Throw away your toothpaste NOW!! (It might be trying to kill you)

At this point in my life, I tend to forget that not everyone has spent the last 20 years studying health and wellness. So sometimes I forget to mention the basics during an office visit. This is one reason why I developed the Wellness Mastery Challenge, to make sure I’m conveying all the important stuff to any new person walking through my door. No stones left unturned is the idea!  

And that is exactly why I’m asking you to throw out your toothpaste…to leave no stones left unturned on your health journey. 

The reason is most conventional kinds of toothpaste contain fluoride, as well as a host of other chemical concoctions. You’re probably thinking, ‘I thought fluoride was a good thing.’ And therein lies the problem.

We are taught that fluoride helps strengthen our teeth and reduce cavities, which it does, at the expense of nearly every other organ system. What we’re not told is that it’s also a potent toxin that can cause everything from weight gain and body aches to dry eyes and full-blown Autoimmune Thyroiditis (where your own immune system is attacking your thyroid). 

The problem is once inside your body fluoride doesn't like to leave, it replaces iodine wherever it is found, and the results are fake proteins that “look” normal but don’t function normally. Because fluoride replaces iodine in the body, things like thyroid hormone are made incorrectly and cannot be used by the body, but they are indistinguishable from healthy thyroid hormones on lab tests, so you may have hypothyroidism EVEN IF YOUR LABS ARE TOTALLY NORMAL. Sometimes this leads to low energy and weight gain, but other times it's much more severe. In the case of Autoimmune thyroiditis, the damage done can be permanent due to the remodeling of the thyroid gland itself. 

Okay, so we know that fluoride is bad for the thyroid, but is that all? Unfortunately not. 

Iodine is required by every gland in the body that secretes something. This means the salivary glands of the mouth and ciliary bodies of the eyes, the ovaries and prostate, the vagina and uterus, the nose, the stomach and pancreas, and so on. EVERY SECRETING ORGAN needs iodine to secrete! And any place there is iodine, there is a threat of fluoride taking over and wreaking havoc.

Iodine also plays a vital role in immune health. It’s naturally antimicrobial so it helps to fight off invaders in the intestines when consumed orally and on the skin when used topically. Iodine deficiency has been associated with several types of cancers including thyroid and breast cancer. 

It's not just the dentist's office you need to worry about. Unfortunately, the government agreed to let manufacturing plants dispose of their fluoride waste by selling it to municipal water suppliers. So if you’re on city water, you're probably drinking enough fluoride to “treat” an overactive thyroid gland. That means you’re literally taking the same medication used to shut down a hyperactive thyroid in the 1920s. Fluoridated water is very likely contributing to the epidemic of metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and obesity that is taking over America. 

Now if you’re suddenly in the market for a water filter, make sure you check out my popular blog titled ‘The Water Issue’, so you know what to look for in a quality filter before you spend that hard-earned money on a useless Brita.

Just in case you’re still not convinced to decline that fluoride rinse offered at the dentist, you should know that fluoride also damages collagen, which plays a crucial role in muscle and joint health. For this reason, Fluoride is suspected to be a major contributor to heart attacks, joint weakness and pain, back aches, and tendon damage. In fact, Fluoroquinolone antibiotics (fluoride based) have been associated with tendon rupture after a single dose.

So you’re ditching the fluoride but now you’re freaked about how much is already inside of you!

Understandable, but take a deep breath, you’ve survived this long. The first step is to evaluate the function of the organs most at risk, generally, this means the thyroid. Since lab testing is not reliable in the presence of fake thyroid hormones, I generally encourage using the Wilson Temperature Method, along with a thyroid health questionnaire to determine if treatment is warranted. 

To perform the Wilson Temperature Method you’ll need to take your temperature first thing in the morning before moving around. Throw off the covers and let your body temperature return to baseline (2-3 mins), then read the temp with a temporal arterial thermometer (takes 1000 readings and gives the average, so is more accurate than basic infrared thermometers). The best place to measure is just behind the ear lobe.

Do this daily for a week and calculate the average. If the average temp is less than 97.6, you likely have some degree of thyroid dysfunction. 

At this point, you’ll need to meet with your doctor to discuss appropriate support. 

In the case of fluoride, the benefits DO NOT outweigh the risks and there is absolutely no reason to ever consume or use fluoride; not even at your annual dental cleaning! Your teeth should be healthy and strong without fluoride if your diet is optimized for you. If you’re struggling with cavities, consider getting a Carroll Food Evaluation or working with a naturopathic doctor to optimize your diet and gut health. 

Now you're probably wondering what kind of toothpaste to use. This really depends on your goals. The truth is that most of the work of plaque removal is done by the toothbrush itself, so toothpaste is just an added bonus. Look for one with calcium apatite to help support calcification and reduce sensitivity, or consider one with antimicrobial essential oils to fight off ‘bad’ bacteria. A good rule of thumb is to check your self-care products on EWG.org/skindeep to verify their safety.