Realfoodology - The Link Between Fluoride, Lower IQ, + Dangerous Industrial Waste | Dr. Staci Whitman

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

242: Fluoride in our water isn’t as safe or effective as we’ve been told. I sat down with functional dentist Dr. Staci Whitman to explore its toxic origins, health risks like dental fluorosis and neurological issues, and why fluoride levels are so hard to regulate. We also dive into the real drivers of dental health—like diet and processed foods—plus how to remove fluoride from your water and advocate for safer policies. Topics Discussed:  What are the health risks associated with fluoride in drinking water? How does fluoride in water impact dental health and IQ levels? Why is it difficult to regulate fluoride levels in public water systems? What role does diet and processed food play in dental health? How can you remove fluoride from your drinking water and advocate for safer policies? Timestamps:  00:00:00 - Introduction  00:01:01 - Dr. Staci Whitman’s Background 00:02:36 - History of Water Fluoridation 00:04:13 - Toxic Chemical Industry and Fluoride 00:08:05 - Fluoride in Everyday Products 00:10:25 - Fluoride and Cavity Prevention 00:12:17 - Neurological Effects of Fluoride 00:18:37 - Cavity Rates and Fluoride’s Impact 00:19:23 - Tracking Fluoride Levels 00:21:13 - Fluoride and Lowered IQ 00:23:35 - Removing Fluoride from Your Water 00:27:17 - Joining the Fluoride Awareness Movement 00:28:57 - The Cost of Safe Water Check Dr. Staci: Instagram Website More Dr. Staci Check Out Courtney:  LEAVE US A VOICE MESSAGE Check Out My new FREE Grocery Guide! @realfoodology www.realfoodology.com My Immune Supplement by 2x4 Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database  Produced By: Drake Peterson

Hello friends, welcome back to the Real Foodology Podcast. I'm your host Courtney Swan and today I'm sitting down with Stacey Whitman and you may recognize her because I had her on a couple years ago. You are, you go by an integrative dentist, right? Functional. Okay, functional. I always get integrative and functional like- Similar. I feel like they're pretty similar. They're very similar. Yeah. Functional dentist, which is so amazing. And if you want to go back and learn more about functional dentistry, make sure that you go back and listen to that episode because it was awesome. This is gonna be more of a little bite-sized episode

that we wanted to do talking specifically about fluoride because there is a lot happening in the fluoride world right now. A lot of y'all listening are probably at least, you've probably been hearing that certain states are talking about banning fluoride, pulling it out of the water. It's all become political and there's just there's a lot of like controversy around it right now. So I wanted to bring Stacey on to really hear what the actual data says about fluoride in our water.

So Stacey, thank you so much for coming on. Thanks Courtney. So fun. Something I'm very passionate about is water fluoridation and the discussion around it. So yes, I'm a functional dentist. I focus in pediatrics. I've been a dentist almost 20 years, which is really insane to say. And what's most interesting, I think, to say out of the gate is that I used to be a water fluoridation proponent.

I was trained traditionally just like all dentists were. And I am from Portland, Oregon where our water is not fluoridated and it was about 12 years ago now, maybe 13. It was on the ballot to add it back into the water and during that time I was involved in that campaign promoting it, picketing. Wow. Isn't that wild? Yeah, I think it was 2011, so I guess it was 14 years ago,

regardless. And what changed my mind, well, first of all, I was a hypocrite because I wasn't using it in my toothpaste. Wait, so then why were you so bad at the water? Because I was a hypocrite. I thought, well, I know how to take care of my teeth and eat healthy and prevent decay and all the real reasons for decay, but I can't trust that necessarily my patients do. And I was blindly following what I was taught in school and I never had really questioned it nor had I taken the time to read the research or hear the other side.

And I certainly thought tin hat brigade, woo woo caucus. And I was that person, guilty. But I sat at a debate during that time, and it was pro versus those with concerns, anti if you will, although I don't like that phrase. And my mind was blown. I had never heard about the concerns of water fluoridation. I just had assumed someone had checked this out, right? There had to have been safety studies.

Well, guess what? There have never been long-term safety studies on water fluoridation, so we can get into that. So the history of water fluoridation, I'll go over this quickly, but in the early 1900s, there was a dentist, Dr. Frederick McKay out of Colorado Springs. And he noticed that his patients had these mottled teeth,

discolored teeth, which now we know to be dental fluorosis. That's little spots, right? And it can be mild, moderate or severe. So it can be just white spots all the way to these really dark brown, kind of crumbling teeth. So really deficient and defective, but he noticed these teeth that these teeth didn't suffer from decay almost at all. So he explored over the next 30 years kind of tested this in case studies and people came in to the community and they tried to figure out

well what's going on. They realized that at that time Colorado Springs had very high fluoride levels in their water. So based on observation, they thought, oh, well, let's run with this. So they put fluoride in the water in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1945. What's important to know is they don't use calcium fluoride, which is the more natural form. They use hydrofluorosalic acid, which is a byproduct of the phosphate fertilizer industry. Awesome. Who makes it? Do you know?

I'm sure there's a bunch of them. There is a bunch. Yeah. Is it the agrochemical companies like Sugenta? Yes. Okay. Yeah. And what's interesting to know is that to dispose of that toxin is very costly

to these companies. So what they do now is they sell it to our municipalities to put it into our water. And this is where it can get a little conspiracy theorists, but everyone can do their own research. I actually personally am digging more into the nitty gritty of the actual history of water fluoridation, which is hard to find because it was in the 1940s and 50s, not too well documented. Anywho, so that's how it's in our water. It just kind of spread and almost 80 percent, I think it's 75-80 percent of our country is fluoridated now. Okay, so it has been controversial since the beginning. That's important to know. The American Medical Association and the American Dental Association in the early days were

not huge proponents of it. They had a lot of questions and concerns because fluoride is very electronegative. It's a halide. It's very reactive. And it even then was known to cause issues like skeletal fluorosis, dental fluorosis, thyroid disruption. It's an endocrine disruptor. Yeah.

Okay. But somehow it just got grandfathered in. Okay. And then the American Dental Association said we need this to prevent decay. It's one of the top 10 public health movements of all time, etc. So in 2015,

a federal lawsuit was presented. It was the People versus the EPA out of Northern California. And this was a federal lawsuit where the people said, hey, EPA, where's your safety data? Get this out of my water. And this trial went on for seven years. It just, the ruling just happened, and I'll get to that. So it went on for seven years.

If people are interested, I highly recommend going to the Florida Action Network where they have a whole timeline of the trial, including YouTube clips of expert testimonies under oath from the EPA, from the CDC. You can hear, literally hear people contradicting themselves to be polite, also known as potentially lying under oath, okay? But it's really fascinating. And the EPA blocked things and delayed and

etc. What was really important was something called the National Toxicology Programs Report. This was under the Department of Health and Human Services, and it was this report that was supposed to assess water fluoridation. And it had been kept essentially under lock and key for seven years. So because of this trial, the judge under the Freedom of Information Act subpoenaed it. And it was released last August 2024. and it said it looked at 18 very high quality studies and said there are neurocognitive issues and concerns with our current fluoridation practices. Particularly, they looked at the studies showing around 1.5 milligrams per liter. We're showing neurocognitive issues on par with lead.

So IQ drops in children. Generally these studies were following pregnant women who had been consuming water. They tested them. Each trimester would average their urinary concentration of fluoride. They did a lot of confounding variable analysis and statistical analysis. And so it came out saying, yeah, there are concerns with that concentration. However, the proponents of it will say, well, yes, that's at 1.5 milligrams per liter, but now in the United States, we only fluoridate at 0.7 milligrams per liter. So we're safe. Okay. Oh my god. What they're not factoring in is halo effect. So we get fluoride from toothpaste, rinses, the varnishes

at the dental office, pharmaceuticals, many pharmaceuticals including SSRIs have fluoride in them. I never knew that. Yes, it's used to make, it's put in them to make them more bioavailable. Wow. Ultra-processed foods. So if you're eating soup, drinking hyphae or rock star or something with water in it as an ingredient, these factories,

they're not using reverse osmosis to filter their water. So your ultra processed food has fluoride in it. It's pretty high in black tea, green tea, which we're not trying to villainize those things. The point is, it's really hard to know how much someone's being exposed to. And also, we are restricting how much a person can drink. So you might drink a liter of water a day, but I might drink three liters of water a day.

So how are we really titrating that? That's such a great point. I never even thought about that. Yeah, and also your body size, your metabolism. Yep. A child in an infant drinking fluoridated formula versus not. And that's where some of the studies are really concerned too.

So it's during pregnancy and infancy. And so these studies, they were looking at three and four year olds, they did IQ testing. And again, they would see drops on par with lead, okay? So that was the National Toxicology Report. So the judge saw that and then shortly thereafter, the next month ruled that there is an unreasonable risk to current water fluoridation practices.

This was a federal judge actually appointed from the Obama administration, for what it's worth, and said, EPA, it's on you now to regulate this better. You need to fix this. What are you going to do? We're still waiting to hear from the EPA. They're likely going to appeal. Okay. Well, after that, the Cochrane Collaborative came out. Now, this is the gold standard for medical protocols, essentially. And it said, well, not so fast. Water fluoridation doesn't work quite as well as we thought it did.

So you're gonna hear people say it reduces cavities by 25%. That is not accurate. That is incorrect information. Wow. So we see that countries that fluoridate their water versus those that don't have the same decay rate, okay? It's also important to know that 97% of the world does not fluoridate their water. This is a very United States centric debate.

They choose to prevent decay in many other ways and we can get to that. But the Cochrane Collaborative said, well actually it's only reducing decay by about 3% or that translates to one quarter cavity per person, which is not statistically significant. So it's not even working like we thought it did. We have alternatives like using topical fluoride instead, assuming you want to still use fluoride, just spit it out. You don't need to be ingesting it.

There are studies that show fluoride works topically, not systemically anyway. I was gonna ask about that. Like, does it even work when you're consuming it like that? We used to think it did, but in 2020, Featherstone, Dr. Featherstone came out with a research paper, very well published in our dental journal, saying fluoride primary action is topical, not systemic. So why risk it, you know,

when you can just be using toothpaste. But then even since then, just in January, there was another meta analysis that came out which is the gold standard, looking at all the data, all the research, and it supports the original NTP report saying that yes, there are concerns with current fluoridation practices with IQ and neurocognitive issues.

Wow. Yeah. I mean, I can tell you just being in this health and wellness world for a really long time, when I started diving into more holistic alternative natural practices, this was about, I mean, like 18 years ago. People in that world were already sounding the alarm on fluoride saying that they were concerned about IQ levels, about cognitive issues. This was 18 years ago.

And now we have all this data that's coming out, which is really interesting. That I just basically saying, this is something that's been floating around for a long time, but no one's been willing to look under the hood and actually see. We're trying to research. Yeah.

And so we obviously need more research, but do we? Yeah. So there's actually over 70 studies that show some sort of neurocognitive issue. And then when you whittle those down and you really want them to be the highest quality, there's anywhere from 18, which is what the NTP report showed, to over 50, which is what the meta-analysis just showed. So to me, I mean, I think we just need a couple studies before we say maybe we got this wrong, maybe we should reconsider.

The one thing that I want people to think about is something called margin of safety. Okay? So when you watch and listen to the TASCA trials, what it's called, that federal trial, there was an expert from the EPA who was asked, what is the margin of safety for fluoride for the most vulnerable population? Like what window do we need to protect the most vulnerable, our pregnant women or our infants, let's say? And he gave the answer 10X. Okay, that's the gold standard in toxicology generally too. So current water fluoridation practices, if you look at the 1.5 milligrams per liter, which is where they're showing definitive issues, that means we need to be

fluoridating at 0.15 milligrams per liter to fall within that 10X safety range. Under oath, this gentleman said this, well, we're at.7. So.15 versus.7. Why is there this window of safety? Pregnant women, infants, children, but also if you're calcium deficient, if you're iodine deficient, you'll be more vulnerable to having excessive fluoride. If you have kidney issues, you're not filtering, you're not excreting appropriately. And then also genetic polymorphisms in that we don't

even know. Like I can't tell you who may have an issue or react more to fluoride, but certainly there are some people that have intolerances or reactions to fluoride. We think that's topically in the dental office. Some kids will maybe get hives around their mouth or ulcers from it and they really can't be exposed to it. And so we don't know who has these genetic predispositions and neither does our government. So that's the skinny. It just seems like such a no-brainer. But what's really frustrating for those of us who've been speaking about this, we've

been so excited because the science is coming out and we just think, yes, this is a no-brainer. But it's getting buried in politics right now. So the science is getting buried in politics. Their proponents are hiding underneath the politics, you know, and they're masking their research. And so it's hard to know who to believe. But the biggest thing is whether you believe in all this neurotoxicity and endocrine disruption or not, really think about the fact that it should be a choice. You should be able to choose if you want to be exposed to fluoride or not. Right

now we're mass-medicating a population without their consent, so there's medical, ethical issues. I also personally, I'm a low cavity risk. I haven't had a cavity since I was eight years old. Why would I be getting exposed to a drug, a pharmaceutical, you know, when I can manage my decay rate in other ways. And really, we know cavities are not from lack of fluoride. Fluoride's not an essential nutrient. No one has any health issues due to lack of fluoride. It is from diet.

And who's really to blame for our cavity crisis is Big Food. Yes. So we… It's not a lack of fluoride. It's not a lack of fluoride. It's not a lack of fluoride. Fluoride will reduce your cavity risk. It can make your teeth more acid resistant, but it's no match for big food.

If it were, cavities wouldn't still be the top chronic disease globally in the world in children and adults. It's something we've normalized, but teeth are not meant to be dissolving and decaying. So wild. I mean, well, I just think about our ancestors, and they had like twigs that they were doing, like brushing their teeth with basically.

My assumption is they probably weren't dealing with cavities like we are today. No, very, no, hardly any decay. If you go back 10, 12,000 years ago, if you go to the Natural History Museum, look at the skulls. Beautiful teeth. This is Western price. Yeah, I love Western price. Big, wide jaws.

The teeth all fit. They were straight, but very little decay. You would see some decay in areas maybe where there was a lot of tropical fruit or honey, OK? But that was pretty few and far between. Most humans didn't suffer from decay. And think about wild animals. They don't get decay. Wolves don't get decay. Deer don't get decay. Who gets decay? Domesticated

animals. Why? Kibble. Exactly. Ultra-processed food. Ultra-processed food. Yeah. So we saw an uptick in decay around the agricultural revolution. Okay. So we went from hunter-gatherer to agrarian and then even bigger one around the industrial revolution. We started milling and processing and sugar and flour and then even yeah and then even more in the late 1800s, 1900s, you know the 1950s tv dinner. Like everything is just getting worse and worse. And cavities are on the rise in children again.

150,000 children a year undergo general anesthesia to get their teeth fixed. And I'm telling you, putting fluoride in the water is not doing the trick. I have patients that use fluoride and don't. I have patients that live in fluoridated communities and don't. Cavities affect people based on what they're eating.

Well, and if the fluoride was actually helping, considering how much fluoride we have in water right now and the cavity rates were only rising, I mean, you have to just make that association and wonder, okay, what is the fluoride actually doing for us in the water? Yeah, very little. Arguably just harm.

I mean, do no harm, right? Exactly. So when you know better, very little. Arguably just harm. I mean, do no harm, right? Exactly. So when you know better, do better. I think the intentions were good back when we were fluoridating. But we have all this data now that we're ignoring. And you'll hear, you might hear these rumblings. They removed fluoride from a city, Edmonton, in Canada. And they said, well, decay rates went up.

But when you actually look at the graphical representation of data, cavities were already increasing before fluoride was taken out of the water. But they leave that out of the conversation. Of course, they do that a lot. And I've had some other conversations in the podcast where they love to do that with the graphs. The other thing to think about is fluoride is antimicrobial. So if you're drinking and eating an antimicrobial multiple times a day

through your water, through drinking water, maybe you make soup with it, you boil your pasta with it, we don't even understand what happens to shower and bathe in it. We just have no data on that, like what are the bioaccumulation effects through the skin? And through the lungs. Think about it. It's vaporizing. You do breathe in it. Absolutely. This is why the people who add hydrofluorosilic acid into our water, it comes in these big cement-like bags. Literally was calling crossbones on it.

And they have to wear hazmat suits. I know. You can't believe it until you see it. This is so crazy to me. This is when I started realizing with glyphosate and I would see these photos and videos of farmers in full-blown hazmat suits while they're spraying it down. It's the same thing. And I can't help but wonder, how are these humans

that are getting these large tubs of something that has a skull and crossbones on it, and then they're dumping it into our water and thinking, this is a good idea. Yeah, well, it's interesting. I mean, I've only spoken to a handful, but those that I have that work at water plants, they're very much opposed to water fluoridation.

Interesting. Very much opposed. From their own safety, it just has never made sense to them. They're saying, I'm pouring, it's an asset. I'm pouring acid into this community water supply. The other thing, it's really hard to titrate. So even though it's supposed to be 0.7 milligrams per liter, when you test your community's water, I've seen it as high as 2.2. It's really hard to regulate it. So

I encourage everyone to ask their local water bureau, what is the fluoride in my water? Because it's probably not exactly 0.7. You know? Yeah. Well, my biggest thing is something you said earlier, but I just want to really pinpoint it is that now we know there's a lot of studies that are super concerning about IQ levels. And there was actually just a, wasn't there just a recent study that came out maybe in the last like two years where they were like definitively saying,

oh, yeah. ...Floride lowers IQ. Yeah, well, in 2019, there was the RIFCA Green Study out of Canada. Since then, there's been another out of Mexico, Bashash, Bashir, I can't quite remember the researcher's last name. And then there was just one recently out of the United States.

They just keep coming up and there'll be more and more to support this, the IQ drops. One also just showed neuro-atypical behavior, so like behavioral issues. That's just neurotoxicity. Then there's also all the studies on thyroid disruption, so it's an endocrine disrupter. Dental fluorosis is 40% of teenagers have dental fluorosis now. In fact, an NHANES report has recently come out saying it can be high as 65%.

And I feel like I see this in some of my patients, this mottled teeth, whether it's fluorosis or hypoplastic enamel is kind of rampant. So it can be linked to cancer too. You know, there's some studies, we need more studies, but it's like, do we? Can we just, if other countries have removed it from their water, we have other ways through education on diet, hygiene, toothpaste, you know, toothpaste is very accessible. You can go to the dollar store and get fluoride toothpaste. There are free vans and things where you can go get fluoride, because that's the argument.

They'll say, well, some people can't access fluoride. And it's an active versus passive application. So active is you actually have to brush your teeth. Passive is you drink water, you're going to get it. But again, it really should be a choice, I feel. And again, it really comes down to food. Back in the early 1900s, before water fluoridation, dentists used to talk about vitamin D deficiency

with their patients, their calcium intake, their mineral intake. And we've just lost this now, because everyone just leans on fluoride as the way to prevent cavities in our patients. But I can tell you confidently, you can live a very healthy life without decay and great oral health without fluoride. Wow. This is amazing. And people need to know this.

Is there anything else that we haven't covered or that I haven't asked you about that you feel like people need to know about this? Like maybe, are there votes coming up about this? Are they going to start trying to pull it out of different water systems? Yeah, I think people are excited because our Health and Human Services, you know, Vaughn Kennedy is talking about the concerns of water fluoridation, which I'm thrilled about. But it's important to know the federal government can't ban it. It really needs to come from the

states. There are some states right now that have Utah just banned it and it needs to go through a few more processes, but that's exciting. South Dakota, North Dakota, Kentucky, Florida is very close to banning it, but you'll see it's getting dropped in many communities or or the battle is getting shut down to add it back into the water. New Zealand is all up in arms right now about their water fluoridation because they do still fluoridate. So it does need to be a movement. I'd say if you're interested, you just need to become an advocate, you know, and reach out, I would

reach out to your water bureau, but also your local representatives and, you know, form a little, a group of like-minded people that can discuss the issues, you know, and maybe get a petition going. That really does work. I think there'll be a big movement away from it. You know, what we need is our trade organizations, which move from pay to play, okay, like the American Dental Association

to come forward and say, we got this wrong. But so far, they're doubling down on water fluoridation. Which is so nuts. How do we get them to, is it just that they don't want to admit that they've maybe been wrong about this? Like, what is wrong? It's a great question. What's really frustrating is they're now, they're now bad melting this really high quality research. Like even the Cochrane Collaborative, which, you know, It's like the gold standard. It's the gold standard.

They're saying, yeah, but is it that accurate? Or meta-analyses, yeah, but it's not really that good. It's like cherry picking to the max. That is. I don't know the reason. There could be many reasons. So I could presume. I think there's a lot of money at stake.

So the American Dental Association takes money from 3M, Henry Shine, Colgate, Palmolive, all of these huge companies, Johnson & Johnson, they make products with fluoride. So there's that possibility. But also, they have dentists all across the United States that are just, you know, relying on them and their every word and how do they explain that? You know, I think they're worried about litigation. The United States is a very litigious country. So the problem is, what they should have done is addressed it the minute the information came out. So now that they haven't, it's almost worse because we've had this information that it's

a neurotoxin, endocrine disruptive, this margin of safety, all of these things, but they've been ignoring it. And so now if you're a parent, will you feel as a child who maybe was exposed to too much fluoride or it's on your radar that maybe that's a possibility. They have fluorosis in their teeth and maybe they have an IQ issue or they're neurocognitively impacted that could lead to a lawsuit, I'm certain. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and like you said, I mean, at this point, it seems insidious because they're just now ignoring all of the research we have out there. And just the politics. Well, and that's a

big issue. And this is something that, you know, you and I and me and some other friends have been talking about just in general in this whole movement. It's really unfortunate that people can't put aside their differences right now and just recognize that this is the first opportunity, at least in our lifetime. And there may never be another opportunity that comes again for us to actually have the chance to really make change. We have never seen somebody on a public political stage talking about all of these issues.

And the fact that people can't, like, just let go of their, like, well, I'm on this team. And it fact that people can't like just let go of their like well I'm on this team and it's like can't we just come together for the betterment of our country? It's a goal. What's the goal? Like what's the game night over the goal? It's not who's on your team. This to me is just like workplace environment. There's people I don't this is not true. I love my team but there's people in your work, this is not true. I love my team. But there's people in your work environment you may not like. You may not like your boss. You might hate your boss or your regional manager or whatever. But you all have an end goal. You work together as a team. So where have we lost sight of that? Where's the teamwork? I mean, and also like it's our kids, you guys.

This doesn't help getting our kids healthy again. And so minimal risk. Like, we have this thing that kids are being, pregnant women are being exposed to, children are being exposed to, essentially willy-nilly. Like, I don't know how much that child's drinking in water. You know what's interesting? Pregnant women are supposed to be drinking

two to three liters of water a day, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and Obstetrics. So are we limiting water now to just one liter to be safe with pregnant women? I know. Do you know what I mean? And it's wild. Well, what's unfortunately what has been happening now is that people are waking up to this and people that are more fluent and have the ability to buy really nice,

expensive water filters are filtering it all out now. And what's actually happening is the lower socioeconomic children are getting hit and impacted the most by this because their family may not have the resources to get the filtered water. And that's what really bothers me. Brilliant point, yeah.

So the JAMA Pediatrics, which is very highly regarded, did a podcast, they did a review of that Canadian study by Rivka Green, brought it through the ringer and couldn't find much wrong with it and published it. Very controversial, so controversial, they felt, the editor felt he had to write a letter to go with it in the journal. He said he's never done that before and he launched a little podcast to go with it explaining why he included this study in the journal. So people are like why are you putting this in the journal? It's gonna create such alarm. So it's a really great podcast. It's only 12 minutes long

and he hashes it out with another MD, his colleague, and they said the same thing I did 14 years ago. What do you mean? What's wrong with fluoride? I've never heard there's anything wrong with fluoride. What do you mean they're having the safety studies? You can hear these guys riffing through this 12 minutes, like talking it through. These are pediatricians. And at the end of it, you have to listen to the very end, they both say, gosh, based on this, I don't think I can advise pregnant women to drink Florida water anymore. They should filter. That's what the Dimitri said, the editor. And then his colleague said, well, yeah, man, but not everyone can afford a water filter. And not everyone can afford bottled water. And you'll hear the proponents say, if you

don't want it, just filter your water or buy bottled water. Okay, not everyone can afford bottled water. And you'll hear the proponents say, if you don't want it, just filter your water or buy bottled water. Okay, not everyone can afford reverse osmosis. Like, it's really expensive. It's expensive. You have to add minerals back in. So now if we do that, everyone's mineral deficient. But also, okay, bottled water, plastic, polluting our environment, also microplastics, and people can't afford that. I mean, that is just so, it's really elitist, I think, to say, you don't want it? Then go buy this filter or buy bottled water. Well, then you know what that means.

Okay, well now I have to filter my tub water because my kids are bathing in it every night, and now I have to put a filter in my shower. I mean, it's expensive for people, and it's not accessible. So, anyway, I'm so grateful for all the work that you're doing in this. And you're such a pioneer in this movement, and it's really incredible.

And I love to see when people... I love to see the fact that you're, even though you're getting a lot, because I know you're getting a lot of heat about this right now. And they're, like you said, it's become so political. And I can imagine that you're probably getting a lot of hate, probably from your colleagues, too.

And I just want to say, like, keep going. This is really incredibly important. And that's usually when you know that you're doing something right, because when you're going against the status quo like that, a lot of people are super resistant to in the beginning because of everything, kind of what we already talked about. It's like people don't want to accept that maybe we got something wrong but it's so

incredibly important and I think eventually people are going to wake up to this and and hopefully we'll get the fluoride out of our water soon. Yeah thanks Courtney. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Appreciate you too. Thank you. Oh before we go let everyone know where they can find you and your work and everything. Yes well I have a website drstacey.com spelled out D-O-C-T-O-R-S-J-C- everything. Yes. Well, I have a website, DrStacey.com, spelled out D-O-C-T-O-R-S-J-C-I.com. I have a weekly newsletter that where I have a lot more of the science breakdown, I give tips and tricks, I will talk about supplements, protocols, how to keep your kids healthy. I talk a lot about adult dentistry too, so it's not just pediatrics, root canals, mercury, whatever, I cover it all.

So my newsletter is there. You can see me on Instagram, Dr. Underscore Stacey. I float around other platforms too, but I'm mostly on Instagram. And then I do have a product in oral healthcare line too that I'm pretty proud of that I launched only recently because I just didn't feel there was the right type of oral health care line out there and I really want to

focus on the oral microbiome. Okay and we got to that a little bit but the microbiome is incredibly important in both the gut and the oral microbiome is called Fig Feed Your Good Guys. It's so good I love that toothpaste. You really nailed it. Yeah it has prebiotics and amino acids in it to boost the microbiome, which we all need. Yeah, we all need that. It's awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. Have fun.

Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology podcast. This is a Wellness Loud production produced by Drake Peterson and mixed by Mike Fry. Theme song is by Georgie. You can watch the full video version of this podcast inside the Spotify app or on YouTube. As always, you can leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in our bio. And if you like this episode, please rate and review on your podcast app. For more shows by my team, go to wellnessloud.com. See you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute

a provider-patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first.