DEAD WATER |
On this page I describe things, which I do in order to minimize my exposure to fluorides to an absolute minimum possible.
It is written not as a set of rules I follow, but more like a process through which I arrived at this set of rules.
I believe it is more readable this way.
The language I use may appear harsh on occasion, but the matter is simply too serious to give the opposing side any breathing room.
When someone is trying to harm you, then he is waging a war against you.
There is no other word for it!
This war may be covered with smiles and declared intentions, but it is still a war, where you and your loved ones can sustain serious losses, not excluding a very serious damage to health and even a loss of life.
In any hostile encounter we are entitled to protect ourselves.
It may be time-consuming, it may even look ridiculous to those who live in blissful ignorance, but it is something we have to learn to do in order to survive this racket with minimal losses.
The most important element in my strategy is, of course, education.
There is plenty of information on the Internet and I take time to find it and to read it.
Obviously, that leaves less time for other things, but stuff like ball games and celebrity gossip is dead last on my list of priorities, together with fairy-tale movies and other Hollywood trash.
TV and other mass-media "sources" are in the same category.
As a matter of fact, I do not even have a TV set in my home!
The idea that someone would be selecting news for me to absorb, not to mention watching or listening to some talking head reading it, is utterly preposterous!
I do it myself and there is only one source for my news - Internet.
I first found out about the realities of fluoridation while still in Russia, I was told that the drinking water has lots of it.
It was after I graduated from university and moved to a small town some 20 miles south of Moscow.
At that time my top priority was to engineer an escape from that terrible country, I simply did not have time for anything else, even though I heard enough horror stories about the effects of fluorides and even had a look at the teeth of some coworkers.
I do not remember hearing any propaganda about the benefits of fluorides while in Russia, it is quite possible there was enough of it; at that time my mind was preoccupied with the more important things.
But when I came to Canada, the claims of fluoridation proponents, that fluoride is beneficial in trace amounts, had reached me rather fast.
However, in those days I simply did not have enough knowledge which would have allowed me to look with a critical eye at those claims.
Soon after my arrival to Canada, I had a sobering encounter with the realities of fluoridation - I had two of my intact teeth drilled out by two different dentists.
It turned out those teeth were showing signs of fluorosis, as they told me.
I do not know if those dentists acted in accordance with the procedure guidelines of the College of Dentistry, but whatever was the case, I've got two fillings on teeth, which, even though were showing signs of mottling, were nevertheless physically intact.
I never heard the term "fluorosis" before, but I decided that I have to find out what it is, and to do it fast.
The book by Phoebe Courtney How dangerous is fluoridation had opened my eyes on that racket.
After that I started buying bottled water.
However, soon after I started doing that, I found out that some companies bottle ordinary tap water, which underwent the most rudimentary filtration.
As I found out later, at least one company does not even hide this fact, even though they emphasize that they employ a very "thorough" filtration process.
In my attempts to clarify this issue, I contacted several of them, but received only one reply, they sent me a flyer, where it was clearly stated that their water is from the unpolluted waterbed in the north.
I then started buying that brand.
Overall, I believe that even the bottled water has to be treated with "suspicion".
At one time I was buying certain brand of spring water, which I knew for sure was from an unpolluted acquifer some hundred miles north of Toronto.
I was buying that water for a while, but it was rather expensive, as it was only available in small bottles.
It was definitely not meant for cooking.
Then that brand was bought over by a large company, they changed the label, and you could see a different locality mentioned on it, an area west of Toronto, extending south into one of the most industrialized areas in Canada.
There was no mention on the label regarding the source of the water, it only mentioned the place where it was bottled.
As everybody knows, you should never miss an opportunity for promotion!
And if that water was taken from an unpolluted acquifer, away from industrial and farming areas, it would have been stated in big letters on the label!
And if it was indeed taken from an unpolluted acquifer, then their marketing department is not doing its job.
The label of this new bottle also mentions presence of fluorides:
I do not see how that statement could be truthful!
Fluoride ion is so aggressive that it binds with practically everything!
Natural spring water always contains certain quantities of calcium hydrocarbonate, but fluoride and calcium ions bind together, forming a compound, which is practically insoluble.
Any fluoride ions from calcium fluoride would be quickly "overwhelmed" and neutralized by the presence of calcium ions from other sources.
If a label says there are fluoride ions in water, this is likely to mean one thing - fluorides were being added till all available calcium ions have been bound.
Only those fluorides added on top of what it takes to neutralize calcium would start appearing in ionized form.
Obviously, I was not going to pay money for that kind of water!
And even though it is quite obvious, let me spell it out again:
to fluoridate water in areas with high calcium content, enough fluorides would have to be added in order to overwhelm the naturally occurring calcium and to have the fluoride appear in ionized state.
All that calcium fluoride, which is generated in a process ends up in pipes, as there is no way it could be filtered out at those concentrations and those volumes.
As I was educating myself about fluoridation issues, I read that first-aid help for fluoride poisoning is intravenous infusion of a soluble calcium salt.
If poisoning occurred as a result of ingestion, then a stomach wash with a solution of calcium salt should also be performed.
After the victim has been stabilized, he should be given calcium pills, usually calcium gluconate.
Fluoride ion has a great affinity to calcium, thus forming a virtually insoluble compound.
This is the reason of its toxicity to the living organisms, as those rely on a supply of ionized calcium in blood plasma for many biochemical processes.
And, obviously, the same property can be used to neutralize those fluorides by making it to come in contact with calcium before you ingest it.
So if we take a soluble calcium salt and add it to water or any other beverage, which can be suspected to contain fluoride, then calcium and fluoride would bind together, and fluoride would no longer be present in ionized form, provided, of course, enough calcium had been added to "overwhelm" fluorides.
I then did some reading about industrial wastewater treatment and there was a method described, whereby fluoride content is neutralized by adding calcium chloride, which is soluble.
It is widely available and it is cheap, it is even used to de-ice roads.
Since I could not be sure that industrial-grade salt would be clean enough to use in food preparation, I decided to make soluble calcium salt from eggshells and vinegar.
I think the name to that is "calcium acetate", it is derived from "acetic acid", which is a chemical name of a pure vinegar.
I call it "eggshell cocktail".
Since there are some "technical issues" in this process, it is presented on a separate page:
Neutralizing fluorides
I was also looking for information about foods, from which one may end up ingesting fluorides.
It turned out that, in addition to fluoridated water, one can get it from reconstituted juices, beer, wine, canned products.
Fluorides can also be added to the table salt. As a matter of fact, some salt brands in Europe are fluoridated.
As I did some more reading, I found out that a "running agent" or a "runner" is added to the table salt to make it pour smoothly.
I then figured that the only cost-effective way to add fluorides to salt would be to do it in the "dry form".
Dissolving it, adding fluorides and then drying it would simply be too much trouble.
Consumers would probably have to pay an order of magnitude more for such salt in order for the manufacturers to make a profit.
But if fluorides are added to the dry salt, then they have to be mixed very well to reduce the risk of uneven distribution and a very likely poisoning of the people who would be unfortunate enough to buy the batch from that portion of a "mixer", where fluoride happened to be in a higher concentration than average.
This simply meant that I should stay away from any salt brand which has a "running agent", as that would be the first giveaway that it was easy to mix fluorides into it.
Besides, the running agents themselves are salts of aluminum, they would not do you any good either.
Natural salt is either clumpy or it consists of small "rocks".
I found one brand of a sea salt from Italy, which was clumpy, and started buying it.
I also kept a supply of pickling salt, just in case.
I knew that pickling salt has no runner agent added.
It simply would not work for the granules of that size!
But even then, to be absolutely safe, I dissolve salt with water, making a concentrated solution and add soluble calcium salt to it.
When I pay a visit to someone, I always, without exception, bring my own water, as well as a little flask with "eggshell cocktail".
If the situation forces me to provide an explanation, then I give them one, just to discharge the atmosphere.
But I would rather avoid touching water or drinks at someone else's house or at some reception.
When I go to a restaurant, I, of course, do not touch the water they serve, I drink my own.
With a little bit of ingenuity it is really no big deal, no waiter would see me doing that!
Since I do not know what kind of water they serve, I treat it as contaminated or "optimally fluoridated", using the expression from dental associations' websites.
I never touch any soft drinks, juices or coffee.
It would have to be a very serious emergency for me to deviate from that rule.
The main reason I stay away from coffee is because it emulates enzymatic precursors and thus puts an extra load on body's biochemistry.
More details about disruptions in biochemistry because of coffee are available on my other site
I do not touch hard liquor either.
As for wine, my entire intake of it is a few ounces per year at New Year's celebration.
And I make sure I add some "eggshell cocktail" to it.
From what I read, all wines contain fluorides, some brands contain rather substantial amounts of it.
I do not drink beer either.
At the time of this writing three years had passed since I drank about five ounces during a company's New Year party.
That was a European brand, I selected it because I knew the drinking water in that country is not fluoridated.
Regarding wine and beer, it is not so much concern about fluorides that makes me stay away from it.
I could have been adding "eggshell cocktail" to it and be safe.
I just cannot stand a feeling of alcoholic intoxication, even small traces of it.
But if you want to eliminate a serious source of fluorides, then wine and beer are something to consider, since both have it, unless, of course beer was imported from a country or locality, which does not fluoridate its drinking water.
However, if you eliminate beer, then you would be well advised to start taking silicon supplements.
Beer contains substantial amounts of silicon, which is an essential mineral and is absolutely required for proper biochemistry.
The first visible sign of silicon deficiency is the cracking lips.
When people have to use "chapsticks", this means they have a silicon deficiency.
Since I do not drink beer, I absolutely have to rely on silicon supplementation.
When I make tea, I add some extra amount of "eggshell cocktail", I figure it would help to take care of extra fluorides, which can be there as a pesticide residue on tea leaves.
Here are two quotes from the book by Phoebe Courtney "How Dangerous is Fluoridation?"
Writing in the March 1968 issue of American Opinion magazine, David O.Woodbury stated:
"Six cups of tea daily will give you the same dose of fluoride as four glasses of New York City water. If the tea is made with New York water, you can get a double shot of fluoride.
A good meal of fish or sea food packs the same punch..."
Albert W.Burgstahler, Ph.D., writing in the quarterly of the Kansas Academy of Science in the summer of 1965, stated:
"Owing to its presence in phosphate fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals, as well as its current widespread introduction into municipal water supplies, fluoride is now found in higher concentration than before in a wide variety of food products, including canned goods, brine-cured meats, cereals, gelatin, baked goods and many types of beverages.
Thus the average daily intake of fluoride from all sources has almost certainly increased in recent years, and because of this it is difficult to estimate to what extent levels of threshold toxicity are being approached or even exceeded."
Those words were said back in the 60s. Now the situation is probably much worse!
It certainly pays to be careful!
Another potential source of fluorides comes from processed foods.
Fluorides can be present there because they were in water, which was used to prepare those foods, or they were used as a preservative.
I heard that some brands of canned fish contain a substantial amount of fluorides.
As far as staying away from processed foods, especially canned food, this is not a hard choice for me to make, since I would not buy them anyway, even if they had no fluorides.
I do not even buy bread or any kind of a pastry in stores! I bought a bread machine and I bake my own.
This way I know what is there (barring, of course, the stuff that could have been added to flour).
This may look like an overkill to some, but since we normally consume rather substantial amounts of bread, I believe it pays to be careful.
I know for a fact that some bakeries add starch to bread to make mold grow faster and thus make people buy more bread, or to make more frequent visits to a bakery, where they can be coached to buy more stuff.
Starch is not required for bread, and yet they add it! And if they add that, where is a guarantee they would not be adding something else?
In addition to those precautions I absolutely do not touch bleached flour.
But one can only know for sure what kind of flour goes into bread if he bakes that bread in house.
Once I got rather sick after eating bread from one bakery.
It was during a business trip to Montreal, where I could not buy the brands I trust.
Something was definitely added to it!
I do not even buy bleached or regular flour, I only buy whole wheat. But when I buy pastry from a bakery, I do not know what kind of a flour they were using. That alone would be enough for me not bother about commercially prepared bread. But there could well be more.
Such is a general set of rules I follow when it comes to food choices.
I realize that it may look a bit "overboard" to some, some may even find it a plain overkill, bordering on a ridiculous, but to me this is a plain survival game.
Besides, the way I look at it, why would a reasonable person waste his money on processed foods, if that same money can be used to buy a higher quality natural product - extra virgin olive oil, organic produce, exotic fruits from faraway lands!
As for my general philosophy of survival, during a war soldiers may have to eat worms and insects to survive.
As a matter of fact, special forces and military pilots go through regular survival exercises, which involve eating stuff some people might not have the nerve to even look at!
Gross as it may seem to the "uninitiated", it is better to eat insects and survive instead of having those same insects eat your dead body!
My attitude to this survival business switched into another gear after a three-year stint in hospitals as a part of my nursing education.
I have seen so much misery there, that it made me a different person!
I had several cancer patients, including a 17-year-old girl, as well as young women between the ages of 23 and 33.
The 17-year-old had malignant brain tumor.
She underwent brain surgery, I got her as a patient after that.
She was quite "functional" after that surgery, very much aware of her surroundings and her situation, you could definitely interact with her, I even took her for a walk around the nursing station, but she was walking rather unsteady and had to lean heavily on my arm.
The teacher even told me not to wash her, as that might be a bit too traumatic for such a young girl.
She also told me that prognosis is uninspiring, she was not expected to live more than five years.
It was in summer 1998.
There were also male cancer patients, but those were older. You perceive it differently.
But still, one man of about 40, a computer engineer, had a terminal cancer and, in an apparent attempt to cheer him up, the doctor said - "This is not the last Christmas you are going to see. I am pretty sure you have a very good chance of seeing the next one, as well."
That was in mid-November 1997.
One of my patients was a woman of 26 with such an advanced diabetic neuropathy that she had a large toe amputated.
The way she looked, you would never guess that she is so sick!
It is one thing to imagine the misery and suffering that exist in hospital or even see it as a casual visitor, but something entirely different to know those patients personally, to provide nursing care to them, to read their disease history, to write notes into their charts, to see and talk to their relatives.
Such things change you very profoundly.
One of the students in my intake had diabetes and had to inject insulin. She was just 23 at that time!
I do not know for how long she had it.
She no longer even cared to prepare an injection site, pushing that needle right through her clothing!
Another woman in her mid-twenties was undergoing yearly bowel resections because of a bad case of Crohn's.
Her abdomen was all cut up.
I also had a chance to observe a man of about 40 with a pretty bad case of Crohn's, even though he was not my patient.
I would have cured that condition in a week through alternative means never to have it again!
But they would not want to do that, and so they were suffering.
This kind of experience had definitely added to my determination to follow a strict set of rules in order to reduce the consumption of fluorides and other poisons to an absolute possible minimum.
The description of this strategy would be incomplete unless I mention another important factor, which forms my attitude to this whole survival business.
It is my determination not to give in to this bunch of racketeers, who are poisoning our drinking water with industrial waste!