Buhner Stephen Harrod - The hidden cause of acne: how toxic water is affecting your health and what you can do about it

To my mother

... behind all your stories is always your mothers story, because hers is where yours begin.

MITCH ALBOM

The Hidden Cause of
ACNE

This intriguing personal account of one womans experience with acne is a detailed case report that could have been published in the peer-reviewed literature. Using scientific deduction, careful observations, and self-experimentationa process used by Nobel Laureates such as Barry Marshall, Werner Forssmann, and Ralph SteinmanMelissa Gallico figured out that the cause of her chronic acne was the fluoride added to her drinking water. The fact that other people who read her book also report that their acne cleared up when they switched to fluoride-free beverages and foods suggests this is an area that deserves rigorous clinical investigation.

HARDY LIMEBACK, D.D.S., PH.D., HEAD OF PREVENTIVE DENTISTRY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO (RET.) AND PAST PRESIDENT OF THE CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR DENTAL RESEARCH

This is an astounding piece of work and a must-read for people wanting the true story about how and why and to what terrible effect the addition of fluoride to drinking water is having. As Gallicos riveting personal story attests, public water fluoridation is, in essence, a hazardous waste management tool that is damaging our health in ways we have yet to fully comprehend. Her deep research into this area and the clear, arresting manner in which she presents it is a valuable, even crucial, contribution to ending the antiquated and dangerous practice of adding fluoride to public drinking water.

BILL HIRZY, PH.D., SENIOR SCIENTIST AT THE EPA (RET.) AND PAST PRESIDENT OF THE EPA UNION OF PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEES

Melissa Gallico has authored an engaging book, one that is enjoyable to read despite the seriousness of the subject matter. As she notes, it doesnt take a degree in medicine (or dentistry or science) to appreciate the importance of personal observations in matters of personal health, or to understand the potential consequences of one-size-fits-all medication of the public through the drinking water supply. Fluoride sensitivity (including dermatological, endocrinological, gastrointestinal, and other effects) has been in the medical literature for decades, unrefuted, and deserves the wider awareness that Gallicos work will bring.

KATHLEEN M. THIESSEN, PH.D., SENIOR SCIENTIST AT OAK RIDGE CENTER FOR RISK ANALYSIS AND COAUTHOR OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCILS 2006 REPORT FLUORIDE IN DRINKING WATER

Acknowledgments

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

CARL SAGAN

I MIGHT HAVE BAKED A PIE , but I literally have a universe of people to thank for growing the apples, building the stove, and driving me to the bake sale. These are just a few of them.

Thank you to the good people at Google who lay a universe of information at the feet of my curious mind. Wikipedia, same. Thank you to the Fluoride Action Network for posting insane amounts of information about fluoride online. I never could have figured out how to heal my acne without it. Thank you to the Iodine Doctors and others like them who put their reputations and careers on the line every day for their patients by questioning the established health dogma. Thank you to Amazon for connecting me with the books and products I needed to put my theories to the test, and then for creating a home for my book when the time came to write about it all. Thank you to Apple for giving me the tools I needed to gather all that information and assemble it into a finished product. I will love you forever or until something better comes along. You know how it goes.

To the entire team at Inner Traditions, including the designers, the production team, Jon Graham, Kelly Bowen, Patricia Rydle, Manzanita Carpenter, Erica Robinson, Ashley Kolesnik, Jeanie Levitan, Elizabeth Wilson, and especially my smart and kindhearted project editor Kayla Toher, thank you for your diligent work on this book, for taking a chance on a first-time author, and for being so nice.

To Stephen Harrod Buhner, thank you for teaching me how to follow a golden thread. I yanked that thread until the whole story unraveled and then used it to sew a sparkly gold dress. I am honored and humbled each time I look at your name on the cover next to mine. Thank you for believing in my work and for everything you did to help it find a wider audience.

Thank you to Hardy Limeback for your encouragement and support. Someday I will tell the story of the first time you emailed me, and people wont believe it. Thanks to Bill Hirzy and several of my analyst colleagues (you know who you are) for reading my entire 8,500-word expos on raisins and providing constructive criticism. To my blogging buddy and eventual beta reader, Elizabeth Walling of The Nourished Life, thank you for reading an early copy of the manuscript for The End of Acne and providing valuable feedback.

To my original editor, Darlene Musso, thank you for conspiring with me on this project, for sharing your candid thoughts and ideas, for loving me like I grew up as part of the family, and for the perfect Christmas card you sent before you even knew I was writing a book about Inuits and cetaceans and language and the ocean. It hung above my writing desk and inspired me every day. In case anyone was in doubt, this is hard proof you are an angel.

Thank you to my parents for telling me when I was a little girl (before I was old enough to mistake truth for clich) that I can do anything I set my mind to. Thanks for the happiness in your voice when I call you on the phone and you realize its me on the other side of the line. For how excited I know you will be when I tell you I wrote a book. For thinking the world of me. For your endless love. For all that and more. Thank you. It worked.

To sweet Gia, who reminds me every day that Homo sapiens are not the only beings being. And to my Marco, thank you for feeding me while I wrote this book. And for listening to me talk about raisins. And for never getting tired (or at least pretending not to get tired) of listening to me talk about raisins. I always say you are my dream man. But in truth, I could not have dreamed of a man as perfect for me as you are.

Finally, to everyone past and future who reads my story and realizes it is their own. Your testimonials are the reason this book exists. Thank you for sharing them with me. Thank you for reading even to this very last word.

Please, lets not make this goodbye.
www.HiddenCauseofAcne.com/email

Foreword

A NUMBER OF YEARS AGO I wrote a book on the crafting of nonfiction. It was a labor of love (never destined to sell as well as my work on Lyme disease or the treatment of resistant bacteria). Still, it remains to this day my personal favorite. So, it is especially gratifying that every so often someone writes me to say theyve been inspired to write their own book. And every so often, someone follows up by asking to send me a copy of the book they have written. Nevertheless, when I received Melissa Gallicos email, and finally reached its lower reaches, its working title was less than imposing: The End of Acne.

My book on the crafting of nonfiction (