I am just beginning to research whether there is a connection between the fluoride in water and my personal acne problem, which has been ongoing since my early teens (I am now 30 years old).
Since moving to a new area I noticed that my acne became much worse and after no improvement I started to investigate possible reasons for this change. My diet hadn't changed and my lifestyle was much less stressful in the new location. I then decided to look at the water in both my previous and new locations and found that in my new location (Lincolnshire, UK) the water (from Anglian Water) contained roughly 3 x the amount of fluoride compared to my old location. Figures were obtained by going on water company websites and checking average levels at both addresses.
Finally I decided to do a test, consuming only bottled water containing fluoride at less than 0.1 mg/L. Having done this for a month now I have noticed a drastic improvement in my skin. This could be due to the lack of fluoride or some other component in the tap water here or maybe my skin would have just cleared on its own. I have to admit I am now nervous to drink the tap water and am much more concerned about the fluoridation of water supplies having done some research into it. I will stick to the bottled water for now and start looking for ways of filtering out fluoride.
I would appreciate hearing about anybody elses experiences or ideas regarding this.
The flouride could be mucking up your thyroid, especially if you have thyroid issues already. Fluoride is well known for it's ability to impair thyroid function as it competes with iodine in the thyroid gland, and iodine is required to produce thyroid hormones:
http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/thyroid/
Heres a thread on hypothyroidism so you can ascertain if it applies to you or not - acne is just one symptom of hypothroidism:
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/hypothyro...cne-t85247.html
Fluoride causes a lot of health problems, but on these boards, there is more of a dairy-acne connection and a grain-acne connection. 30% of people who clear themselves discover the cause was dairy. And about 40% who clear themselves discover the cause was gluten or all grains. No one has cleared themselves by avoiding fluoride. Not yet, at least.
Thanks for your responses 
) I will take them into consideration, there is some interesting info in those links.
The water I am using is whatever I can find in the shop with a record of very low fluoride. E.g. I currently have ashbeck water from the supermarket, but sometimes have fairbourne water from the local shop. Need to be careful about the level of other minerals , such as sodium, in bottled water too. Some don't say anything on them and I don't trust that to mean there isn't any Fluoride. Apparently most companies are pretty good if you ring up about it, if you have the patience for that!
Avoiding tap water doesn't mean complete avoidance of fluoride either, it is also in tea and certain vegetables too, I have not particularly avoided these things but never drank that much tea anyway. I do wonder if there is a difference in the compounds though? I mean most of the fluoride in our water is a waste product, from what I have read, it comes from places like the phosphate fertilizer or aluminiium smelting industries. The more I read the more I worry about my friends and family still drinking the stuff and feel a bit annoyed that we have not been informed or had a choice as to whether the water we pay for is medicated with something that is pretty much untested. We are the the test! Enough about that anyway, sorry about the rant.
Further to my last post I will add that I also have a sister who has acne, whilst my mum has hypotheroid disorder. In fact even the family cat has a thyroid disorder. Both my sister and I have low body temp and cold extremities, dry skin, etc, whilst we have in the past avoided iodine due to its link with acne, so I will look into the thyroid links, thank you.
I tend towards thinking that there is often more than one trigger for acne and most likely a different set of triggers for each person too. A while back I tried cutting out dairy and noticed no difference. I also tried cutting out all gluten, again no difference, at least to my skin. I tried the Paleo diet for a few days but felt so ill the whole time I decided I'd rather have bad skin! Didn't help being vegetarian I guess, cutting out all high carb foods, grains, dairy and legumes meant I was pretty much starving most of the time. Then when you add thinking about cutting out nightshade vegetables as well...It did mean I lost 6 pounds in those four days though! I wasn't even big in the first place. After that I kind of felt that nothing was safe to eat.
Anyway, I have reduced grains and refined carbs for general health for a while now and feel better for it, e.g. the crack down the centre of my tongue has begun to disappear and my stomach behaves much better since I followed a gluten free diet. I also take probiotics in short courses, a multivitamin (this varies but always includes vits A or beta carotene, B complex, C and E as well as zinc and chromium), omega 3 oil because I heard this reduces inflammation, kelp (bad skin at first taking this but much better after a few weeks), agnus castus (I found this helps with my hormonal related acne flare ups) and St Johns Wort for times when I have low mood.
I will continue to cut the tap water for the time being now too. At least this is working for me at the moment, although I am not sure I can continue to afford to keep buying bottles and don't like the fact it is not particularly eco friendly.
I hope this is of help to someone.
Fluoride causes a lot of health problems, but on these boards, there is more of a dairy-acne connection and a grain-acne connection. 30% of people who clear themselves discover the cause was dairy. And about 40% who clear themselves discover the cause was gluten or all grains. No one has cleared themselves by avoiding fluoride. Not yet, at least.
Those are the statistics I'd like to know how you 'calculate.'
I think there's been quite a few that found improvement by avoiding fluoride. And that most on these boards get results from keeping blood sugar stable and eating nutrient dense, anti-inflammatory foods regardless of whether they have a sensitivity to and/or avoid dairy or grains. Avoiding those foods did not produce any improvement for me at all.
And yes there is a connection between flouride and a properly functioning thryoid which affects how your body manages hormones which affects acne.
I am just beginning to research whether there is a connection between the fluoride in water and my personal acne problem, which has been ongoing since my early teens (I am now 30 years old).
Since moving to a new area I noticed that my acne became much worse and after no improvement I started to investigate possible reasons for this change. My diet hadn't changed and my lifestyle was much less stressful in the new location. I then decided to look at the water in both my previous and new locations and found that in my new location (Lincolnshire, UK) the water (from Anglian Water) contained roughly 3 x the amount of fluoride compared to my old location. Figures were obtained by going on water company websites and checking average levels at both addresses.
Finally I decided to do a test, consuming only bottled water containing fluoride at less than 0.1 mg/L. Having done this for a month now I have noticed a drastic improvement in my skin. This could be due to the lack of fluoride or some other component in the tap water here or maybe my skin would have just cleared on its own. I have to admit I am now nervous to drink the tap water and am much more concerned about the fluoridation of water supplies having done some research into it. I will stick to the bottled water for now and start looking for ways of filtering out fluoride.
I would appreciate hearing about anybody elses experiences or ideas regarding this.
My only real experience with this is that washing my face with bottled spring water does not produce a rosacea flare-up. Anytime I shower or bathe in water (even with no cleansers) from the tap my face stays red for hours. So there's something in my water that's irritating my skin. I'm not sure if it's fluoride or the excess iron and other minerals in my very hard water supply.
I am just beginning to research whether there is a connection between the fluoride in water and my personal acne problem, which has been ongoing since my early teens (I am now 30 years old).
Since moving to a new area I noticed that my acne became much worse and after no improvement I started to investigate possible reasons for this change. My diet hadn't changed and my lifestyle was much less stressful in the new location. I then decided to look at the water in both my previous and new locations and found that in my new location (Lincolnshire, UK) the water (from Anglian Water) contained roughly 3 x the amount of fluoride compared to my old location. Figures were obtained by going on water company websites and checking average levels at both addresses.
Finally I decided to do a test, consuming only bottled water containing fluoride at less than 0.1 mg/L. Having done this for a month now I have noticed a drastic improvement in my skin. This could be due to the lack of fluoride or some other component in the tap water here or maybe my skin would have just cleared on its own. I have to admit I am now nervous to drink the tap water and am much more concerned about the fluoridation of water supplies having done some research into it. I will stick to the bottled water for now and start looking for ways of filtering out fluoride.
I would appreciate hearing about anybody elses experiences or ideas regarding this.
My only real experience with this is that washing my face with bottled spring water does not produce a rosacea flare-up. Anytime I shower or bathe in water (even with no cleansers) from the tap my face stays red for hours. So there's something in my water that's irritating my skin. I'm not sure if it's fluoride or the excess iron and other minerals in my very hard water supply.
Chlorine
After getting a showerhead filter that removes chlorine and other sediments, it did nothing for my acne. I started drinking distilled water after drinking "filtered" water that kept the fluoride and noticed a change in alot of things. I used to have migraines, not anymore. I am now more energetic and don't have bad PMS. After washing my face with distilled water, there is a big improvement.
So I didn't feel like buying distilled water one day. Drank fluoridated water and my old symptoms came back. I would not be surprised if fluoride also causes acne. Think about it. When heated, fluoride increases. Removing chlorine did nothing for acne but did help with hair.
Those shower head filters from what I have read are a joke. A lab tested all the big ones out there sold by Lowes and other big name stores and they didn't even reduce 50% of the chlorine, none of them. The only way to have chlorine free shower water is one of those whole house RO systems. You can test filters and such yourself with a PPM meter, they are cheap I got a really good one for $20, I use it for gardening as well. I have an RO filter from pure water club, best out there its a 5 stage and was only 70$ shipped to my door. Lowes and HD want $200+ for the same set up.
I definitely notice a huge difference in using RO water vs tap water, tap water makes my face red, dries it out like crazy, and ends up just causing more breakouts from how harsh it is. RO water is great, face doesn't get red at all.
There are vitamin c filters for the shower and bath. C bins with the chlorine to turn it into something harmless. I believe that's how those drops you put in your aquariums dechlorinate the water. It works on both chlorine and chloramines.
Those filters commonly used for drinking water don't work with hot water. And yeah, many shower filters are the same thing.
Does washing the face with purified (ozonated) water help the situation? Our tap water is of a poor quality, and someone from the water company suggested I wash my face with deionized water. I have been trying this on and off and I have less redness but I'm not sure if that's down to my washing regimen.