Government Now Says Fluoride 'Maybe Not So Good For You'

It's only a start, but the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is now saying that the current minimum recommended fluoride levels for drinking water should now be the maximum allowed. Wow. That's quite a turn around.

HHS say it's due to the increase in fluorosis, but the Peon Pulpit suspects it's because it's always been a carcinogen and the people who've been feeding it to you for years are trying to quietly back away from it ("...nothing to see here people, nothing to see").

Those anti-fluoride nuts are looking less crazy aren't they?

"Severe Abdominal Pain" Is Sweeping Through Hollywood

What is up with all these cases?

• Tori Spelling in Hospital with Severe Abdominal Pain
• Paul Rodriguez Rushed to Hospital
• Dennis Hopper in hospital in New York (stomach ailment...)
  

The Epidemic of Vitamin D Deficiency

Much has been written about Vitamin D recently. I am frequent reader of the Mercola website and remember reading about it years ago but basically ignored it as I was taking Centrum multivitamins (400 IU of vitamin D) and assumed I was covered. Years later, I moved to the Costco brand of multi-vitamins and was beginning to wonder if I was meeting the minimums being discussed by Vitamin experts. Some were throwing out numbers like 2,000-5,000 IUs a day. So I began taking 1,000 IUs in addition to the multi (1,400 per day). This went on for about 3 months and then I bought a new batch of Costco's vitamins and found they upped the D to 1,000 in their vitamins. This mean that I was taking 2,000 IU a day.

That went on for about 1-2 months. Just last week I got my Vitamin D levels checked with a 25-hydroxyvitamin D test. My levels, I assumed might be sky high, but one thing was sure...they wouldn't be low.

The recommended range was from 30-80 ng/ml. I came in at 42 (less than 30 is a deficiency). My levels were actually on the low side, after months of taking ~1,500 - 2,000 IUs a day.

What I'm wondering is, how on earth can most people, who spend their days under fluorescent lamps and don't take vitamins.....getting any at all?

The Vitamin D Council website has an interesting article on Autism and Vitamin D. It draws parallels between the sudden widespread deficiency and the sudden rise in Autism (maybe breast cancer too?). It's important to remember that Coppertone first introduced UVA/UVB blocking sunscreen only 24 years ago in 1985.

Two Very Good Reasons To Take Care Of Your Teeth And Gums

This week, two studies were released that demonstrated the importance of taking care of your teeth. In one study (Lancet Oncology. 2008;9:550-558) periodontal disease (gum disease) was associated with a small yet significant increase in cancer risk. An earlier study (1/2007) found a link between periodontal disease and pancreatic cancer.

The second study showed that when type 2 diabetics took care of their gums, they were able to control their diabetes much more effectively.

It's important to note that that gum disease is virtually symptomless until the later stages when it's too late to do much about it. If you don't floss you're teeth and see gum bleeding or visit the dentist often, it's very likely you wouldn't notice a problem until your teeth began to loosen in their sockets.

Keep in mind, that when you get old, you don't have to have false teeth! If you take care of your teeth now, they can last you a lifetime. Remember to floss daily and get yourself a good electric toothbrush. They're cheap now (under $20) so that if you're reading this, you can afford to get one.

Polycarbonate Pandæmonium

Well, my world got a little bit more complicated last week. It happened when I read that Health Canada, the Canadian version of the Centers For Disease Control, announced that Bisphenol-A would be declared a 'dangerous substance' as a result of an in-depth study of the chemical.

Bisphenol-A (AKA: BPA) is a chemical used in the production of polycarbonate plastic. Polycarbonate is a hard, clear plastic that is very popular in the consumer realm. It's most known for being the plastic that is used for those cool Nalgene bottles hikers (or psudo-hikers) carry around their water in.

Opps. That was probably a 'not-so-great' idea. As it turns out, several studies have shown that Bisphenol-A leaches out of polycarbonate and into whatever it contains, even at room temperature. That wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that BPA is an endocrine disruptor that mimics the hormone estrogen in humans. It has been linked to the following effects in mice:

• Permanent changes to genital tract
• Changes in breast tissue that predispose cells to hormones and carcinogens
• Prostate cells become more sensitive to hormones and cancer
• Lower bodyweight
• Early onset of puberty (this recent phenomenon has been puzzling scientists for a some time)
  
• Decline in testicular testosterone
• Insulin resistance
• Decreased maternal behaviors
• Damage to eggs and chromosomes
• Reversed the normal sex differences in brain structure and behavior

And the list goes on. Some of these effects were known as early as 1993. Finally, Health Canada stood up and said, "Um..hey guys, this stuff looks pretty bad, eh?" (something neither the CDC nor the FDA has yet to find the balls to do).

Immediately, a slew of retailers said they'd pull polycarbonate baby bottles off the shelf (Wal-Mart will only take a year to do it). Nalgene said they're abandoning the stuff (declared on the front page of their website).

So, you say, your babies drink from Pyrex bottles and you've never been hiking. So what do you care? Well it also turns out that polycarbonate film is in just about every canned good you can think of, from chicken soup to sodas. Even more disturbing is the sheer number of products I use every day which are either clearly polycarbonate, or are suspiciously like polycarbonate (which is usually designated with the recycling code [7], but not all #7's are polycarbonate. The hard, clear plastic is the dead giveaway). For example:

• My Brita pitchers. Are they polycarbonate? They sure look like it but this site says they DO NOT contain BPA. They're made from the safe-sounding "styrene copolymer methylmethacrylate" I'll keep using them until I hear otherwise I guess.
  
• My Turvis Tumblers that I drink hot tea from every night. On the website, they're proudly listed as being polycarbonate.
• Those super-cool Rubbermaid Premier food containers....Polycarbonate (to Rubbermaid's credit, they're very upfront about the issue).
  
• Compact discs and DVDs
• Plastic dinnerware
• Composite dental fillings (ironic...everyone went to these fearing the mercury in amalgam)
• Some of the aluminum water bottles are lined with polycarbonate (just when you thought you got away...)
  

Basically, the stuff is everywhere. On the upside, we may be close to figuring out what's caused the big increase in breast cancer. On the downside, how are we going to get rid of all of it?