In this episode of The Dr. Hedberg Show, I interview Melissa Gallico about fluoride. We talked about where fluoride comes from, why it was added to our water supply, how to know if your water is fluoridated, how to filter fluoride, other sources of fluoride, the fluoride-acne connection, the fluoride-thyroid connection, how to detoxify fluoride with iodine, and how to petition your local legislators to remove fluoride from your water supply. I was not aware of the fluoride-acne connection so this was an enlightening podcast that everyone should listen to who has acne or a thyroid issue.
Dr. Hedberg: Well, welcome everyone to the "Dr. Hedberg Show." This is Dr. Hedberg, and really looking forward to the interview today. I'm talking to Melissa Gallico. And Melissa is the author of the book "The Hidden Cause of Acne: How Toxic Water Is Affecting Your Health and What You Can Do About It," and also a book called "F is For Fluoride: A Feasible Fairy Tale for Free Thinkers 15 and Up." She's a former military intelligence officer, Fulbright Scholar and intelligence specialist at the Federal Bureau of Investigation where she instructed classes for FBI analysts at Quantico, and provided analytics support for National Security Investigations. She graduated with honors from Georgetown University, and she has a master's degree from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. So, Melissa, welcome to the show.Melissa: Thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Hedberg: Yeah. So I heard you on the...first I heard you on the "15-minute Matrix" podcast, and was really interested in what you were talking about. I've studied fluoride a little bit over the years, but just mainly related to how it affects the thyroid. But why don't we just start out with some basics regarding fluoride and fluoridated water? So can you talk about why fluoride was added to the water? Why did they do that, how did it happen, and how can people tell if they have fluoridated water?
Melissa: Sure. So in the mid-20th century, dentists started...well, originally, they noticed that fluoride caused brown stains on teeth, and it's a condition called dental fluorosis. So that's where they started studying fluoride and its effect on tooth enamel. And eventually, they started developing a theory that, you know, too much fluoride is bad for your tooth enamel, it causes this cosmetic staining, but maybe a little bit of fluoride is actually good for your tooth enamel and makes it stronger and prevents cavities.
So that's the theory behind why they add it to the water supply today. They've been doing it for over 70 years. And they just think of it as adjusting the fluoride level to, like, this optimal dose that helps prevent cavities. And that's what I always assumed it was, I always drank fluoridated water, and I used fluoride in my toothpaste, and I had the treatments at the dentist. I never really thought about it. But when I got older and I realized that fluoride was affecting my health in negative ways, I looked into it more. And I looked into the history and realized that behind that very nice story that I believed and that I, you know, told myself and just assumed was true, there's actually a very deep pollution scandal there.
And people are always surprised when I talk about pollution and fluoride, because we've forgotten that fluoride was the leading form of air pollution at the time the science was being developed in the mid-20th century. It's a common element in the earth's crust. So when we started these large-scale mining operations for things like aluminum or phosphate, these companies were emitting just toxic amounts of fluoride into the atmosphere, and it was causing a lot of lawsuits. So the fluoride would go into the atmosphere, it would end up on the grass, poisoning cattle, poisoning crops, and the people that live nearby as well.
So those lawsuits led to, you know, these big powerful corporations hired lawyers, they had like a fluoride lawyers committee to take care of this problem. And they had their own medical advisory board and they just poured tons of money into all the premier research institutes to find studies that would show that fluoride is safe, not only is it safe, but it's actually good for you. So that's where that science came from, it was very biased science, really one-sided science, that was being used in court to refute these lawsuits. So that's the deeper story of why we add it to our water, or where that came from.
And then your other question was, you know, how to tell if the water is fluoridated. The easiest way is to call your local water provider and just ask them if they add fluoride to the water. Ask them what the fluoride level is. Right now, the government recommends 0.7 parts per million fluoride. So that's when it's artificially fluoridated. It's usually around 0.7. It can be naturally-occurring, and that depends on if those rocks that, you know, when we started building these deep water wells, they can sometimes contain natural fluoride contamination as well. So you can ask your water provider is it natural? Is it artificial? Natural is not quite as bad because the artificial fluoride can have a lot of other contaminants in it as well, including arsenic and aluminum and lead as well. But if it's naturally occurring, it's still not ideal. So you wanna look for something that is more in line with the mean fluoride content of fresh water, which is 0.05 parts per million. It's 14 times lower than what they're artificially adding to the water supply.
Dr. Hedberg: And... Go ahead.
Melissa: I was just gonna say, another way instead of calling, you can also Google the name of your town and "Water Quality Report." Your town is required to provide this annual Water Quality Report. Sometimes they send it out each year with your bill, and it'll have it listed on there, the fluoride level. So if you see ND, which means not detected, you're in really good shape. But you might see something closer to 0.7 and then that means it's probably artificially added.
Dr. Hedberg: I was very excited to learn when we moved that our local water supply is not fluoridated. So it can be kind of a pain to filter it. So if someone finds out that they have it in their water supply, there are filters available. Can you talk a little bit about those and what you recommend?
Melissa: Yeah, I've never recommended one certain filter because there are a lot of different ones you can use that are effective at removing fluoride. I've always told people reverse osmosis is very reliable. A lot of people don't like it because it does waste water. So for every gallon that you purify, there's like a couple gallons that are wasted and that's where all the contaminants go. And some people also don't like it because it removes a lot of things that you do want in the water like beneficial minerals. But it is one reliable option, and some people will add the minerals back in or just, like, make sure they have a really mineral-rich diet. So reverse osmosis is relative inexpensive, and it's a decent option for drinking water.
But if you want a whole house filter, there are a few companies that are making bone char filters, and they are very effective at removing fluoride from the water. They are used in parts of the world where high amounts of fluoride is really endemic and it causes a lot of problem. It accumulates in your skeletal system, and can lead to a lot of like joint and bone disorders. So bone char, because it, you know, attracts fluoride so much, is actually a really good filter. So if you find a whole-house bone char filter, that can remove it even from your bathwater and your shower water.
Dr. Hedberg: Yeah, and a lot of the companies out there that make filters are offering fluoride attachments or fluoride filters now, at least as far as what I've seen. So there are a lot of options out there. So that's one thing I was gonna ask you specifically. So do you recommend that even the water that we shower in be filtered of fluoride or just drinking water is the main concern?
Melissa: Drinking water is definitely the main concern, so that would be the priority. A lot of people are really sensitive to it. That's how I got into all of this, discovering my sensitivity. So for me, washing my face in fluoridated water is really not a good idea. I have a pretty strong reaction to it. Some people can't even wash their hands in it. I can luckily do that. So when I'm, you know, eating out at restaurants and things, it's not as difficult. But some people really can't even shower in it or wash their hands in it. So in that case, you know, you definitely want the whole-house filter.
Dr. Hedberg: So let's just talk about some other common sources of fluoride other than the water. I know there's some in certain teas and then also dental products, can you also talk about those? Do we really have to worry about using fluoride-free toothpaste and things like that?
Melissa: Yeah. So I never knew how much fluoride was making its way into my daily life until I realized that I was having this skin reaction to it. So that became kind of like my barometer where I was able to root out all of these different sources of fluoride. Just once I knew that that was the reaction that my cystic acne was caused by fluoride, I could go back and say, "Okay, what did I eat in the last 24 hours?" Because it's a very immediate reaction, and then that's how I learned that things like chicken soup can be very high in fluoride. And that makes sense because, you know, chickens are consuming feed that is covered in fluoride-based pesticides, and that fluoride accumulates in their bone, just like it would if, you know, we were consuming fluoride and it accumulates in our bones. So if you're making soup out of chicken bones, and those chickens had eaten high amounts of fluoride on their feed, or in their water,
