![\"Pregnant](\"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Pregnant_Belly_Ultrasound-300x165.jpg\")
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A new study from Canada published this week in the journal\u00a0Nutrients<\/i>, found that pregnant women who had low iodine levels and elevated fluoride had boys who suffered an average IQ loss that was 58% greater than the already significant IQ loss from elevated fluoride alone [Goodman 2022<\/a>].\u00a0 Artificially fluoridated drinking water was the main source of the fluoride. The boys of women with low iodine levels lost, on average, 9.3 IQ points, while those of mothers with adequate iodine lost 5.9 IQ points, for every 1 mg\/g increase in mother\u2019s urine fluoride concentration.* \u00a0In previous work in the same group of pregnant mothers, drinking water fluoridated at 0.7 mg\/L was associated with an increase of roughly 1 mg\/g in urine fluoride [Till 2018<\/a>].<\/p>\n 23% of the Canadian women who took part in the new study were classified as having \u201clow iodine\u201d.\u00a0 The iodine status of pregnant women in the USA is much worse than in Canada, with well over 50% currently meeting the criteria for \u201clow iodine\u201d used in this study [Watson 2020<\/a>].<\/p>\n The authors point out that theirs was the first mother-child cohort study \u201cto estimate the interplay between prenatal fluoride exposure and maternal iodine status in relation to child IQ\u201d.\u00a0 They also warned that \u201ceven mildly reduced iodine levels may have biological significance when interacting with fluoride.\u201d<\/p>\n