Dr Barry Durrant-Peatfield writes
The fluoride salts used are waste products from manufacturing processes and are cheap and plentiful, and I’m very sorry to say are shoveled into the water with poor regard for measured amounts. They aim for 1 to 2 or even 3 parts per million of fluoride to water but chemical testing has shown that much higher levels than this are by no means uncommon. Many people living in fluoridated catchments areas are exposed on a daily basis to levels of fluoride toxic to other body systems as well as the thyroid. I believe the increasing incidence of hypothyroidism is a major consequence of this, and the effect on the Gq/11 proteins is closely related to the increasing incidence of autism.
Research in the USA as far back as 1944 (the Manhattan Project) showed that fluoride is a powerful central nervous system toxin. In 1995 and 1998 Dr Mullenix’s research showed that fluoride accumulates progressively in the brain tissue, notably in that part of the brain called the hippocampus. Fluoride was also found to be associated with behavioral problems further evidence has shown that fluoride acts as an enzyme poison, affecting many enzymes within the body. It was found that fluoride can be ingested at any time of life to wreak its damaging effects; but of great concern was the effect found in utero on brain development. Even very small amounts were shown to have an effect on the development of intelligence.
The Gq/11 connection
The effectiveness within the cells themselves of thyroid hormone, and we’re now talking about liothyronine (T3), in raising the metabolic activity of the cell, is governed by substances which switch the process on, or switch it off. The alpha-adrenergic receptors are one such, and the enzyme phosphodiesterase is another. But of crucial importance are the G1 proteins, of which for thyroid receptors there are four, two to switch on and two to switch off. The chief and most important switcher off is the one called Gq/11.
The object of the Gq/11 especially is to inhibit or slow down the activity if T3 in stimulating cellular metabolism. If blood thyroid hormones are low, this is picked up by the hypothalamus and it respond by producing TRH, which now is passed to the pituitary to stimulate it to produce more TSH. TSH stimulates the thyroid to produce T4 & T3, but the T3 stimulates the production of Gq/11, which reduces the activity of T3 in the cell until blood levels have normalized. This is all very well and good unless there is, for some reason, an abnormal exaggerated over-activity of Gq/11. this, it turns out can happen under influence of fluoride compounds, and silica, beryllium and aluminum; the result is that the metabolic activity of the cell is wrongly reduced.
It gets worse. Some fluoride compounds actually prevent the TRH – from the hypothalamus – binding to the pituitary cells which make TSH. Consequently, the circulating TSH drops even though (due to low thyroid levels) it should be high. This of course means the TSH blood test may be quite wrong. So we have two really awful problems to worry about. One is that the Gq/11 proteins in our modern polluted environment may overwork and shut down thyroid activity – thus reducing metabolism – and the other is that if this does happen, blood tests may not show it, especially the widely used TSH test.
Unfortunately, we cannot even leave it here. We noted that these Gq/11 proteins are over-activated by the presence of fluoride, and that fluoride can also work to reduce TSH output; but fluoride has not finished its evil work yet. Fluoride can actually displace the iodine in thyroid compounds, which means those with fluoride in their makeup don’t work, although blood tests will show no sign of this, since being halogens the chemical response is the same. And if that wasn’t enough, the conversion of T4 to T3 can also be interfered with. What happens here is that the 5’-deiodinase enzymes are targeted and reverse T3 in manufactured at the expense of normal T3, which as you will recall is biologically inactive, promoting a hypothyroid state.
We must mention again the Gq/11 connection; the G proteins switch on or switch off the activity of T3 in the cell and the manufacture of TSH. The Gq/11 connection, which switches off T3 response and TSH production, is sensitive to certain tissue poisons, most particularly fluorides, which cause it to overact in shutting down metabolism. Prozac is an especially unfortunate choice, since its molecule contains fluoride – and therefore any improvement may be at the heavy price of worsening the underlying cause. We can now see more clearly how the thyroid-adrenal axis, each function affecting the other, can cause the condition of lowered metabolic activity at all levels.