Fitness

The first argument seems unsound to me. Mothers of children whose teeth decay most severely are usually ignorant of or not interested in nutrition and/or cannot afford excellent food. Furthermore, many intelligent, conscientious parents, doing everything they can, still cannot prevent their children’s teeth from decaying; sweets are given the children by well-meaning neighbors, store owners, and even strangers and are served at parties, cub scout meetings, and endless other places. The argument that fluoridation has not been studied sufficiently is probably true. Long-term “experiments,” however, have occurred naturally in dozens of places, some of which have been studied in great detail. In certain communities where the water contains as much as three or four parts of fluorine per million, there have been little or no mottling and no tooth decay. No other toxic effects have been found. In communities perhaps only a few miles away, almost no fluorine occurs in the water; tooth decay is rampant. The reason there seems little danger of toxicity from adding one part of fluorine per million (as is already being done in many communities) is that fluorine, like iodine, is excreted daily in the urine. Even when relatively large amounts are obtained for a time, fluorine is held temporarily in the body and laid down in the teeth and bones; when little or no fluorine is supplied, it is gradually withdrawn from the body and excreted.

My conviction on fluoridation is also emotional. My father used’ to make maple syrup almost every spring; I loved it and still do. Furthermore, I was an unhappy motherless child. Our general diet was atrocious enough, but in addition I ate far too much maple syrup to compensate for the love I craved and never got. Dozens of nights as a child I sobbed with seemingly unbearable pain from abscessed teeth or from decay which exposed the nerves. Thousands of youngsters, through no fault of their own, have screamed with similar pain, and thousands more will unless enough kind people try to prevent it. Furthermore, fluorine makes bones as well as teeth stronger. In every hospital in this country are old people-sad people-with not many years to live perhaps and not much to make them happy, lying motionless and uncomfortable hour after hour because of broken bones which should never have broken. You and I will be old some day, and we may fill those hospital beds; fluoridation of water might help us to enjoy our last years instead. My emotional conviction, therefore, which no one need accept unless he wishes to, is that every water supply in this United States should be fluoridated, even at the risk that some toxicity may occur.

There are a number of trace minerals which can be either valuable or harmful to health depending on the amount obtained. In fact, all trace minerals can be toxic if taken in excess. Arsenic, well known as a drug and a poison, may be important in human nutrition. Relatively large amounts are found in the liver and blood, particularly before birth. Aluminum occurs in the human body and in the bodies of animals which have never eaten food prepared in aluminum utensils; minute amounts of it, too, may be essential. Bromine is found in human blood; in a type of insanity known as manic depressive, the amount of bromine in the blood falls to half the normal quantity and increases only upon recovery from the disease. Tin, silver, nickel, and mercury are also found in human tissues; their functions, if any, are unknown.

The trace minerals, like calcium and iron, cannot be absorbed until they are first dissolved in the hydrochloric acid of the stomach. As we have seen, this acid is frequently undersupplied or absent. Poor absorption, therefore, can lead to deficiencies. This reason, however, is only a minor one.

The relation of this mineral, if any, to insanity has not been investigated. In many of our institutions for the insane the diets provided are far from adequate. No well person could eat the food served in some of these places, let alone an ill one. There has been no effort to find out what a well absorbed diet adequate in vitamin B6 and magnesium could do for mentally ill persons. Whenever I think of the tortured human beings writhing in straitjackets or perhaps held down in hot water by canvas fitted around their necks and the sides of the tubs, as I have seen them in too many institutions and psychopathic wards, I long to give these people injections of vitamin B6 and magnesium. Yet I know of no physician who is even interested; and how could one be? In a new gOO-page book on clinical nutrition, written as a reference book for the practicing physician and as a textbook for medical students, the word magnesium is not even mentioned or listed in the index. The assumption is that it is unimportant because it is “generously supplied in our foods.”

Copper helps the bone marrow to produce red blood cells.

Anemia results if it is undersupplied. It aids in forming certain enzymes necessary to the function of the nerves. This mineral plays some role in pigment formation, thus possibly being a factor in the prevention of gray hair. Black animals, lacking copper, become gray. Graying in humans has long been known to be often associated with anemia. Copper also appears to aid the body in using vitamin C economically; signs of scurvy in guinea pigs without vitamin C can be prevented by giving this mineral.

Copper-deficiency symptoms can be recognized in plants.

“Swayback” disease occurs in lambs grazed on copper-deficient soil, and anemia in the ewes; both conditions may be prevented by putting copper in the soil. In infants and small children, anemia which is not corrected by iron alone is corrected when copper is added. Yet one finds in medical textbooks such statements as, “Since the human requirement is so small and the element is so widely distributed in foods, it is difficult to imagine circumstances under which copper deficiency might develop.” I find it as easy to imagine as it is to imagine a person with gray hair.

Zinc deficiency is not recognized in humans, but it is in plants, where it results in little-leaf disease. The healthy human body contains more zinc than any other trace mineral. Zinc is present in all human tissues, especially in the pancreas where it is associated with insulin. The zinc content of the pancreas of diabetic patients is only half that of normal persons. Zinc is known to be part of several enzymes in the body and acts as a cell catalyst, or “speeder-upper,” of energy production. Zinc deficiency in experimental animals results in slowed growth, loss of hair, faulty food absorption, skin abnormalities, and emaciation. Zinc is lost when foods are refined; diabetes increases when foods are refined; perhaps a mere coincidence.

Manganese is also necessary to human growth and health, although its exact action in the body is little understood. It is found in all healthy human tissues and can be stored in the liver and thyroid glands. This element is important in maintaining normal reproductive functions; it is related to the use of calcium and phosphorus and is found in the bones; and it activates at least four known enzymes. An undersupply of manganese causes a loss in mating interest and later sterility in male animals. It interferes with the maternal instinct in females; mother rats on manganese-deficient diets will not suckle their young nor will normal mother rats adopt manganese-starved baby rats. Manganese is found in green leaves if the food is grown on good soil; it is often discarded in cooking water. Whole-grain breads and cereals contain about six times the quantity found in the refined products.

Fluorine is another element essential to health. I have received many letters asking my opinion on fluoridation of water. People become so emotional about this subject that I am tempted to say that my opinion is like my religion, no one’s business but my own. I recently heard a forum on fluoridation; dentists, physicians, and biochemists argued it out, each with violent convictions for or against. Some speakers were unscientifically emotional; others, emotionally scientific. Everyone seems to agree that the right amount of fluorine will reduce tooth decay. The opponents argued that if youngsters’ teeth no longer decay, mothers will make no more effort to keep the child’s nutrition adequate; that fluoridation has not been studied sufficiently; and that even small amounts may be toxic. Too much fluorine obtained when the teeth are developing causes them to be mottled with an unattractive brown pigment.