Does using a fluoride-based toothpaste or fluoride-supplemented tap water lead to higher fluoride concentration in the pineal gland?

Question

Dr. Edward Group writes in Everything You Wanted to Know about the Pineal Gland:

Calcification is the biggest problem for the pineal gland. Fluoride accumulates in the pineal gland more than any other organ and leads to the formation of phosphate crystals. [...] Eliminating fluoride may be the best first step for reducing health concerns. Use fluoride-free toothpaste, avoid tap water, and drink filtered water. For the best filtered water, use a reverse osmosis water filter.

Leaving aside the question of the effects of a high fluoride concentration in the the pinal gland, is the claim that using fluoride-based toothpaste and tap water leads to higher concentrations of fluoride in the pineal gland true?

Answer 1

There is significant discussion of this issue in Fluoride in Drinking Water: Scientific Review of EPA's Standards (2006), particularly in chapter 8, Effects on the Endocrine System. This book is a publication of the US National Research Council.

As with other calcifying tissues, the pineal gland can accumulate fluoride (Luke 1997, 2001). Fluoride has been shown to be present in the pineal glands of older people (14-875 mg of fluoride per kg of gland in persons aged 72-100 years), with the fluoride concentrations being positively related to the calcium concentrations in the pineal gland, but not to the bone fluoride, suggesting that pineal fluoride is not necessarily a function of cumulative fluoride exposure of the individual (Luke 1997, 2001). Fluoride has not been measured in the pineal glands of children or young adults, nor has there been any investigation of the relationship between pineal fluoride concentrations and either recent or cumulative fluoride intakes.

Few studies have examined the effects of fluoride on pineal function. NaF (2.5-20 mM, or fluoride at 47.5-380 mg/L) produces markedly increased adenylyl cyclase activity (up to four times control activity) of rat pineal homogenates in vitro (Weiss 1969a,b), as it does in other tissues (Weiss 1969a); ATPase activity in the homogenates was inhibited by up to 50% (Weiss 1969a). Potassium fluoride (7-10 mM, or fluoride at 133-190 mg/L) has been used experimentally to increase adenylyl cyclase activity in rat pineal glands in vitro (Zatz 1977, 1979).

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prepubescent gerbils fed the high-fluoride diet had significantly lower pineal melatonin production than prepubescent gerbils fed the low-fluoride diet.
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Whether fluoride exposure causes decreased nocturnal melatonin production or altered circadian rhythm of melatonin production in humans has not been investigated. As described above, fluoride is likely to cause decreased melatonin production and to have other effects on normal pineal function, which in turn could contribute to a variety of effects in humans. Actual effects in any individual depend on age, sex, and probably other factors, although at present the mechanisms are not fully understood.