Fluoride and Media

I thought it was spelled Flouride and I thought Michael was spelled Micheal.

Hi! It has been a bit, sorry about that. I’m always saying this but it’s true! I am typing this on the computer at my retail job because it’s a rainy Wednesday and I’ve done all my relevant tasks and extraneous busy work. I’m wearing a minion bandaid on my left-hand pointer finger. It’s of Bob and whenever I look down at my fingers (occasionally as I type this) he is waving at me and I do feel a little better. I think Minions 3 is coming out this summer. I am good at mimicking their speech and cadence because I read up on the linguistics of Minionese (better known as Banana Language) when I was young. It’s not gibberish, it’s a language with patterns and rules like any other (along with exceptions to those rules). It’s a polyglot of languages spoken by first world countries, but also has a couple words unique to Minions! It is quite cool that fictional world-building can lead to an entirely new lexicon (a la Klingon).

Gyms in Chicago (any city) are expensive! At minimum $40 a month. There are Chicago Public Park “gyms” that are $10 a month, but they basically consist of some weights and a treadmill in an unused meeting room. I found a Flywheel Sports exercise bike with snap-on shoes (akin to Peleton/Soulcycle, in fact Peleton sued Flywheel for copying its tech) on Facebook Marketplace for $100 and bought that instead. Flywheel Sports is no longer in business, but I’ll get to that later. EDITING NOTE: No I won’t, they filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and there are a couple other forms of bankruptcy that I was going to go into (7. 12, 13, 15) but this stack ended up going in another direction.

Okay it has been about a week and I am on said Flywheel bike writing this.

There’s a bad song that keeps getting stuck in my head because of the way the rapper enunciates. The song is Intelligence by Is0Kenny, I’d encourage a listen to understand my headspace as I wrote this.

I came across an Instagram reel with this song that featured what appeared to be a dental hygienist lip-syncing to the most popular portion of Intelligence:

I might slide up to your block with intelligence / I’m a genius with a Glock, there’s some relevance

The caption of the reel read, “when you say “caries” instead of “cavities””

My boss was on vacation for about a week and a half. During this time, I would play podcasts before opening - one was from one of my all time fave podcasts, This Podcast Will Kill You. As a result of this reel, I listened to the second of their two episodes on fluoride. This stack heavily relies on information from that episode, alongside some individual research.

•••••••••••••••••••

The emphasis on influencer centered/easy-to-make talk show video podcasts should be viewed with the same alarm as efforts to end of federal Department of Education and I will die on this freaking hill. Wondery’s podcast division is merging with Audible and laying off around 110 employees. Two of my other favorite shows (besides TPWKY), The Big Flop and Even The Rich, have suddenly ended because of this. The medium is the message as per Marshall McLuhan: creative media produced as intentional background fodder, easy peripherally processed stimuli = distraction from the insanely awful reality occurring right now. Sometimes that distraction is needed, believe me I know! BUT - the people in charge want us disengaged and less educated, so they are removing easily accessible avenues to learning, growth and community.

Digital media is how the Global North communicates right now. Removing/ending content that imbues consumers with a broader notion of the world through sensory forms of anti-misinformation + retentive memory (history, narrative stories, education, interactive news) leaves influencers as talking heads. The way to combat what is ending up to be the illusion of choice is to go outside of these juggernaut creative companies a la Wondery, Spotify, etc. The issue is that working outside of the digital world of media conglomeration means the chances of an audience base are seriously decreased (how are you going to break through the algorithmic noise when said system is controlled by your competitors?)

Influencers can say words of meaning, but it’s best to stick to opinions on pop cultural zeitgeist-y moments (or risk getting silenced by these algorithms).

Wait, but The Big Flop and Even The Rich have to do with pop culture, right?

Yes! They are almost exclusively about pop cultural figures. Why would that add any meaning or perspective? Because they are heavily researched and detailed in both the righteous and ugly sides of those with power in celebrity spaces; yet are also fun to listen to and digestible without being “easy”. This means I retain the information I’m learning about! So, no, these aren’t grand educational stands reporting on humanitarian crises, but they do showcase the humanity of pedestaled celebrities and how PR can change collective memory.

This merger indicates the same perspectives on trivialities will be sounded from influencer voices. If these voices are the medium, video podcasting creates further stimulation via two technological mediums (speaker and light) mediated through another algorithm (computer chip). By the time I’ve heard Thing 1 and Thing 2 talk about Trisha Paytas’ baby name, I’m exhausted from content that took my attention, but didn’t give anything in return. Everything is either incredible or horrible, and existing in these extremes creates fatigue and loneliness.

I think this is why influencers get cancelled over little things and can then make their way back online: they are who we see as our representative speaker. If we experience outrage over a Real Life Event and they don’t speak on it, we feel silenced. If they said a slur, we feel offended regardless of the minority attacked because we are tying our identities these online personas. It’s not that influencers shouldn’t speak on important, non pop culture issues, but that their existence will not allow them to do so. In order to gain a big base of supporters on creative platforms (outside of mostly non visual outlets that require maintained focus/attention), you cannot act divisively. You may announce an opinion on a topic of controversy and your wish for change, but organizing and acting on these beliefs inevitably leads to some form of de-platforming and/or identity boxing. How do you think Emma Chamberlain has been able to jump from teen YouTuber to adult high fashion influencer? There’s money in neutrality; more than that, there’s safety and comfort. Action is an unknown entity, and that makes it dangerous.

When I said this type of influencer excludes non-visual mediums, I lied. It’s harder to do so, but it’s done by Joe Rogan-esq figures. Something to note is that Rogan now focuses on video podcasts, with the audio-only version as a secondary component. Even with audio-only content, Rogan gets his message across by being uniform in what he is saying and who he is saying it to. If he uploaded an episode where he talked in gibberish for an hour, the takeaway would still be masculine American elite whiteness > everything else. As such, his audience is entirely cis white men. In general, influencer culture has exacerbated digital feedback loops that further decrease access to information outside your algorithmic identity markers. We consume what reflects well on who we consider ourselves to be.

Okay, let’s transition this into what I was going to write about, lol. MAHA is pop culture-friendly eugenics for wealthy white conservatives. Spearheading the movement is RFK Jr., or the infamous worm in his brain, I’m not entirely sure which.

RFK JR.

RFK Jr. is a political influencer with the power of the federal government to bolster his conspiracy theories. He thinks fluoride is a neurotoxin that causes cancer, autism and industrial waste. As such, he is recommending that the US not add fluoride to our drinking water anymore.

Let’s counteract those claims!

Is Fluoride a neurotoxin?

No! Fluoride is the ionic form of Fluorine, an element on the periodic table with 9 electrons. Fluoride being its “ionic” form means it has gained 1 electron, aka more negatively charged than in its elemental state.

On our planet, fluoride is a naturally occurring element that makes up a good portion of the Earth’s crust.

What is RFK Jr.’s basis for calling it a neurotoxin?

Studies on IQ and fluoride consumption which point to dose dependent losses in IQ.

Does this mean he is right?

NO!!!!! These studies show that if kids drink water that contains more than 1.5mg of fluoride per liter, their success on IQ tests decreases (the more fluoride, the worse they do = dose dependent).

Why does this not matter? IQ tests are a classist and racist measure of intelligence, and a poor measure at that. The World Health Organization suggests 0.5-1mg of fluoride in water fluoridated for communities (towns/cities, etc). Therefore, kids shouldn’t even have access to water that would cause this IQ response. These studies also used urinary fluoride to measure participants’ fluoride ingestion, which can create non-standardized results depending on when the kid went pee vs how long ago they drank the water, how much water was consumed and in what time frame, and individual variation in body excretion of fluoride via urine. ALSO these studies were not conducted in the US, but in places where the amount of fluoride in drinking water usually exceeds 1.5mg per liter!!!!

This is all to say: Don’t trust “studies show”. Find the study. Read it (just the abstract will usually do). Where was the study conducted? By who? Where was the study published? How big is the sample size? Was it peer-reviewed? These are all questions to consider when looking at study results. There’s also a limitations section of every published article, in which they essentially announce possible issues with the study that they found themselves. Read that.

Why is RFK Jr. recommending fluoride not be added to drinking water in the US?

He cites that fluoride’s primary mechanism of action is topical, while fluoride ingestion via drinking is systemic. This just means that brushing your teeth does the most for fluoride’s intended goal of preventing cavities and promoting tooth health, whereas fluoride in water impacts the rest of your body more.

So why put fluoride in water? It significantly supplements topical usage. Drinking fluoride allows us to ingest a lower concentration of it (.7 parts per million) over an extended period of time, building up the amount of fluoride that becomes part of our teeth. It also allows saliva to re-absorb the fluoride from water, creating a stronger buffer.

Why would I want fluoride to become part of my tooth? What is a buffer? To explain that, I have to explain how cavities form, and what a cavity is!

CAVITIES

Simply put, a cavity (or “carie” in the dental world) is a degrading of the outside of the tooth. If it degrades enough, it starts to impact the inside of the tooth, then its roots, which really really hurts (aka you need a root canal). Think of it as a cut on your arm: although the cut is surface level (only impacting the skin), if an infection gets in and it isn’t treated, it can make its way through the layers of skin into the bloodstream, causing you to get really sick.

This degradation of tooth is actually called demineralization, and it’s occurring continuously in your mouth at this very moment. We tend to think of our teeth as existing in binary states of healthy and diseased (containing a cavity). Our teeth are just like the rest of our body, breaking down and getting rebuilt over and over again to keep us alive! That’s the craziest part of this information for me. It feels like when I discovered only my bottom teeth moved. I wished I was a snake with a detachable upper jaw. Maybe that’s the next dental advancement. Anyway.

You know how you have a microbiome in your gut? You also do in your mouth! There’s tons and tons of bacteria and organisms in there right now. These little guys make up a biofilm on the surface of our teeth, otherwise known as enamel. I know you’ve heard that word before! Because each tooth has its own enamel, each tooth has its own microbiome as well. Thats why your teeth don’t uniformly get cavities if there’s one present on a tooth. This oral microbiome is constantly changing based on what we drink, eat, air conditions, geographic location, etc.

Some of the bacteria in our mouths/on our teeth are “cariogenic”, aka carie-causing. These bacteria cause cavities to form when they digest simple carbs (sugar) because they produce lactic acid as a byproduct (fart out acid while eating basically). This lactic acid makes the environment of our mouths more acidic, which lowers its pH (pH is a measure of how acidic or basic a substance is. Lower value = higher acid content).

Our enamel becomes more soluble (softer/easier to break down) in environments with higher acid content. Why? Enamel is a biofilm of bacteria, yes, but it also contains hydroxyapatite (calcium phosphate + a hydroxyl group (oxygen/hydrogen). These compounds are made up in part by negatively charged ions which interact with positively charged ions in acid, leading to the negatively charged compounds to dissolve (the negative ions are neutralized by the positive ones).

This means more acidic environments cause the calcium phosphate (usually neutral, but when interacting with acid the negatively charged phosphate ions dissolve) to be released from the enamel. This process is called demineralization, aka the tooth degrading I was mentioning before. The more demineralization occurs, the more porous the tooth becomes (like SpongeBob, more/bigger holes) = more acid can diffuse (enter) into the enamel, causing even more demineralization to occur!! :(

So why aren’t we riddled with cavities? Because of our trusty saliva. I told you I’d get to what a buffer is! Saliva is alkaline by nature, aka made up of compounds that are basic as opposed to acidic. Here’s a handy scale:

By acting as a buffer, the saliva neutralizes the additional acid content created by cariogenic bacteria, allowing for remineralization (a rebuilding of enamel). As I said before, this de→re→de→re-mineralization process is constantly occurring!

By this logic, cavities form when the acidic content in our mouths is too much for saliva to neutralize, aka continuous high amounts of sugar consumption or when saliva production has decreased due to medication, drugs or health conditions.

This is why cavity production can be linked to genetics, as every person has a different “normal” pH level in their mouths (6.5-7.8), and getting to 5.5 or below is when tooth decay usually starts. HOWEVER, women overall have lower (more acidic) oral microbiomes due to hormonal fluctuations based on our menstrual cycles/pregnancy/menopause, all of which can cause drier mouths aka less saliva production! Every day of being a woman presents a new health issue :)

SO, how does fluoride come into the picture? How does it prevent cavities?

FLOURIDE

1. Fluoride becomes soluble at a slower rate than enamel because fluoride ions are smaller than ions in hydroxyapatite. This means as a substance, fluoride is more densely packed, leading to more stability because they require more lattice energy (more lactic acid) to break the ion bonds apart.

2. Fluoride delays initial demineralization and catalyzes (speeds up) demineralization by acting as an additional buffer, counteracting lower pH levels and increasing the rate at which the mouth returns to higher pH levels

3. Fluoride interferes with cariogenic bacterias’ glycolysis (digestion of simple carbs) by binding to magnesium and inactivating enolase, an enzyme that changes the structure of a molecule in the ATP production process (process of producing energy in response to consuming food) = slows down lactic acid production by making it less efficient.

Over time, fluoride actually becomes part of our tooth enamel, converting hydroxyapatite to fluorapatite, aka replacing the less stable, more soluble hydroxyl group with itself.

This is almost always beneficial, except, again, when too much fluoride is ingested. While this takes an incredible amount of fluoride (equivalent to drinking at least 8 1/2 liters of water a day!!!!) to occur, fluoride can accumulate in our bones and cause skeletal fluorosis.

This condition occurs when fluoride takes up the mineral space that calcium usually inhabits, leading to weaker bones. This can cause bones to break and a high calcium concentration in the bloodstream, which impacts our kidneys. When the kidney is filtering shit out of our bodies and into our urine, if a lot of calcium is present the kidneys will see it as a waste product and push it out through the urinary tract. This is super painful (peeing out balls of crystals). Again, kidney stone formation is not caused by fluoride, but excessive amounts of fluoride can lead to a condition which may cause the formation of kidney stones.

Do you see how the information gets misconstrued? The middle portion is entirely cut out. We are being trained to take information at surface value, to be passive, to exist only as a consumer and not a producer. You can watch reality tv and you can read philosophy. You can listen to celebrity podcasts and you can organize the making of a community quilt. You can be shy and be willing to feel uncomfortable in pursuit of new experiences. You can continue a pattern of consumption while producing creative and fulfilling content. As Cameron Winter says:

You can change/

You can change/

You can change/

You can change/

You can change/

You can change/

You can change/

You can change/

You can change/

Baby you can change and still choose me

Thank you for reading. I have some info about different forms of bankruptcy and the movie Stick It that I might write about next. ❤️