have 1/8 tsp (per 1/2 gallon water) good quality sea salt in the water and a pinch of rice for activation (don't understand why, dh read about why), and would place a environmental chaos eliminator in or next to the water to align things energetically. The water is great, but the distiller is pricey to run and was good in that apartment since we didn't pay utilities.

Here in VT, we found some friends with an artisan well, and I feel so good drinking their water and this pregnancy, I can drink water and not get sick feeling. Other well waters and bottled waters would make me throw up (only while pregnant). This water now is so hydrating and I crave it.

Sorry this has nothing to do with how bad fluoride is, but just my experiences.
 
#18 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by bluebirdmama1 View Post
Here in VT, we found some friends with an artisan well, and I feel so good drinking their water and this pregnancy, I can drink water and not get sick feeling. Other well waters and bottled waters would make me throw up (only while pregnant). This water now is so hydrating and I crave it.
I actually google-mapped it to see where Canton, TX is, in case I could go to that spring. It's way too far from me. Darn Texas is too big!

It's funny you mentioned the different water making you sick... I've been having a problem recently (and I'm pg, too) with being very thirsty and getting thirstier the more of our crappy water I drink. It's driving me crazy. And I'm sure there's something unhealthy going on... I'd like to figure it out. Drinking tea instead doesn't seem to help. I add drops of ionic magnesium and a few shakes of Celtic salt to each glass, trying to slow it down a bit. I've heard that straight, pure, mineral-less water can seem to shoot right through. I could add lemon, but my son likes to drink from my glass (gets personally insulted if I suggest he get his own) and HATES lemon. He thinks I add it just to punish him or something.


I left a message with Berkey's customer service, because I had a question about the fluoride filter... hoping they call back soon.
 
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