Fluoride vs melatonin 🥊

The far-reaching consequences of Fluoride's inhibition of melatonin synthesis.

Hi,

There's a lot of propaganda going around the web lately about Fluoride (F) in water supplies and dental treatments. The conversations vary wildly in both accuracy and accusations, but one thing is sure:

I have yet to see any of the more recent studies about the link between F and the melatonin cycle come up in a single one of these online conversations.

By it’s interference with melatonin, F interferes with sleep, circadian rhythms, adenohypophysical hormones, mitochondrial metabolism, free radical scavenging, oncostatic agent, GI physiology, the immune system, and more.

What does F have to do with melatonin?

Since circadian rhythmicity is our topic here, I thought I would share some recent findings about how F plays into this through it’s inhibition of melatonin synthesis. Melatonin is one of the most important circadian hormones.

In case you don’t read any further, the basic understanding we now have is that F inhibits melatonin synthesis in different ways over the short and long term. Since melatonin is involved in many major biological processes, this can cause an amazingly diverse set of downstream health consequences depending on the other lifestyle and (epi)genetic weaknesses a person may have.

F and wellbeing research examples

The link between F and Dementia:

Higher levels of aluminium and fluoride were related to dementia risk in a population of men and women who consumed relatively low drinking-water levels of both... fluorine can increase aluminium absorption from drinking water because aluminium fluoride has greater bioavailability.

Source: Aluminium and fluoride in drinking water in relation to later dementia risk (2019)

The link between F and Autism Spectrum Disorder:

Fluoride induces symptoms which are observed in people with ASD, such as mitochondrial dysfunction and impairment of energy metabolism, oxidative stress and inflammation, immunoexcitotoxicity, and decreased melatonin levels.

Source: Chronic Fluoride Exposure and the Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder (2019)

The link between F-induced pineal calcification and sleep trouble:

Interestingly, greater degree of pineal calcification among older adolescents and/or adults is associated with decreased melatonin production, lower REM sleep percentage, decreased total sleep time, poorer sleep efficiency, greater sleep disturbances and greater daytime tiredness.

Source: Fluoride exposure and sleep patterns among older adolescents in the United States: a cross-sectional study of NHANES 2015–2016 (2019)

What does all this F and melatonin talk really mean?

These F studies point to the ever-more-certain relationship between melatonin and mental health. (And therefore, between F and mental health.)

Without darkness, serotonin can’t be converted to melatonin. But even in darkness, if F is present, that process still can’t complete.

This leads me to wonder:

Could long-term avoidance of water fluoridation and fluoride treatments be key to ameliorating melatonin synthesis, and thus, mental wellbeing?

More on this in my post:

What do you think? Login to join the conversation in the comments: