All posts by E.A. Thackaberry
Welcome to “chemicals and society”, where we highlight the current understanding of the biological effects and safety of some of the most common chemicals in today’s society.
Today’s Chemical: Fluoride
What is fluoride?
Fluoride is the anion of fluorine, the element with an atomic number of 9. An anion is a negatively charged particle (represented as F‾), and fluoride occurs naturally when it is released from fluorine-containing minerals like calcium fluoride. Fluorine is pretty common on earth – it’s the 13th most common element, and people are exposed to it mainly in their food and water. However, we are most familiar with fluoride from it’s use in toothpastes, mouthwashes, dental treatments, and as a drinking water additive.
What is fluoride used for?
Fluoride is used to prevent or delay the development of dental caries (commonly known as cavities). Cavities occur when bacteria build up on your teeth and acidify (lower the pH of) the enamel around them. This acid slowly eats away at your teeth. Luckily, your teeth can counter-act this demineralization to some degree, and that’s where fluoride comes in. It aids in the remineralization and in the process also makes teeth more resistant to future demineralization.
So how and why did people start putting fluoride in drinking water?
Fluoride occurs naturally in all water – seawater, lake water, river water, groundwater, literally all water. The actual levels of fluoride depends on the geology of the area, and it can vary widely. These different levels of fluoride in different areas of the world helped people figure out that fluoride could protect against cavities. They noticed that people living in areas with higher levels of fluoride had fewer cavities, and this eventually led to the idea that adding fluoride into water that didn’t have much in it might reduce cavities in those that drank it. The first city to fluoridate it’s drinking water was Grand Rapids, MI in 1945. Since then, much of the United States and many countries around the world have introduced fluoridation, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, and Canada.
Welcome to Bad Science on the Internet! Here, we highlight some of the crazy and sometime dangerous stuff people post online, and then we give you the facts.
The bad science:
There are several companies selling something called “raw water”, which is unfiltered and untreated water.
What do they claim?
Some people claim that “raw” water is more healthy because it has minerals and probiotics and no chemicals in it. This is wrong. However, the website of one particular company, Live Water, is a goldmine of ridiculous pseudoscience tomfoolery. It’s clear that the health claims on this site weren’t written by a scientist, and honestly, I’m not even sure if they were written by an adult. Or at least not by an adult capable of using spellcheck! Let’s take a look at some of the silliest claims:
“Shocking but true- All other filtered and even bottled spring waters are sterilized with UV light, ozone gas, and a sub micron filter. This is similar to how most juice and dairy products are pasteurized for shelf stability. Unfortunately this sterilization destroys beneficial sources of minerals and probiotics.”
These processes don’t destroy minerals (though some can be filtered out using the submicron filters, which are filters with extremely small pores – too small for bacteria to pass through. Of course these processes destroy or remove bacterial (including potential probiotics), that’s the point. Many bacteria cause disease. Disease is bad.
“There are more nerve endings in our bellies than in our brains and there’s a constant battle between good and bad bacteria. The micro biome [sic] of our gut produces about 95% of the serotonin and 50% of the dopamine in our brains.”
I’m not sure what they mean by saying there are more nerve endings in “bellies” than in brains. I assume they are talking about pain sensing nerve endings? This is actually true- there are no pain sensors in the brain. However, gut bacteria do not produce 95% of the serotonin and 50% of the dopamine in our brains – they don’t produce significant quantities of either, and even if they did these chemicals can not be transported into the brain.
“The probiotics listed here are exclusive to our unsterilized water. There could be countless other benificial [sic] microbes present, scientists just haven’t discovered yet. They are imperative for optimal physical and mental health.”
If these “probiotics” are only found in Live Water’s well, then only people who have consumed this water have ever been exposed to them. So how do they know these bacteria are beneficial? As a general rule, it is not a good idea to eat previously unknown species of bacteria. This is dangerous. They admit that there could be all sorts of undiscovered bacteria in their water. They say this like it is a good thing, but it is not. How do they know these undiscovered bacteria aren’t dangerous? Finally, they tell us that their probiotics are “imperative” for optimal physical and mental health. I don’t think the author of this site knows what the word imperative means.
“Without these probiotics we’re not able to fully assimilate all the nutrients in our food. Some beneficial bacteria are also proven to have abilities to transform harmful bacteria. Here is a published medical report supporting evidence that raw spring water has vast healing abilities.”
The first sentence is absolutely false. The second statement is completely untrue. The report they reference is about a spring in Italy, not the spring they get their water from, and as they have already told us, the probiotics in their spring is different from all others.
“Major science has concluded that there is a body of water with a larger volume than all our oceans combined in the core of the earth. This is the earth’s way of cleansing water, and offering it back to us with a fresh new start.”
No scientist or health professional would ever use the phrase “major science., though we admit it might be a great name for a DJ or superhero. The reference to water in the Earth’s core suggests that they actually did a little research! However, they didn’t understand what they were reading. A recent report did hypothesize that there was more water in the earth’s mantle (different from the core) than in all the oceans, but this is not a “body” of water – the water is trapped inside of rocks. Because of this, this water is not part of the water cycle, and is not where the water in their spring is coming from.
“The Extensive Water Analysis shows super high levels of natural silica. Silica is essentially pure liquid crystals. Silicone holds information and energy in a unique way, thats [sic] why all our devices run off of them, hence the name silicone valley [sic]. Imagine how it would feel to upgrade your brain’s entire operating system to the best computer chips available.”
Wow. This is gibberish. You may know silica as sand (not whimsical “pure liquid crystals,” whatever that is). There is a lot of sand in this water, and they are trying to tell you that this is good for you. In all fairness, drinking a little sand isn’t bad for you, but it’s certainly not good for you. Then they switch to talking about “silicone” which they claim to magically “hold” energy and information. I assume they are referring to silicon (no “e”) microchips. Do you think drinking microchips will “upgrade your brain’s entire operating system”? You are correct – it will not. For the record, silicone is a synthetic polymer of silicon, carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. It’s basically plastic, used in medical tubing and devices, lubricants, adhesives, and caulk. If there is silicone in their spring, no one should be drinking from it, and if Silicone Valley was really a place, we assume it would be greasy and sticky. (Kind of like the real-world silicon valley, but literal.)
“Since our water is alive and abundant with healthy microflora, it is imperative that we keep it from reaching sweltering conditions. Unlike sterile water, our water will turn green if exposed to excessive heat and sun light.”
Their water is turning green because things are growing in it. Would you drink green water you found in the woods? Of course not, that would be dangerous. Where do the bacteria (and maybe algae?) that are turning this water green come from? They were there all along, there just weren’t enough of them to see. Once they have a chance to multiply in the petri dish that is raw water, they turn the water green and cloudy. Gross.
“In it’s natural cycle water is infinitely chemically and energetically complex. Water goes down into the soil and becomes the perfect probiotic as it passes through microbes and micro-organisms in the humus. It picks up bio-available [sic] mono atomic [sic] elements and minerals that just can’t be replicated.”
More gibberish. Water is not complex – it’s one of the simpilest chemicals on earth. Water cannot become a “probiotic” – probiotics are living bacteria. A monoatomic element is a element that is stable as a single atom. There actually aren’t many of these elements out there- mostly noble gases like helium, neon, and argon. I doubt this is what the author was referring to – honestly I have no idea what they are trying to say here, and I doubt they do either.
“Blasting water with ozone changes it’s molecular structure. Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation uses synthetic ultraviolet light, different from our natural environment UV, to kill or inactivate micro-organisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA. A hard fact to swallow, but your drinking water might be considered a genetically modified organism. GMO seeds and GMO water don’t have the capacity to reproduce life. Perhaps this could influence human’s capacities also.”
Ozone does not change the structure of water. Water is water. Synthetic UV light is just UV light, no different from the UV light that comes from our sun. Both kill microorganisms at high enough doses – that’s the point of treating water with it. No reasonable person would call UV-treated water a GMO, because there is no “O” (organism). Because it’s just water. GMO seeds absolutely produce life – where do you think GMO plants come from? I think the last sentence is suggesting that UV-treated water can harm person’s ability to have children, which is completely and utterly false.
“Unfortunately almost all tap water also has the neurotoxin fluoride put into it…”
Fluoride is not a neurotoxin. It is perfectly safe at the levels used in tap water (and your toothpaste), and is the main reason that you can eat candy and other sugary foods without immediately losing all your teeth to cavities.
“‘Purified Water’ is typically devoid of all minerals, and actually strips your body’s minerals. The world health organization [sic] declared this a major health threat.”
It is difficult and expensive to pull all the minerals out of water. Tap and bottled water have plenty of minerals in them. Even if you got your hands on ultra-pure water and drank it, it would not strip the minerals out of your body. The WHO is not worried about this.
“We’ve chosen to use glass for our water because all plastic water bottles are toxic.”
Completely, totally, and troublingly false.
There’s more, but you get the point. Seriously, this may take the award for the most over-the-top collection of unfounded inaccurate pseudoscientific nonsense we have ever seen in a single website. They also claim to increase the oxygenation of your cells (not possible), to provide “super effective” detoxification (no), reverse the aging process (nope), and to activate the immune system, That last point might actually be true – more on this below.
Are they trying to sell you something?
Of course. 2.5 L will cost you 16 bucks. That’s almost 20 times more expensive than bottled water, and 6,000 times more expensive than tap water. Water is water. Don’t waste your money.
Is any of this true?
Absolutely none of it.
Is any of this dangerous?
Very much so. Getting a life-threatening water-born illness will definitely activate your immune system. Here is a list of some of the diseases you can catch by drinking unclean water:
Polio! SARS! Dysentery! You don’t want any of these diseases. Many of them can be fatal. We won’t get into which ones, because it doesn’t matter. What matters is THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER EVER DRINK UNTREATED WATER THIS IS NOT SAFE DON’T DO IT.
What’s the bottom line?
Don’t drink raw water. It’s not any more healthy than regular bottled or tap water, it’s expensive, and it is very, very dangerous. Water is water, unless it’s full of disease-causing microbes, in which case this might happen:
Healthcare, health advice, and health products are big business, contributing billions of dollars to the economy and employing millions of people. The vast majority of people working in healthcare or a healthcare-related field are doing it with the patient/customer’s health and best interest in mind. However, there are some unscrupulous people out there as well – selling dubious supplements, spreading bad advice, or trying to convince you that ketchup is bad for you for reasons we will never understand.
Some of the most vulnerable persons to bad health advice are seniors. They are often targeted by people trying to make a quick buck for the following reasons:
- They have money
- They are likely to be diagnosed with serious diseases or know others who have these diseases.
- They are easily reached by advertising – particularly TV and internet ads.
- Many seniors are not adept at the advanced internet search strategies required to differentiate fact from fiction in areas outside of their own experience to identify scam artists.
Targeting seniors is wrong. And when one health blog targeted the parents of one of our contributors, well, now it’s personal! Here’s how to avoid being scammed by a snake oil salesmen.
Beware professional quacks
Most doctors and health professionals are on the up and up, but there is a small group of known hucksters out there that you need to watch out for. Unfortunately, some of these less-than-reputable persons are quite popular. Two big names you may have heard of are Dr. Mehmet Oz (“Dr. Oz”) and Vani Hari (“The Food Babe”). These people are considered by many to be reliable professionals, but they are not good sources of scientific information. Both have endorsed dubious products or theories in the past. The more extreme examples, like Joseph Mercola and Alex Jones are more easy to identify as quacks. There is a very useful site called Quackwatch which catalogs people, practices and claims of quackery – we highly recommend visiting this site before you trust any healthcare advice you see online.
Perhaps the easiest way to identify a quack is to find their website and look to see if they promote dubious products or practices. This would include claims to cure or prevent diseases for which there are no known treatment (like Alzheimers, Autism, more), making conspiracy-driven anti-vaccine or pharmaceutical claims, or promoting disproven “alternative medicine” practices like ozone therapy, oxygen therapy, colon hydrotherapy, homeopathy or naturopathy, etc. Persons that promote these types of things should not be trusted for healthcare advice.
If it sounds too good to be true, it is
The most troubling part of these scams is the hope they offer seniors who suffer from serious or incurable diseases. No matter what anyone tells you, the following diseases can not be cured:
Asthma, Alzheimers Disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Celiac’s Disease, Diabetes, Epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, Psoriasis, Rhumatoid Arthritis, & Schitzophrenia.
Now, this doesn’t mean there aren’t treatments for these diseases available, and some may work quite well at treating the symptoms of the disease, but anyone who offers you a cure, or uses similar language, like “eliminates” or “prevents” is not to be trusted.
An even bigger red flag is when sites or experts claim to be able to treat or cure cancer using “alternative” or “natural” methods. This is incredibly dangerous – the false hope provided by these unproven, generally ineffective treatments can led some patients to delay or never even seek evidence-based medical treatments. This is how Steve Jobs died. If someone if willing to risk the life of a cancer patient in order to make a buck by selling their dubious products, they are the lowest form of low.
Finally, look out for these types of outrageous claims which are offered with very simple products, treatments, or “tricks”, often requiring little or none of your valuable time.
√ Well-known “quacks” like Joseph Mercola, Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz), Mike Adams, Vani Hari (“The Food Babe”). Check out Quackwatch for a list of known quacks.
√ Alerting buzzwords: Breakthrough Product, Secret formula, Miracle cure
√ Words and phrases that sound scientific, but really aren’t: Detox or detoxification, cleansing, oxygen therapy, naturaopathy, homeopathy, body or blood pH, etc…
√ Claims that are just too good to be true: Any claims to cure diseases with no known cure, like Alzhiemers, any claim to stop or reverse the aging process
Alerting words and phrases
Sometimes, it’s easy to identify a dubious source by the way they promote their advice or products. Be on the lookout for overstated buzzwords:
Breakthrough product, secret formula, miracle cure, etc..
Also beware of anyone using pseudoscientific phrases which have no actual scientific meaning:
Detoxification or detox, cleansing, removing, or eliminating toxins form your body, non-qualified use of the word “toxin”, body or blood pH, naturopathy, homeopathy, “natural” cures or using the term “natural” to suggest something is “safe” or good for you.
Don’t trust sources making vague claims of health improvements when using their products, things that would be impossible or difficult to quantify in a scientific study like:
Improving well-being, boosting energy, putting you in a better mood, improving sex drive, sharper focus, stopping or reversing aging, bringing back youthful qualities or feelings you may have lost, improving memory, etc…
Finally, beware any sites or sources that support or even lend validation to fringe conspiracy theories involving healthcare, such as anti-vaccine views, anti-“big Phama” views, chemtrails, suggestions that corporations or the government are purposely poisoning the population or covering up for those that do. Also watch out for claims that everyday foods, diets, or practices are responsible for serious diseases, like macaroni and cheese suddenly being toxic. Such views are completely unfounded and those that seek to promote or validate them should not be trusted with healthcare advice.
Here’s an example!
A parent of one of our contributors recently received an e mail with the subject line of “Welcome to House Calls”. The e mail offered to sign them up to a news letter for free. Here are a few choice excerpts from the e mail promoting this news letter. I’ve taken the liberty of highlighting the “red flags” as described above in red.
“You’ll discover safe and proven solutions you can use to fight arthritis, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and much more. Plus, you’ll get my honest take on the latest research and health headlines.”
“Over the next few days, you’ll be receiving news about my most exciting breakthroughs and formulas, the exact same ones I use in my clinic and recommend to my patients every day, like:
If You Eat THIS, You’re Growing Deadly Tumors: Are you literally FEEDING cancer cells by putting this one food on your dinner plate?
This is important. You must stop eating this common food today or you could be growing cancer cells. And here’s the weird part… as soon as you STOP eating it, the opposite happens: cancer cells STARVE to death — and die out by the thousands.
Skeptical? I was too… until I saw the proof here.
Strange “instant pain relief” secret caught on video — Have you seen the weird “little brown bottle” video? In the short video, you can see how more than 535,311 people have discovered an underground sensation in pain relief…”
“Don’t think the only way to get through the day is by practically overdosing on caffeine… New research shows doing this ’15 second trick’ daily could be your answer to tiredness and fatigue. Simply taking 15 seconds every morning to do THIS can help you: Surge with youthful energy…Banish brain fog and day time sleepiness…Brighten your mood and happiness. So put the coffee down and learn how to start this ’15 second trick’ right here.”
“With so much conflicting health information out there today… with so many people looking to make a buck… it can be hard to know who to trust. I believe it’s my responsibility as a doctor and a Christian to be the one voice in medicine you can always rely on.”
You can see how this could be a very attractive offer to an older person who may be suffering from typical age-related diseases, but there are a lot of red flags if you know what to look for. The authors have practically offered a cure for arthritis and diabetes, and have literally offered one for cancer. These are outrageous claims and should immediately make the reader suspicious. They also allude to common foods causing cancer and make the claim that many people are overdosing on caffeine. They make vague health claims, use alerting buzzwords like “breakthrough formula” and “underground sensation,” and claim they can provide their benefits with “simple tricks” in only “seconds.” Finally, the authors appeal to Christian beliefs, which they know will highly represented in their target audience.
This e mail was signed by Dr. Mark Stengler. He is not currently on the Quackwatch list, but googling his name turned up his website for the Strengler Center for Integrative Medicine. Despite calling himself “America’s Natural Doctor®,” Mark Strengler is not a medical doctor – he holds a degree in naturopathy (NMD), which does not require rigorous, evidence-based medical training. Besides his newsletter, the site offers an article on the benefits of ozone therapy (there are none), and sells books authored by “Dr” Strengler detailing the benefits of natural alternatives to prescription drugs (red flag), proven natural remedies that medical doctors don’t know about (another red flag), the benefits of medicinal mushrooms (huge red flag, do not take mushrooms obtained from unreliable sources, many are very poisonous), “Natural Cures” (huge red flag) and “outside the box cancer therapies.” This last one is the biggest of red flags – cancer should never be treated with alternative medicine. People die this way.
This e mail is clearly a scam, intended to prey on the senior citizens worried about their health and willing to do whatever they can to maintain their well-being. There is no doubt that Mark Strengler is a quack, endorsing disproven psuedomedicine for his own benefit. Luckily, these types of scams are easy to spot if you know what you are looking for. If individuals or companies offer you healthcare advice, use the techniques described above to determine if the source is trustworthy, and send a link to this article to seniors you know to help them make informed choices about who to trust and how to spend their money. You can report obvious scams to the better business bureau as well. Don’t be fooled by these scams!
We have talked about the lack of scientific support for detox diets in the past, but one practice we have not addressed is the kinda-sorta-logical-if-you-squint extension of detoxing – cleansing, or more specifically cleansing the bowels. Look, we totally agree that this is gross, and honestly, we’d rather be talking about non-gross cool things like narwhals, pluto, or platypuses. However, cleansing is a potentially dangerous form of “Alternative Medicine” with no basis in scientific fact, which makes it exactly the kind of thing a science advocacy site like UYBFS should be writing about. So we’ll try to make this as fun and as non-gross as possible, ok? Right, here it goes…
WHY ON EARTH WOULD ANYONE PUSH A BUNCH OF LIQUID INTO THEIR COLON ON PURPOSE?
Medical Use. Despite the indignity of the act, there are actually a few valid medical reasons for doing so. When performed as part of (or in preparation for) a medical procedure, this is called an enema. You may have seen enemas in your local pharmacy, and it might have made you giggle (grow up, dude), but these have a real place in medicine. The two most common medical uses for enemas are emptying the lower bowel in preparation for a colonoscopy (a procedure in which a camera is inserted into the colon in order to visualize ulcerations, polyps, or colon cancer) and when a contrast agent (barium sulfate) is introduced into the colon in order to image it more effectively using X-rays.
There several other less common reasons for enema use, including the treatment of severe constipation or impaction (super gross), and the administration of certain drugs. These are treatments all people should aim to avoid.
Recreational Use. There are some people out there who use enemas in a non-medical, recreational way. If that’s your thing, that’s cool – just be safe about it, and make sure your doctor knows what you’re up to. That’s all we are gonna say about that.
Believing – against all evidence – that it’s somehow good for you. This is where “Alternative Medicine” comes in. There are some who believe that over time “toxins,” undigested food, and accumulated feces build up in the colon and cause health problems. These could really be any health problems – from GI issues to a general lack of well-being, low energy or short attention spans, to serious heath conditions like cancer and infertility. The idea is that you can wash out all of these bad things with periodic cleanings and make everything ok.
There was a time, hundreds to thousands of years ago, when some scientists and doctors believed that colon cleansing might offer benefits. This was based on the long-since disproved theory of auto-intoxication, which hypothesized that toxins entered the body with your food and hung out in the intestines slowly poisoning you. Today we know better.
THAT SOUNDS LOGICAL, WHY WOULDN’T IT WORK?
It doesn’t work because that are no toxins, undigested food and accumulated feces built up in our colon. Your intestines are really good at digesting food and extracting all the bioavailable nutrients (and non-nutrients). It does this because is has a very high surface area due to trillions of projections call villi on the surface of the lining of your gut. If, hypothetically, these tiny projections were somehow encased in an impenetrable sludge of undigested food and feces, you would die and die quickly. This is because you wouldn’t be able to extract the nutrients from your food. You would lose weight no matter how much you ate. You’d become deficient in pretty much every essential vitamin or mineral. Worst of all you would become dehydrated, since you wouldn’t be able to absorb the water you drink effectively. This sounds like a horrible way to die, right? It would be – but luckily it never happens, because your intestines are good at their job. They don’t need your help. Just leave them alone, dude…
Cleansing aficionados (and people trying to sell you cleanses) will give you a long list of supposed benefits of cleansing. They are all false. To keep this article from getting too long, while “shining some light” on the issue, here is a list of supposed benefits of cleansing, each answered by our UYBFS staff in 20 words or less.
Claim: It pulls harmful toxins out of your colon!
UYBFS: There are no toxins. If there were and they were trapped in your colon, how would they make you sick?
Claim: It aids in digestion!
UYBFS: It literally does the opposite.
Claim: It reduces constipation!
UYBFS: Just take laxative, dude. Or stop eating all that cheese?
Claim: It gives you more energy, helps with concentration or “well-being”, reduces anxiety, etc…
UYBFS: No it doesn’t.
Claim: It aids in weight loss!
UYBFS: No it doesn’t.
Claim: It supports/improves colon health!
UYBFS: It literally does the exact opposite.
Claim: It helps the whole body detox!
UYBFS: That is not a thing, and if it were, this is not the way.
Claim: It improves fertility!
UYBFS: That is sheer insanity. You don’t even believe that, do you?
Claim: It makes the digestive system more efficient!
UYBFS: You understand that food is already digested and the nutrients absorbed before it gets to your colon, right?
Claim: It increases the body’s absorption of vitamins and minerals!
UYBFS: No even a little bit. See above.
Claim: It reduces the risk of colon cancer!
UYBFS: No it doesn’t.
Claim: It maintains the proper pH balance in your body/blood
UYBFS: Cleansing can not and will not change your blood pH. Body pH is not a thing.
YEAH BUT THEN WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE DO IT?
First of all, we’re not sure that many people do this. Maybe among celebrities (or people who want to be like them) this might be a thing, but how many people do you know who have ever cleansed, much less do it regularly? Sure, Gwyneth Paltrow thinks it’s a good idea and will even sell you a $135 dollar glass jar to help you squirt coffee up your butt, however, Gwyneth Paltrow should NEVER be trusted with health advice. Going to a professional for “colon hydrotherapy” will cost $80 to $100 per visit, and your health insurance isn’t going help out with the bill. Or you could buy an enema and do it yourself, which is… gross.
There is most certainly a small subset of people who “like” cleanses, enough that there is a name for it: “klismaphilia”. There are a lot of nerve endings in there, and there is little doubt that some people find it pleasurable. UYBFS doesn’t judge – if it floats your boat no worries, but let’s not pretend that it’s somehow improving your health. It is not.
I SUPPOSE ITS DANGEROUS? UYBFS IS ALWAYS TELLING US THINGS ARE DANGEROUS
Come on, man, that’s not true!
With that said, yes this is totally dangerous. The main risks are perforating your colon (it sounds bad, and it really is), bloating, nausea, vomiting, dehydration, infections, and serious electrolyte imbalances. People have died from coffee enemas. These are not safe and provide no health benefits.
OK, SO HOW ABOUT CLEANSING WITH LAXITIVES AND TEAS?
Also not a good idea – excessive laxitive use can cause many of the same negative health effects listed above, and some of those teas can be toxic too. Also, weren’t you paying attention a few paragraphs ago when we told you there are no toxins cleverly hiding out in your colon? There are no health benefits of cleansing.
SO… YOU’RE SAYING SKIP THE CLEANSE?
I think we’ve made our recommendation pretty clear. The idea of treating auto-intoxication with cleanses is as outdated as using leeches to treat disease. We know that there are no toxins hanging out in your gut causing disease or preventing you from concentrating at work, and we know cleansing can be dangerous. The risk/benefit profile here is terrible – all risk and no known benefit. Also, it’s gross. Leave your colon alone and skip the cleanse.
Welcome to “chemicals and society”, where we highlight the current understanding of the biological effects and safety of some of the most common chemicals in today’s society.
Today’s Chemical: Glyphosate
What is glyphosate? Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, a herbicide which happens to be one of the most widely used in the world. There are several reasons why Roundup is so popular. It’s a very good herbicide, killing actively growing plants quickly with a single application. It also is relatively safe, because it targets an enzyme that plants have but animals do not (5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase, say that ten times fast!), and it doesn’t accumulate in the environment like many earlier generation herbicides. Another reason it’s popular is that many GMO crops are engineered to resists it’s effects, rendering it an ideal herbicide for control of weeds when growing these crops.
Glyphosate and Cancer. If you have heard of glyphosate recently, it probably because of reports that it causes cancer. So let’s start with this. Here’s the story:
When it was first approved for use, the data suggested that glyphosate posed no carcinogenic (cancer-causing) risk. As is always the case, scientists kept an eye on the data as the use of this chemical increased dramatically over the years. Some data seemed to indicate some cancer risk, while most did not. Health authorities in the United States, Japan, Canada, most of Europe, and many other countries do not consider glyphosate to be linked to cancer.
&media=https://www.useyourbrainforscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Glyphosate-Lead.png){kind=link}