FluorideAlert Newsletter

My Personal Story About Fluoride and FAN

-Julie Simms-

I’m writing today to share my gratitude to FAN, along with my story and how your organization changed my life. I’ll be making a donation again this year, but somehow that didn’t seem like enough. I owe your organization tremendous thanks for helping me to win the battle of my life, which was discovering the primary cause of my 30-year struggle with migraines: Fluoride.
At the age of 7, I had my first glass of fluoridated drinking water. At 14, I experienced my first migraine headache. And though I have no family history of any sort of headaches, I spent 30 years suffering with chronic migraines. They were less common at first, just a few each year. Gradually they increased in frequency but also in severity and length of time they would last. Then by 2002, and for the next 12 years, I had a moderate to severe headache every single day. Every. Single. Day.
I tried all remedies you could imagine. Medications, vitamins, enzymes, exercise, diet, acupuncture, meditation, more sleep, less sleep, and I would often drink a lot of water in hopes of relieving possible dehydration.
In early 2013, a friend suggested fluoridated drinking water could be causing my headaches. Initially, I was very skeptical. I was a supporter of fluoridation and had even voted for it when I lived in Newport Beach CA. I heard it was safe and effective in caring for our teeth. I never thought to ask: What is the fluoride doing to the rest of our body?
Truthfully, I believed I would find research to tell me just that. The United States had been fluoridating water supplies for 60+ years and I expected to find studies to prove its safety. I visited the CDC and found loads of studies about the use of fluoride to treat dental caries, but nothing about safety for the rest of the body. When I searched beyond the CDC, I found FAN. I found an article about the effects of fluoride on the brain. I watched a video with a dentist talking about the warning labels on toothpaste about swallowing and yet, I was drinking glasses and glasses of this stuff daily. I saw names of medical and dental professionals who did not support water fluoridation. In other words, I saw enough evidence to at least try to see what would happen if I eliminated fluoridated drinking water.
So in 2013, I tried a fluoride-free life in hopes it would help. I expected everything else to help. Nothing did. I did NOT expect eliminating fluoride to work. Yet within 3 days my daily headaches were much less painful. Within a few weeks they were completely gone. And after 30 years of chronic pain, I got my life back.
I now know the main trigger of these headaches was fluoridated water. I know this in part because when I lived in non-fluoridated communities, I had no headaches. It was mysterious to me that I didn’t get migraines in some places I lived, such as Chico California and Tottori Japan.  Those cities don’t fluoridate. But in other cities, such as San Francisco and Palo Alto California, I had several headaches a month.  And I also know this because I took part in a strict fluoride elimination diet, such as people use to identify allergens.
My doctor has further advised me not to bathe in fluoridated water, so I also started to filter that water.
But I worry how many other Americans are unknowingly suffering side effects of fluoridated water. I worry for infants, the immune compromised and those with sensitivities, like me.
Giving a substance to every member of society without consideration of their medical history, recommended dose, or sensitivity to medication and toxins is unethical and can have serious, widespread health effects.
Thank you FAN for offering information, local resources, and assistance to those looking for information.  We should have been given that information by those who promised fluoride was safe, even for systemic use.  I for one am ready for the day when my tap water will be free of fluoride.

Thank you, FAN!

Julie Simms