Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Flouride

Episode Date: April 30, 2017

This week, Dr. Sydnee and Justin explore a medical mystery: Why, for a town in Colorado, was having brown teeth a sign of great tooth health? Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers

Saw bones is a show about medical history and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. I'm your co-hostirl, McElroy. That's some...

Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. That's some cold stuff, Columbus. Dad. You know why? I was wearing my official badge, and you were... Yeah, her official staff badge. I'm going to make sure that I... You know why? I was wearing my official badge and you were wearing my

official staff badge. I want to make sure that I, people knew I'd be in the wrong that I wasn't just wandering around back there eating peanut butter and drinking beer with no reason. Hey! Hi, Cher. What's your last favorite part of Kosa? Is it the time tunnel?

Because I think it's the time travel thing. That's my favorite. Yeah, I'm hearing a lot of people just saying random things, and I completely agree with all of you. I love Kosa. It's a magical wonderland that I got to go to very rarely when I was a child in Huntington, West Virginia. They would take us here to Columbus, to see Kosa.

And it was beautiful and amazing. And I love Kosa. Children. We're here, and I feel like we have to go to Kosa tomorrow, because I mean, we're here. They would bring us to Kline, they would say, children, this building is where the first Wendy's was. LAUGHTER

Can you even imagine? Click, click, click. That's where it was right there. Now, here's a unicigal that you ride on a wire. Amazing. So we love Columbus. We come to Columbus Lot for to go to Cosi. And I also grown up in a hunting time for concerts and stuff.

Like this was a cool place. Your cool stuff was happening. Was Columbus. Yeah. But Cosi, Columbus is so much more than Cosi, which so many people forget from Huntington. Did you know, for example, that Columbus was the destination

of the very first ever cargo flight? It's true. It's true. They were transporting silk. If you're saying you knew that, you're relying. Yeah, you know, I think they probably knew. They're transporting silk. If you're saying you knew that, you're lying. Yeah, you know, no, I think they probably knew. They're transporting silk, which like if you imagine planes back then, that makes a lot of sense.

Like, hey, I want to do the first cargo flight. What do you want to bring? Something light. That planes are bad. But don't know no to trust them. Silk, perfect. What other facts do you know about Columbus? Columbus is the home of America's first water filtration

system, Columbus. That's important. Yeah. Clean water. Clean water, so cool. Yeah, no bacteria, no parasites. That's great. Yeah. Do you like clean water? Yeah, I bacteria, no parasites. That's great. Yeah.

Do you like clean water? Yeah, I do, actually. I never really thought about squid, but you're right. I do like the water queen. You know, it doesn't clean water, but it's also something we add to water that makes water better. So.

So. Well, yes. Oh, wait, no, no, I know this. I know this. I know this. Crystal Light. I know this. I know this.

Crystal Light. Or propel is propel, the thing now. You might know it by the name H2 flow. Right. Floor I. Floor I. Floor I. That's right. Floor I. Is something else we had to water. Do you like that segue?. Fluoride is something else we had to water.

Do you like that segue? Fluoride is something else we had to water. That's really important. There we go. What's fluoride? Here's what I know about fluoride. Okay. I used to put, did you all do this?

Have the foam thing that they would put the goop in at the dentist and you would buy it for like 20 minutes? Hmm. Who, who did that? I'm so relieved to hear that you all did that too, because if not, like, I need to talk to my dentist, emergently. We need there needs to be a cold case investigation reopen.

And the doctor, Judith Woodruff, We need there needs to be a cold case investigation reopen. The Dr. Judith Woodruff and her practice are just like pumping juicy foam into kids mouth. But who did the school-based fluoride programs where you had to like take it, they would bring like the tray of like, here are your shots of fluoride children and you would like do your little shot and switch it around.

And I always felt like this is a special day, this sucks. But it's a special day, because it's different, I guess. I don't know. Yeah. It's very one flavor that could be sense, I think. So fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral. It's in rocks, but it can get into air and soil and water, which is why it's important.

And the reason we talk about it is that when you have acid from bacteria, so you got sugar in your mouth because you eat it, we all eat sugar, right? We're all eating sugar. Even if you don't know, you're eating sugar, you're eating sugar. Sugar's everywhere. You're eating sugar's even in eating sugar. Only on Saturdays. Sugar's everywhere.

You're eating sugar's even in your beans. Only on Saturdays. Even in your beans, there are sugar. There's some bean sugar, I'll admit. But it's very slow. It's a slow carps, if you understand. So, bacteria eat the sugar. And we get acids in our mouth, and those acids eat away

at the enamel on our teeth. And fluoride helps to build that back up. So that's where fluoride comes into play in dental health. Now we didn't know that for a really long time. How long? Until the early 1900s, which is like really recent for our, especially for our podcast. We were usually talking about like ancient Greeks and Romans and right now we're talking about early 1900s is when we figured this out.

But the first time we connected fluoride to teeth was actually in a really unhealthy way. The first connection between fluoride and teeth was a very bad one. Go. So it's 1901. It's not. No. Well, I try. Try gaslight me.

Drink some more. It's 1901. And a dental student named Frederick McKay has, he's finished dental school and he's decided he's going to head west, young man. He's going to go out there and seek his fortune and his future in dentistry. And he's going to Colorado Springs to start his first dental practice. And he gets there and he thinks, I made a great choice because everybody here

seems to have brown teeth. And that seems like a great place to start a dental practice. Yeah, for sure. Because there are a lot of jacked up grills in Colorado Springs at this point in history. I mean, lots of brown teeth, brown teeth. OK.

OK, you got that? Yeah, brown teeth, I'm with you. Yeah, so many people have brown stains on their teeth. So much that some people look like their entire teeth were coated in chocolate as he writes. Especially kids, especially the children in the town of Colorado Springs in 1901 look like their teeth are coded in chocolate 24-7 all the time.

So if you're a dentist, you're like, jackpot. I picked the right place. Maybe except like, I wouldn't say your values necessarily align with this populist. Like the first guy that gets his teeth clean maybe except like, I wouldn't say your values necessarily align with this populist. Like, the first guy that gets his teeth clean in the town where everyone's south are breathing, every seethe or brown is like, why are you really roomed

to ferb a guess Todd? I guess we all got to get our teeth clean now. Thanks Todd. Real cool man, thanks. But here's the thing, he started seeing these people and it didn't just come off with a brush. And he started reading in his dental books. Now I have none of these and I don't know anything about teeth.

There's my, I read about this, but I'm a doctor. We don't know about teeth. I've said this before on the podcast, but it's the God's honest truth. In medical school, I feel like it's a monopoly that Dennis has where they don't teach doctors about teeth. We don't want a messing in teeth. That's our area. So I mean, he had dental books. I don't. He read them.

I haven't. He still didn't find anything about brown teeth. So he still didn't know why, even though I scrub and scrub and scrub and brush and brush and brush, all of these people in Colorado Springs have brown teeth. So he's still configured out. Even some of the local livestock, like cows and sheep and horses, had brown teeth.

They called it copper teeth in the livestock. It had nothing to do with copper. I don't know why old-timey people will name things, old-timey things. But there you go. It had nothing to do with copper, but even some of the livestock had brown teeth. And if you ask the locals, like, hey, you, why do you think everybody has brown teeth, they would say things like, well, magic.

It's 1901. Probably like had somebody like ran over Somebody every thought was a witch with their carry or something No, they would say things like some of the common thoughts were you know, it's the water. There's a lot of calcium in it We eat a lot of pork out here It's probably the milk because it's kind of low quality, et cetera, et cetera. That's it.

And nobody had any good idea about it. And there had been reports other places at this point in history. So there were places in like Durango, Mexico, where people were getting brown teeth. And they said, well, it's probably something in the water. In Naples, Italy. So that far away, the locals said, well, we have brown teeth and they said, well, it's probably something in the water. In Naples, Italy, so that far away, the locals said, well, we have brown teeth, but it's

probably just all the volcanic ash and dust. They're probably making it look good, too. That's airtaste. You know they do. You know they do. You know they do. So continental. They look so cool.

But they're brown teeth and they're like, it's just volcanic ash. I got those scooters. Like, they can sell those scooters. Like I think they can make a vest pull at cool. I think they can sell brown teeth. And we're like, what's wrong with your teeth? And they're like, stupid America. No, nothing is wrong with them.

That's a French guy, but like. I know, that's not. There's no way for me to do Italian. It's not like Mario. Whenever you go into your stupid American accent, it's a French one. Yeah, that's okay. Still with American. So he read these reports and he thought, Dr. McKay and he thought, well, one of this really

makes any sense. It still doesn't explain why all my patients have brown teeth. So he decided this was a whole new clinical entity that had never been discovered before. And he named it, of course, the very clever Colorado Brownstain. Hey, everybody. My name is Colorado Brownstain, and we're going to play some saxophone music for you tonight.

And we get real comfortable. Here's my first song. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha Brownstein. I'm going to lay it down real for you, real smooth. Here we go. Buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh. The other name that he tried for it later was Rocky Mountain Model Teeth, but it never caught on the way that Colorado Brownstein persisted, as you can imagine. And he tried to get national attention for this, but everybody was like, listen, if there was a disease, like if everybody's teeth were turning brown,

we'd know about it all over the US. So this is not something that's real. It's like in a few people. And so he said, well, you know what? I'm gonna do a study with local Dennis to try to prove that this is a problem around here. So he started this kind of just like survey with local dentists.

Like what is the scope of this illness? And at the end of it, he found that 90% of the kids born in Colorado Springs had brown teeth. Okay. Like that's a lot of kids with brown teeth. Okay. Like that's a lot of kids. Yeah, with brown teeth. And so he published these results, like listen, maybe not all the adults have brown teeth, but we've been studying and now all these kids

who are born in Colorado Springs are growing up. They get rid of their baby teeth, they grow their permanent teeth and their brown. And it's 90% of them and what's going on. And he used the statistic to lure a luminary of the dentistry world to Colorado Springs. Of course you know I'm talking about green, vitamin, black, GV, black.

Obviously, everybody's heard. Sorry, one more time of GV, black. What's the name? Green, vitamin, black. Okay, that's the name? Green, Vardeman, Black. Okay, that's good. That is his given... No, a series of unfortunate events books, right? LAUGHTER

He was... You're not a dentist. If you were... Guilty. If you were, you would know this name, because he is just... He is a giant in the dentistry world. He invented one of the first drills.

I mean, he was, he was really one of the fathers of modern dentistry. This guy devoted his entire life and career to dentistry. So to, for Dr. McKay, to get Dr. Black, Dr. GV Black, to come out to Colorado Springs and look at these kids with brown teeth was a huge deal. Trust me. I'm not sure a huge deal. Trust me. I'm not sure you were from. Trust me. I'm not a dentist, but I know that this was a big deal because he was a big deal,

dentist and researcher. So he comes out and initially, like, he had invited him before. This wasn't the first invitation, but he was like, I'm not coming to Colorado Springs. I'm kind of a big deal. I don't know if you've heard of me. I'm G.V. Black. Someday Sydney's gonna say I'm a big deal and Justin's gonna be like, whatever, but it's true.

But finally he came out because he was like 90% of kids at Brown Teeth. Well, okay, I could do something with this. So he came out and they started studying the problem together and they had a lot of trouble trying to figure out why. I mean, they figured that this was a problem. A lot of people in Colorado Springs have brown teeth,

mostly children, and they had zero clue as to why. And they studied that until Blacks Death in 1915, which didn't give them an answer, but they did come up with a couple really important observations during this time period. So number one, the first was that it mainly seemed to happen to young children, people who were born there who had not yet developed their permanent teeth.

So if you moved to the area, you were much less likely to develop it, but if you grew up in Colorado Springs, it seemed to be something so inborn or something like that, something with your developmental process. The second thing they noticed is that whatever made these teeth brown also seemed to make them resistant to decay.

Okay. So they looked bad. It was like armor. Right. So they looked bad. He's like armor. Right. So they looked bad, but they were actually. It felt great. They were actually super healthy teeth. And they kept noticing that like these kids would have teeth

that were really jacked up. But then they would, they would, you know, examine them and go, I got no cavities. Amazing. So whatever is making their teeth so brown seems to be making them healthier. It's quite a deal with the devil, though, if you think about it, like no cavities, but there's this one thing.

It looks like you just willy-wankered it out all of your tea all the time. Yeah, a goose just gloop tea. It's called the Augustus glute disorder. All of your teeth all the time. So McKay had some theories as to what could be causing it, but nothing concrete. In 1923, there was a case in Oakley, Idaho that really helped him break through. So the town contacted him because they knew the studies he had already done in Colorado

Springs and they said, listen, we have kids that have started developing these same brown stains that the kids in Colorado Springs had. And we don't know why. And so he went there to Oakley Idaho and he started studying. And you know, he was like, you mean Colorado brown stain? I'm actually not going to say that out loud, but yes, but I'm not going to just say it once. I'm actually not going to say that out loud, but yes, but I'm not going to just say it once. I'm actually not going to say it. So he went to Idaho and he studied the kids and he couldn't find

anything, but then they said, you know, when this all started, is when we built a new communal water pipe. We, you know, we needed clean water into the community. And so we built this big pipe system from one of the local hot springs, and it pumped water into the community. And ever since we did that, the kids born into the community have developed these stains.

And he said, well, listen, I tested your water with the means he had at hand. He couldn't find anything wrong with the water, but he went, you know what, you should probably stop using this water. I don't know what it is, but this is the source. And they said, okay, fine. So they stopped using this pipe,

they went back to old methods of water. Over time, no more kids. No more kids are born with Colorado brown stain. Okay. So this is the first clue where whatever the problem is, it's in the water. So now we know this. He had suspected it, but now he knows for sure it's in the water.

And at the same time, as you see with these kinds of research studies, this research is being done in the US. Everybody's really excited about it. Everybody's really interested. And at the same time, you could echo studies are being done in the UK, studies are being done in Italy that kind of show the same results.

Like there's something in the water. We don't know what it is. And we finally figured it out when it happened again in a place called Boxite Arkansas. So a whole lot of name. Boxite. Boxite. Boxite Arkansas is a town that was essentially owned by the aluminum company of America.

Oh my God, if I were to say aluminum naughty, I was so excited. Dang it. No, I'm sorry. I was had one second. I was like, oh, is she gonna, are we gonna go... Oh... I'll limit them. Fine. Not that exciting.

And there's one person who's in the Illuminati in the crowd tonight who's about to be like, that's my boy! I'm on to you, by the way. I saw you with the fist rays. I got you a number. The Illuminati do play a role in this story, but not yet. Are you kidding me? Go faster.

These people got to get home, and I got to hear about the Illuminati. The medicines, the medicines, that ask you lift my car before the mouth. So, Boxide Arconsauts is tiny little town. It's mainly owned by this aluminum company that's where they produce and whatever process aluminum in their giant factories. And they had recently been under a lot of scrutiny for suspected problems in the water and the

soil from aluminum. There have been a lot of questions in the media recently from what does having this giant aluminum factory due to the health of the townsfolk. So now in this same town where we have all these concerns about aluminum, all the sudden we have these brown stains on kids' teeth. So as you can imagine, there was a lot of attention,

a lot of doctors and public health service officers and media attention focused on this town is at the aluminum. That was the big question. So first of all, Dr. McKay shows up, a public health service officer named Grover Kemp go and they investigate. They analyze the water and

using their tools, they again, they can't find a source. But they're not using the best ways of analyzing water at the time. They're looking for very obvious bacterial infections or toxins, but they don't have all the ways that we do now of analyzing water. Well, guess who does the aluminum company of America? They have these resources. Oh, man. You got me again. I thought for sure that time. No, not the aluminum naughty.

No, who does have water testing that would put on that decision? So they do this, they do this purely to cover their butts. They say, I don't know what's going on, but I sure hope it's not aluminum. We got to test this water and figure out if it's our fault so that we can do some damage control. And they start testing the water

and what they find with their more sophisticated equipment is that the water in box site has incredibly high levels of fluoride. Mm-hmm, there he is. Not aluminum. Oh, it took us 25 minutes, we got that culprit. At the time, they thought, well well this doesn't make any sense. Floraid means nothing. This can't have anything to do with it. So they get new samples.

They reanalyze it. And again, these are chemists. Yes, they work for the aluminum company, but they're chemists. They're scientists. You know, I'm a scientist. Like we're in nerdy, we just want to know the truth. I want to figure it out. And like they're like, well, this is fascinating. Floraid and the water, what got this main? And so they do it again. And they're like, well this is fascinating. This is fluoride and the water, work out this main. And so they do it again and they're like, more fluoride, this is fascinating. And so, you can't see the difference in this podcast later, but Sydney is hilariously tweaking her glasses.

I should say, this is adorable, but. This is what scientists do when they're excited. They're straining their glasses. So they find all this fluoride and the chief chemist at the aluminum company of America writes a letter to Dr. McKayin says, listen, I don't know what this means. I don't know why it would have any effect, but here's the deal.

You're worried about these brown teeth. We analyze the water. This is what we found. And if you want to get water samples from the other communities that have brown teeth We will analyze it in our lab and look for the same thing we found here And he says yes, I want to do that. They send samples from Colorado Springs They send samples from Oakley Idaho. They there are other communities where we've had this brown teeth

They send all these samples to the lab and they find high levels of fluoride. Mm-hmm. So there you go. Fluoride is named as the cause of all these brown teeth. Now this could be the end of the story because now we know. This is raising some obvious questions for me, but go on. So and this leads this this takes us all the way to 1930. We're in 1930 now, and the National Institute of Health has gotten wind of all these results,

and they're fascinated by this, and they go, oh my gosh, well, fluoride and water can do these things to tooth and amul, cause modeled tooth and amul that can absorb brown stains more easily, and this is very interesting. But, you know what also was really interesting interesting is that it also seemed like all these people with the brown teeth didn't get tooth decay at the rate of all of our other citizens. It was a huge problem at the time, people with tooth decay.

Everybody's teeth were rotting out of their heads, and so they said, you know what, this is really interesting because I don't know, this fluoride in the water, while it turned their teeth brown, they also seemed to be really healthy brown teeth. So let's start doing some studies to see how much fluoride and water will turn your teeth brown. So the National Institute of Health did a lot of studies and they found that at one part per million, your teeth are good. They're not going to turn brown for the most part.

Over that, you might get brown teeth under that, you're going to be safe. So then they start saying, you know what, so if we know that we can put up to one part per million fluoride and water and your teeth won't turn brown for the most part What will it do positively for teeth? So doctor H. Trenley Dean who was working at the National Institute of Health said you know what? Let's start studying what this might do for tooth decay. So we started putting all these different amounts of fluoride and water to see like,

could this maybe positively impact tooth decay? And this wasn't like a brand new idea. Like since the 1800s, there had been theories that like fluoride pills have something to do with bones. We don't know what teeth are, but they seem like bones. Maybe that might help them in some way. So maybe if we put fluoride in water, this might help people's teeth. So they did a hard sell in a lot of different communities.

And they finally got the community of Grand Rapids, Michigan, to agree to begin he pigs and put fluoride in their water for the first time in 1945. So that was the first time that fluoride was added to the water of an entire city. In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan. God, if that had been Columbus, open a great payoff.

Dang, okay, what's going on? No, sorry, I know it was Michigan too. You got screwing up, it's, you didn't mean it. I OK, what's going on? No, sorry. I know it was Michigan too. You guys are going to happen. I know. I'm really sorry about that. Sorry. I'm really sorry. I know.

I told you that. I know. You seem to forget I was reminding you. OK. There were guinea pigs, though. Ah, ha, ha, ha. Take that, Michigan. It could have gone horribly wrong.

It could have been. But it didn't over, over 15 years. But it could have. You guys are laughing at that you sickin' me. It's just football guys come down, okay? Yikes. We're talking about human life in the balance. It's really disturbing, going.

I mean, human teeth. Well, human teeth, but it couldn't kill them. So maybe you didn't know, I mean, they look around and much of me would bake bean teeth. And they're like, well, I don't know. Put some dirt on the floor, I don't know. Guessing. But some dirt on the floor? I don't know. Guessin'. So over 15 years, they studied the population of grain rapids,

and they found that the 30,000 school children that they followed had a rate of tooth decay, 60% less than the previous generation. This is still at the one part per million. One part per million of fluoride. This is a huge drop. So 60% drop in the rate of tooth decay. And this is meaningful.

I mean, I know, like, it sucks to have cavities. It sucks to lose teeth. But it also sucks to have cavities that you can't have the tooth pulled because you can't afford to have the tooth pulled or that get infected and you get horrible infections from these dental infections. So there are more serious consequences

to bad teeth. So it's not so big a deal is like, well, whatever, like we improve kids smiles. I mean, that's great, whatever. So, I'm really Michigan smiling. No, I mean, like this was a huge deal in terms of preventive health. Like, we did this one thing, and now we have a 60% decrease in dental decay. And so, the result of that is every community in America went wild.

And now, we have... I mean, it And now we have bananas for this good stuff. Well, everybody won a good tea. Everybody won their tea to stop falling out. So now 200 million Americans have fluoride in their drinking water. You probably have fluoride in your water. Why is it not all? Should everybody have that? It seems good.

It seems to be adopted community-back community. Yeah. But no, but I've got it though, right? We're cool. Yeah, we got it. You guys got it. Most, most major cities have it.

I always ask the question when I'm seeing patients like do you have city water or well water? Because city water generally has fluoride, well water doesn't always, but you can add it to well water. I mean, like you can add it to well water. I mean, you can have people come out and add it.

But 13 million school kids still have school-based programs where you get the fluoride rinses, which I still remember from school. The fun day, where it was like something new, but it's fluoride. There's the socks. Why is this a thing? In addition, the big shift other than water and the school programs is that like toothpaste,

right? Yeah. Yeah. So that was the biggest deal is that we said, you know what, if Lauren's so great, why don't we put it in the thing that we put directly on our teeth? That's ribbon on our teeth, yeah, for sure. That seems like it would make sense. There are other countries who have opted to add it to other things.

For instance, there are some countries where most of our water is used for washing stuff and toilets. And so we don't want to put it in the water because that seems like a waste. So they added to the salt. So you can get fluoridated salt in some countries. That's really effective when they add it to all salt, when they just add it to some, it's not as effective. And you can also find places where it's added to milk.

It's advised by the World Health Organization, water for salt second, if you can't add it to water. And it costs you on average to add fluoride to your water about a dollar per year. In some communities, it's a little more in some to little less, but on average, it costs us all about a dollar a year to decrease the rate of dental decay by about 60%. Good job, science.

Those are pretty good. Those are pretty good. That's a pretty good. And the end of this story is everybody thought was great forever and they thought this is awesome. And we love our teeth and it's very cheap. Science is great. Hurray for us. No.

It would be... It would be... It would be great if that were the end of the story because it was considered one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century, adding fluoride to water. And if that were the end of it, that would be great. But the truth is there's huge controversy. And if any of you have scanned the internet about fluoride, you already know this. Fluoride is named as one of the great big conspiracy

theories probably of our time. Now in some places they haven't added fluoride to their water, not because of these conspiracy theorists, but be here. Because they love freedom. No, because they've already added it to toothpaste or salt or whatever, and their rate of decay is so low that now that they're considering it, they just don't decide it. So there are some major developments that haven't added fluoride to their water

because they've already kind of stemmed this problem so they don't really needed at this point, at this point in time. There are places who have voted like, we don't wanna have fluoride to our water because we're independent thinkers. And we love one our teeth right out of our head and we'll go to our dentist and whatever.

We're independent thinkers the hate hard candy. And then the bigger thing is that there's a safety fear. There are a lot of people who say, well, what has all this fluoride doing to us? Well there have been exhaustive studies by the NIH and by the CDC to and the FDA to try to figure out, is there any negative impact on putting fluoride in our water? And over and over again, they say, no, no. There is fluorosis, which is the condition we talked about at the beginning of the show, which is when your teeth turn brown.

This is from excess fluoride in your water. Now, at one part per million, there is a very small fraction of the population that could get some very mild degree of fluorosis. It is a cosmetic problem. Soly, it doesn't cause pain, it doesn't cause decay, it doesn't cause any problems with your functioning of your teeth.

They still chew on pizza rolls just fine. So it doesn't do anything other than they can get some streaks on them. And even that is incredibly rare for most of us fluoride in our water protects us from dental decay period. Now, that hasn't stopped people from accusing fluoride in our water of all kinds of crazy things. If you go on the internet, you will find that fluoride is the cause of cancer, bone disease,

Alzheimer's, kidney disease, effects on enzymes, metabolism, thyroid issues, early puberty, increased allergies, hypersensitivity, fertility issues, genetic disorders, neuro disorders, Down syndrome, lead poisoning, coronary artery disease, AIDS, arthritis, ADHD, SIDS, IBS, infosima, fatigue, flatchelence, and...

Wait for it. Tooth decay. No, none of these things have ever been found to be true. In fact, you can find the American Dental Association has a 71 page document, PDF file on the internet. You can download for free to read how they refute every single one of these claims, one by one, with evidence, with studies, with research to tell you why.

No, I'm sorry. Floraid is not the reason you're farting so much. It's hard for me to pick, but I think my favorite is lead poisoning. Like, absolutely not. For sure. Like, by definition, not that. In addition, people have said that this is...

Hey, hey, hey. It's fine. This meat floor right. This is my friend, hey, hey, it's fine. It's me, Floorite. It's my friend, I, it's my friend, lead. He's with me. Come on in, lead. It's fine. Let it's much of him. It is, he what?

It's fine. He don't need to process him. Get me, liver. Liver. Right, liver? What? What process is toxins? Both.

BOOM. What's up, Slim? Good body. I guess I know all the parts in the body, y'all. Hmm. Student has become the master. Also, blood is in there, for sure. In addition, you will find whole books written about how fluoride

is either a Nazi plot to take over the US, or a Nazi plot to take over the US or a communist plot to take over the US or maybe a new world order plot or perhaps an illuminati plot. There we are. Based on the idea that fluoride in our water makes us, idea that fluoride in our water makes us, quote, stupid and docile, and that fluoridation caused slight damage to specific parts of the brain, making it more difficult for the person affected to defend his freedom and causing the individual to become more docile towards authority.

Their books are on this. I know. I mean, I know. Some's going on, right? Like, I know it's probably not Florida. Something's going on though. It might be Florida. Something. I think they've got a point about

something's going on for sure. It just may not be Florida's what I'm saying, maybe. Listen, I'm not saying everything's okay in the US right now. That's not what I'm saying. What's going on for sure? It may be fluoride. I don't remember before fluoride, but I've met a lot of people since fluoride.

I'm not saying everything's okay. I'm just saying. Are you for dope though? For sure. You cannot pick a one. Yeah, exactly. Are teeth are fresh. Whatever's going on in the United States right now,

I'm going to fluoride, okay? Yeah. That's not the problem. Keeping your teeth from decay, it's probably not turning them brown for the most part. There are a few people who are going to get fluorosis and I'm sorry in advance. your teeth from decay, it's probably not turning them brown for the most part. There are a few people who are going to get flurosis and I'm sorry in advance, but your teeth are going to be so healthy.

Yeah, that's super hard like steel. Brown, and with teeth brown is the new white, it's okay, so. Yeah. It's totally cool. So and it's all thanks to Columbus if If you think about it, because the first thing about it, nobody even thought of filtering water before you guys. That's amazing. Definitely not Michigan.

Before we leave, I want to say a huge thank you to William and everybody from the Columbus podcast festival for getting us out here. Thank you to William and everybody from the Columbus Podcast Festival for getting us out here. Thank you guys. I want to thank Dave Thomas for opening the first Wendy's. I want to thank Columbus for having us in the city. For having us. For in, you told me that in 2013,

they were named the most intelligent city. Yeah, do you all know that? Oh, wait, right. There it is. You guys just want to intelligent, intelligent, intelligent, you're like, what? I'm sure.

I'm sure he get a lot. That sounds great. Yeah, for sure, you know how to scroll high, oh, do not even trip. Oh, I know. Oh, Ohio. Do not even trip. Oh, I know. Oh, what's he said? Was that Shelby guy saying, oh, H?

I know that. Oh, shoo. That's a little intoxicating. Anyway, thank you. No, you can't do it only. I can't. Stay in your lane. You live here all the time. I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, I can only, my brother me, the adventure zone, and many others.

So thank you to still offering court appointed for doing such great shows. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Stop.

You don't know. It really messed me up for the entire week. I'll be impossible to live with. I'm Sydney Smirl McElroy. Yeah. Whatever. Whatever. And it's always don't drill a hole in your head. Whatever, whatever.

And it's always don't drill a hole in your head. I quit. Alright! Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture Artistone Listener Supported Thank you.