What is Halogen Displacement & why should I care?

Halogen Displacement sounds like it could be the name of a new pop band. In my best radio voice, ‘Introducing the hottest sensation at the top of the charts it’s 'Halogen Displacement' with their new single ‘Feeling crappy again’. Sounds like it could be a hit as auto-immune diseases are skyrocketing across the continent. Anyone wondering why? The high risk categories would include those who drink chlorinated & fluoridated tap water, those who swim in pools disinfected with chlorine and those who soak in hot tubs that use bromine/bromide for water purification.

So what is halogen displacement? Halogen displacement refers to the competition between the halogens of fluorine and it’s water soluble form fluoride, chlorine/chloride and bromine/bromide their effect of displacing iodine/iodide from the body and blocking it's return. Any of the four halides can displace the element with a higher atomic weight. So when looking at the periodic table of elements, fluorine sits on top in the 7th column, followed by chlorine, bromine & iodine. That means fluorine displaces chlorine, bromine and iodine from the body; chlorine displaces bromine & iodine and bromine displaces iodine.
So why should we care?
Since Iodine was discovered in the early 1800's it has been used extensively in medicine to treat a myriad of conditions including thyroidism, both hyper & hypo. Before penicillin, it was the doctors choice for an anti-biotic, disinfectant, bacteriacide or germicide, being the first choice for medics on the battlefield until WWII. It was discovered long ago that our bodies store iodine and it's water soluble form iodide in our cells & organs to maintain health & keep a strong immune system. Storage sites in the body that contain higher levels of iodine to keep us healthy include; our brains, thyroid gland, women’s breasts & ovaries and men’s prostate glands. So what happens is that with heavy exposure in the body to the halides like fluorine, chlorine & bromine, they flush the healing iodine out of our body and allows our immune system to be comprimised & then allowing disease to enter readily. Back in 1924 when the US iodized it’s salt, Canada followed suit in ’29, this was accomplished to stop the increases in thyroidism, especially goitre, known as hyperthyroidism in the Great Lakes Region. Goiter was so popular at that time, the area became known as the ‘Goiter Belt’ and today the Goitre Belt has geographically expanded beyond the Great Lakes region to include most states & provinces that are away from the ocean. Much like a little bit of vitamin C prevents scurvy, a little iodine prevents & corrects thyroidism.

Health conditions that are common occurrences due to iodine deficiencies include cystic conditions like fibrocystic breast disease, fibroids of the ovaries, endometriosis, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, brain cancer, thyroid cancer and auto-immune conditions like eczema, psoriasis, fibromyalgia, arthritis, thyroidism and more.

Each municipality in Canada or a state controlled water board determines whether fluorine is added to the drinking water. In Canada, Brampton was the first city in Canada to fluoridate, this happened in 1945 and there is currently a push by local citizens to remove fluorine from their water supply. Cambridge, Kitchener & Barrie have now removed fluoride from the municipal water supply with more cities perched to follow their lead.