York University researchers have established that fluoride exposure through drinking water could increase hyperthyroidism risk in pregnant women. Researchers found in a small subset of participants that boys born to mothers diagnosed with hypothyroidism had low IQ scores relative to those born to mothers with normal thyroid levels.
Hypothyroidism correlates with unfavorable child outcomes
Meaghan Hall, a York neuropsychology Ph.D. student and the study’s lead author, notes that past research conducted in the same lab at York established a link between fluoride exposure during pregnancy and lower IQ in boys, but this current research may help to explain those earlier findings.
Hall added that the research had shown a correlation between excessive levels of fluoride and thyroid dysregulation, as well as a link between untreated hypothyroidism during pregnancy and unfavorable child outcomes. The most recent research contributes to a growing collection of evidence suggesting that prenatal fluoride exposure could well be associated with poorer cognitive developmental outcomes for kids and may offer a possible mechanism to explain ties to low IQs in baby boys to moms who had higher fluoride exposure.
The Maternal Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) study followed 1,500 women and sought to evaluate the impact of environmental chemicals on vulnerable populations, including infants and pregnant people. Seven of the ten Canadian cities where the water is fluoridated were used to recruit women.
Scientists only looked at pregnant women who admitted to consuming tap water. The women were monitored throughout their pregnancies, and the newborns and young children of those women were also monitored.
Hypothyroidism causes brain-based disorders
Hall’s supervising professor and senior study author Christine Till said that this translates to a 65% increase in risk. She explained that the findings are alarming since hypothyroidism is a common cause of brain-based disorders in kids.
Hall and Till state that when assessing the safety of public water fluoridation, lawmakers should take these new findings into account.
Kids and adults residing in areas where fluoride amounts are surprisingly high have been the primary subjects of previous studies looking at the relationship between hypothyroidism and fluoride exposure.
