Green Tea, Fluoride Reduce Thyroid Function By As Much As 50%

haidut

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Ray has written that green tea is also quite estrogenic, so I am not surprised to see this effect. Fluoride is apparently also a well-known thyroid inhibitor as stated by the scientists. If this is well known then why do we have fluoride in the tap water?!?
Also, caffeine, as expected, did not have detrimental effect on thyroid function.

http://suppversity.blogspot.com/2015/06 ... n-tea.html

"...As you can see in Figure 1, there was the expected significant decrease in serum T3 and T4 in the PTU treated group (T3 = 0.72±0.03). Similar, albeit less pronounced decreases were seen in the green tea (T3 = 0.96±0.04) and the fluoride (T3 = 0.93±0.04), but not in the caffeine group where only the T3 levels were significantly suppressed (T3 = 1.46±0.08) in comparison to the control group (T3 = 1.71±0.05)."

"...What we do know, at least, is that EGCG interacts with thyroid hormones. Kato et al. (2011), for example, found that it inhibits the effects of thyroid hormones on bone cells. In view of the fact that many studies which have observed ill effects of green tea catechins on the thyroid all used regular extracts which may contain both caffeine and fluoride (Sakamoto. 2001, we cannot tell whether EGCG, EC, ECG & co will have a negative effect on your thyroid health if they come in caffeine- + fluoride-free form. Luckily, Chandra et al (2010) must have foreseen this problem in their 2010 study in which they found that purified green tea catechins (no caffeine, no fluoride | C in Figure 2) have even more pronounced anti-thyroid effects than green tea extracts. The independent anti-thyroid effects of green tea catechins would also exlpain why previous studies show that the effect is sign. less pronounced for black tea extracts (Chandra. 2011)."


So, green tea and fluoride had similar effect to PTU - a known thyroid toxin used to "treat" hyperthyroidism. It looks like it's the green tea catechins specifically that are to blame as black tea was not nearly as damaging to the thyroid.
 

jyb

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I wonder about populations drinking very high amounts of green tea like Mate in South America. Do they adapt (better at filtering the toxin) or are they constantly hypothyroid? Those teas don't necessarily have high fluoride in comparison to other (green) teas, it depends on the source. But they'd still have the other things...
 
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haidut

haidut

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jyb said:
I wonder about populations drinking very high amounts of green tea like Mate in South America. Do they adapt (better at filtering the toxin) or are they constantly hypothyroid? Those teas don't necessarily have high fluoride in comparison to other (green) teas, it depends on the source. But they'd still have the other things...

Is Mate a green tea? I was under the impression that it is a black/red tea. Also, the fluoride was given as a separate test to compare how inhibiting green tea is compared to known inhibitors like PTU and fluoride. As far as I know there is no fluoride in green tea beyond trace amounts.
 

narouz

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haidut said:
Fluoride is apparently also a well-known thyroid inhibitor as stated by the scientists. If this is well known then why do we have fluoride in the tap water?!?

No kidding.
How stupid crap like fluoridation gets starts and keeps going...
sheesh! :?:
 

pboy

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I suspect any kind oh polyphenols /tannins are the same...that's why I think the whole thing about herbalism, while really cool and intricate...ultimately, isn't ideal. Basically they try to balance something by poisoning something else to counter balance it, and it never ends. Vegetables, leaves, most planty material is the same, other than very light things like iceberg lettuce or maybe some tender just budding flowers or shoots. All the stuff like circumin, EGCG, resveratrol, you name it..the whole gambit of natural herbal or 'antioxidant' things...seem to all be poisons in the end, to the liver if nothing else...or a burden, which then lowers thyroid. Certain things like mate, tea, cacao...well cacao is a lil different, cocoa ill say, mimick overcoming their toxic effect because of the dopamine increase and caffeine, theobromine but its always an erratic unstable energy, not the worst thing, but not pleasant either. I agree with Peat when he said to the degree the polyphenol is an 'antioxidant' is to the degree of its estrogenic activity. There are some substances like that that can have benefits over time if used on a fundamental personality outlook level, but you want to end up not needing them because they all irritate the intestine
 

jyb

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haidut said:
Is Mate a green tea? I was under the impression that it is a black/red tea. Also, the fluoride was given as a separate test to compare how inhibiting green tea is compared to known inhibitors like PTU and fluoride. As far as I know there is no fluoride in green tea beyond trace amounts.

Well, it looks very green to me, the dry leaves, the tea colour and the taste. I have a sample at home. From studies I read fluoride can be just as high in green tea as in black tea. I'm not sure why green tea has a better reputation for this.

So my question remains...some populations drink absurd amounts of Mate by tradition, are they constantly hypothyroid or are there protective factors?
 

Sheik

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Maybe I'm not understanding, but T3 levels were suppressed by caffeine?
 
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haidut

haidut

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jyb said:
haidut said:
Is Mate a green tea? I was under the impression that it is a black/red tea. Also, the fluoride was given as a separate test to compare how inhibiting green tea is compared to known inhibitors like PTU and fluoride. As far as I know there is no fluoride in green tea beyond trace amounts.

Well, it looks very green to me, the dry leaves, the tea colour and the taste. I have a sample at home. From studies I read fluoride can be just as high in green tea as in black tea. I'm not sure why green tea has a better reputation for this.

So my question remains...some populations drink absurd amounts of Mate by tradition, are they constantly hypothyroid or are there protective factors?

I am not an expert on Mate but it looks like it is not even related to Camelia Sinensis (the tea shrub).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_%28beverage%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly

So, I don't think we can compare Mate drinkers to green tea drinkers, especially considering that Mate has a lot more caffeine than green tea. I think it's comparable to espresso in terms of caffeine content.
 

BobbyDukes

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The only way tap water gets into my body is through showering, and through my coffee drinking.

I guess I have been quite lazy in trying to find an alternative to tap water for the coffee. I went through a phase of trying to use boiled coconut water for my coffee instead, but the taste was beyond foul.

If any UK Peaters have a good source for water, hit me up. Or, if anybody has any other ideas?
 

jyb

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BobbyDukes said:
The only way tap water gets into my body is through showering, and through my coffee drinking.

I guess I have been quite lazy in trying to find an alternative to tap water for the coffee. I went through a phase of trying to use boiled coconut water for my coffee instead, but the taste was beyond foul.

If any UK Peaters have a good source for water, hit me up. Or, if anybody has any other ideas?

You are in the UK, why do you assume your tap water has fluoride? This is not as prevalent as the US...
 

paymanz

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BobbyDukes said:
The only way tap water gets into my body is through showering, and through my coffee drinking.

I guess I have been quite lazy in trying to find an alternative to tap water for the coffee. I went through a phase of trying to use boiled coconut water for my coffee instead, but the taste was beyond foul.

If any UK Peaters have a good source for water, hit me up. Or, if anybody has any other ideas?
use a reverse osmmosis purifying system?
 

jyb

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haidut said:
I am not an expert on Mate but it looks like it is not even related to Camelia Sinensis (the tea shrub).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_%28beverage%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly

So, I don't think we can compare Mate drinkers to green tea drinkers, especially considering that Mate has a lot more caffeine than green tea. I think it's comparable to espresso in terms of caffeine content.

Ok but I assumed Mate would have as much catechins. Otherwise, I didn't know there was a proper definition for green tea. I just notice that based on taste and colour, Mate seems like green tea - not white and not black.

It is true that the beverage has more caffeine content, although I always assumed this was due to using more leaves. When you brew a Mate, you use like 10 times the volume of a standard tea bag so I would expect caffeine to be higher. Although the water used is not boiling, so less caffeine would be extracted.
 

mas

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mas said:
TOP 10 WAYS TO REDUCE FLUORIDE EXPOSURE
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Fluoride Action Network | August 2012 Custom Sub Meta unused meta data fields Taxonomies

The following 10 tips will allow you to significantly reduce your daily exposure to fluoride.

1) Stop Drinking Fluoridated Water:
Tap water consumption is, on average, the largest daily source of fluoride exposure for people who live in areas that add fluoride to the water. Avoiding consumption of fluoridated water is especially critical for infants. If you live in area which fluoridates its water, you can avoid drinking the fluoride in one of three ways:
1 Water Filters: One way of avoiding the fluoride from tap water is to purchase a water filter. Not all water filters, however, remove fluoride. The three types of filters that can remove fluoride are reverse osmosis, deionizers (which use ion-exchange resins), and activated alumina. Each of these filters should be able to remove about 90% of the fluoride. By contrast, “activated carbon” filters (e.g., Brita & Pur) do not remove fluoride. For more information on water filters, click here. 
2 Spring Water: Another way to avoid fluoride from tap water is to purchase spring water. Most brands of spring water contain very low levels of fluoride. Some brands, however, do contain high levels (e.g., Trinity Springs). Before consuming any bottled water on a consistent basis, therefore, you should verify that the fluoride content is less than 0.2 ppm, and ideally less than 0.1 ppm. You can find out the level of fluoride level in some of the popular brands here. You can also find out the fluoride level by calling the number on the water label. (Most companies have this information readily available.)
3 Water Distillation: A third way to avoid fluoride from the tap is to purchase a distillation unit. Water distillation will remove most, if not all, of the fluoride. The price for a distillation units varies widely depending on the size. Small counter-top units cost as little as $200, while large units can exceed $1,000.
If you don’t know if your area is fluoridated, you can find out by contacting your local water department. If you live in the U.S., you can also find out by going to FAN’s State Fluoride Database.

2) Don’t Let Your Child Swallow Fluoride Toothpaste

3) Do NOT Get Fluoride Gel Treatments at the Dentist

4) Eat More Fresh Food, Less Processed Food
When water is fluoridated, it is not just the water that is fluoridated, but all beverages and foods that are made with the water. As a general rule, therefore, the more processed a food is, the more fluoride it has. The good news is that the naturally occurring levels of fluoride in most fresh water (e.g., spring water) and most fresh food (e.g., fruits, vegetables, grain, eggs, milk) is very low.

5) Buy Organic Grape Juice and Wine
In the United States, many vinyards use a fluoride pesticide called cryolite. As a result, the levels of fluoride in U.S. grape juice and wine (particularly white grape juice and white wine) are consistently elevated. Indeed, in 2005, the USDA reported that the average level of fluoride exceeded 2 ppm for both white wine and white grape. The levels of fluoride in red wine are also elevated (1 ppm), and so are raisins (2.3 ppm). If you buy grape juice and wine, or if you are a heavy consumer of raisins, buy organic. In the case of wine, if don’t want to spend the extra money on organic, consider purchasing a European brand, as Europe uses far less cryolite than the U.S.

6) Reduce Your Black & Green Tea Consumption (and/or Drink Tea with Younger Leaves)
Be careful of drinking too much tea, particularly bottled and instant varieties. The tea plant accumulates high levels of fluoride, and excess intake of tea is known to cause a painful bone disease called skeletal fluorosis.

Some teas, however, contain high levels of health-boosting anti-oxidants, which are not only good for health in general, but help to protect against fluoride toxicity.
In the ideal scenario, one could drink tea with high levels of anti-oxidants but low levels of fluoride. Recent research suggests that this might be a somewhat obtainable goal. It has recently been shown that the anti-oxidant levels in tea are far higher in young leaves than old leaves. This is important because young leaves also happen to have lower levels of fluoride. Indeed, it has been proposed that the fluoride content of tea is an indicator of its quality: the higher the fluoride, the lower the quality, and vice versa.

If you love tea, therefore, try to purchase varieties that are made from young leaves (e.g., “White tea”). This will allow you to maximize tea’s known benefits, while reducing its known harm. Towards this end, avoid bottled and instant teas as they have been found to contain low-quality leaves that have very low levels of anti-oxidants. With bottled and instant tea, you get the risk (fluoride) without the benefit (anti-oxidants).

7) Avoid Cooking with Non-Stick (Teflon) Pans
Some research has found that cooking with Teflon-coated pans (i.e., stick-free pans) can significantly increase the fluoride content of food. If you have Teflon pans, therefore, consider switching to stainless steel.

8) Don’t Take Cipro and Be Mindful of Other Fluorinated Pharmaceuticals
Many pharmaceuticals are fluorinated. The most notable example is Cipro. Other fluorinated chemicals that are currently known to break down into fluoride include fluorinated anesthetics (Isoflurane & Sevoflurane), Niflumic acid, Flecainide, and Voriconazole. If you are taking any of these drugs, find out if there are any safer alternatives available.

9) Minimize Consumption of Mechanically-Deboned Chicken

10) Avoid Fluoridated Salt

http://fluoridealert.org/content/top_ten/

_______________________________

I no longer buy domestic US wine because of the high fluoride and arsenic levels allowed in these products. I used to drink grape juice but I no longer buy that also.
 

burtlancast

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Black tea is green tea leaves left to age on the plant and accumulating more fluoride.
Here's a fairly well know article about black tea having the most fluoride:

Tea leaves accumulate more fluoride (from pollution of soil and air) than any other edible plant (1,2,3). Fluoride content in tea has risen dramatically over the last 20 years, as has tea consumption (4).

While in 1976 a Belgian analysis showed content of between 50 and 125 ppm fluoride in 15 varieties of tea (3), a Polish study in 1995 found fluoride content of up to 340 ppm in 16 varieties of black tea (5). A major Canadian study published in 1995 reports average fluoride content in tea to be 4.57 mg/l in the 1980's (6).

A website by a pro-fluoridation infant medical group lists a cup of black tea to contain 7.8 mgs of fluoride (7), which is roughly the same amount as if one were to drink 7.8 litres of water in an area fluoridated at 1ppm. It is well known that fluoride in tea gets absorbed by the body similarly as the fluoride in drinking water (1,8).
http://poisonfluoride.com/pfpc/html/green_tea___.html

Also,...
In addition, the caffeine in tea has a great augmentative effect on the bio-availability of fluoride. In 1990 researchers at the University of Texas even theorized that "the rise in incidence of dental fluorosis in North America is mainly due to the replacement of water intake by caffeine-containing beverages among the young population" (46). In 1990 German researchers wrote that "continuous intake of black tea rich in fluorides leads to distinct increase of fluoride content of temporary teeth. This is to consider analogous a caries prophylaxis.” (47)


And as far as avoiding fluoride, remember that even if you manage all the steps detailed above, fluoride accumulates up the food chain in the meat of animals, the flesh of fruits, etc...

You will always end up with more fluoride if you live in America, or Australia, New zaeland,...
 

BobbyDukes

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jyb said:
BobbyDukes said:
The only way tap water gets into my body is through showering, and through my coffee drinking.

I guess I have been quite lazy in trying to find an alternative to tap water for the coffee. I went through a phase of trying to use boiled coconut water for my coffee instead, but the taste was beyond foul.

If any UK Peaters have a good source for water, hit me up. Or, if anybody has any other ideas?

You are in the UK, why do you assume your tap water has fluoride? This is not as prevalent as the US...

Hmmm. Not sure. I guess I have always assumed that the UK has as much fluoride as the US in its tap water. Why I have made that assumption is confusing, even to me. It would be brilliant if the tap water wasn't as bad as I'd originally thought. I should look into this really.
 

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