We live in a time of information overload. A significant portion of that information overload tells us exactly what is going to kill us and why. It’s often conflicting information. Coffee will kill you and save your life. Fat will kill you and save your life. Eat more of this and less of that except someone else says exactly the opposite. It’s easy to start doubting everything you hear and read because it must all be hype and hot air. That was how I felt about fluoride until I had a very powerful experience with it.

Serious Fluoride Side Effects

Long story short, I had a less than stellar dental appointment a while back. I know what caused it. I was sucking on throat drops because of my EoE and it definitely did a number on a few of my teeth. My dentist wanted me to use a high fluoride toothpaste and gave me a prescription. I put it off and put it off because I hate trying new things since my body seems to like to react to everything.

I finally started using it. I think I used it about a week or two. I had to brush with it for two minutes and leave it in twice a day (no rinsing). Once had to be at bedtime so it would have extra time to work. Since I didn’t have any immediate reactions to it, I didn’t think much of it.

A few weeks later I became incredibly ill. I could barely get out of bed. I mean I literally could barely get out of bed and I can count on probably both hands the number of times in my entire life I did not get out of bed because I was ill. I had a lengthy list of crazy mostly new-to-me symptoms, but I knew I wasn’t sick. It wasn’t viral or bacterial. It was different. I felt terrible, but I knew I wasn’t sick.

Since my diet was pretty limited at that point, I knew it wasn’t a dietary change. And I knew I wasn’t sick.

Then I remembered the fluoride toothpaste.

Understanding the Dangers of Fluoride and Other Poisons

I started looking online and sure enough. The fluoride was killing me. Okay, I don’t know if it was literally killing me, but wowza.

Could toothpaste with lots of fluoride make me that ill that quickly? Yes, it was in all likelihood impacting my thyroid which was throwing my entire body into chaos.

I stopped using the toothpaste, all of the symptoms went away fairly soon after that, and they’ve never occurred again since.

This experience forever changed my mind about how I view the “harmless” things that go in my body.

When the dentist asked if we wanted Caroline to receive a fluoride treatment, I said absolutely not.

Because of my EoE, over the past couple of years I’ve had to learn to read how my body responds to everything. I’ve kept a food diary at times so I can document reactions to foods. I’ve discovered that both gluten and soy have a negative impact on my body. If I am right that I am reacting to them, they are literally poison to my body.

Most people don’t take the time to figure out what is poisoning them. The process is slow and oftentimes our bodies are so overwhelmed by so many things we don’t even realize it until we remove them and then attempt to add them back in.

There is no one sure answer for everyone. I’m sure some people use that high fluoride toothpaste with no (discernible) issues. But I’ve realized that even though it’s a pain to sort through all the information overload out there, sometimes our health truly does depend on it.