The powers that be have long claimed that the fluoridation of drinking water — which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deemed one of the greatest health achievements of the last century — is safe and effective, even though exposure at elevated levels has been linked to various adverse health effects in humans, such as osteoclerosis, calcification of tendons, endocrine dysfunction, and bone deformities. Those who dared suggest that the governmental effort to prevent tooth decay might have side effects such as mental retardation and cancer were in many cases vilified. It appears that, once again, those written off as quacks and conspiracy theorists were onto something. The National Toxicology Program, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, released a report Wednesday revealing that fluoridated water can lower IQ in kids. The National Institutes of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements indicated that fluoridated municipal drinking water accounts for approximately 60% of fluoride intakes in the U.S., and that as of 2020, 62.9% of the population had access to a fluoridated water system. "Higher estimated fluoride exposures (e.g., as in approximations of exposure such as drinking water fluoride concentrations that exceed the World Health Organization Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality of 1.5 mg/L of fluoride) are consistently associated with lower IQ in children," said the NTP report. When assessing scientific evidence association of a specific health outcome with an exposure, the NTP uses four confidence levels: high, moderate, or very low. After evaluating numerous epidemiological studies from countries including Canada, China, India, and Mexico, where some pregnant women, babies, and children were exposed to fluoride at levels exceeding 1.5 milligrams per liter of drinking water, the NTP "concluded there is moderate confidence in the scientific evidence that showed an association between higher levels of fluoride and lower IQ in children." Although scores of studies caught the investigators' attention, they appear to have focused primarily on 19 high-quality studies that had low risks of bias. Eighteen of these studies that evaluated IQ in children provided "consistent evidence of an inverse association between estimated fluoride exposure and IQ scores." Whereas World Health Organization guidelines recommend 1.5 mg/L as a safe limit for fluoride, the HHS alternatively recommends 0.7 milligrams per liter of fluoride, noting, "This is the level that prevents tooth decay and promotes good oral health." However, some American municipalities across the country may have slightly more or less in their respective water supplies. New York City, for instance, adds a fluoride compound that provides the water supply with a concentration of roughly 0.8 mg/L. Prior to 2015, the recommended upper range in the U.S. was 1.2. The recommended concentration was changed in 2015 to minimize the risk of dental fluorosis. According to the NTP report, as of 2020, roughly 3.5 million Americans were served by water systems containing over 1.1 mg/L of naturally occurring fluoride; around 1.9 million Americans were supplied by systems with over 1.5 mg/L; and 1 million were being supplied with over 2 mg/L of naturally occurring fluoride. 'The inverse association between estimated fluoride exposure and IQ in children was consistent across different study populations.' Citing the findings of a recent study, the report further indicated that "regions of the United States where [community water systems] and private wells contain natural fluoride concentrations of more than 1.5 mg/L serve over 2.9 million U.S. residents." Although the NTP report would not confirm whether the currently recommended level of 0.7. mg/L is dumbing down the population, it called for "targeted research that prospectively examines the association between fluoride exposure and children's IQ in optimally fluoridated areas of the United States ... to add clarity to the existing data." According to the NTP, there is "also some evidence that fluoride exposure is associated with other neurodevelopmental effects in children." However, its confidence in that evidence is presently not as strong. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Former President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, marking his first outdoor event since last month's assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.During the rally, Trump spoke at the podium from behind bulletproof glass panels, part of a heightened security measure in the wake of the shooting on July 13. Additionally, storage containers were stacked along the event's perimeter to provide further protection, and snipers were stationed on the venue's rooftops.'A doctor, please.'Trump began his speech by addressing a recent preliminary annual benchmark report from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which significantly revised down the Biden-Harris administration's overstated job growth projections by -30%. The former president called it a "massive scandal.""It really isn't a revision. It's a total lie," Trump stated. "The Harris-Biden administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating job statistics to hide the true extent of the economic ruin that they've inflicted on America."In the middle of Trump's speech, which addressed national security, he abruptly paused and turned his attention to commotion in the crowd. "What's wrong?" Trump asked attendees. "Medic!" several people in the crowd shouted back at him."Oh, a doctor, please," Trump requested. "It is very hot here, I noticed. It's very hot. And a lot of the people waited for days to get here. So I understand it."As the medical team responded to a woman who had briefly passed out in the crowd, Trump left the podium, stepping out from behind the protective glass. He approached the crowd to check on the woman, who had since come to, and hugged her before returning to the stage.His supporters responded by chanting, "We love Trump."Trump thanked his supporters once he reached the podium, stating, "They come two days, three days early, and it's a lot of stress."He quickly returned to his speech on national security, during which he torched the current administration for its deadly Afghanistan withdrawal and the conflict in the Middle East."Everywhere I go, soldiers and veterans tell me how angry they are that not one person has been held accountable for the Afghanistan catastrophe. He never fired anybody," Trump said. Trump noted that when he is elected president, he will immediately request the resignations of "every single senior military official" involved in the botched withdrawal. Trump also declared that the 8,000 service members who were removed from the military for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate would be rehired with backpay under his administration. "Starting the moment I lift my hand from the Bible after taking the oath of office, I will move to restore America to maximum strength and return the world to peace," Trump declared. "Comrade Harris, you're fired."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Kamala Harris’ plan to fight “price gouging” with price controls may be enough to fool low information voters, but it’s not fooling America’s best and brightest. Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” is one of them, telling his audience “I don’t like her very much.” Tech legend David Friedberg from the “All-In Podcast” is another one — and he has a warning for those who blindly believe what Harris is saying about the supposed “price gouging” taking place at the grocery store. “I unequivocally hate socialism. Socialism destroys innovation, destroys productivity, and destroys individual liberties,” Friedberg said in response to her plan. “The free market works in that everyone is always competing with each other, creating new productivity improvements, and as a result, over time, prices come down. Except when the government intervenes and gets involved,” he continued. “I would argue that the real cause of price inflation in food is not the supposed price gouging by corporate players in the AG and food industry, all of whom are deeply competitive with one another, but rather is the result of the inflation associated with government spending and stimulus coming out of COVID.” Friedberg then pointed out that the FED balance sheet from COVID until today has grown from 4.2 trillion to 7.2 trillion, which is a growth of 70%. “The Federal Reserve went out and they bought assets and they issued debt to banks and introduced liquidity into the system,” he explained, noting that the result of this was that the M2 money supply increased from 15 trillion to 21 trillion since COVID, which is a 40% increase. “So, now there is more money in the system, so the cost of everything should go up. Which is exactly what we’ve seen,” he said, before sending a warning. “Every socialist experiment in human history has started with caps on food, and it has resulted in breadlines,” he said. “This is a mistake, it is a problem, it is anti-American, it is anti-free market, it is anti-innovation, it is anti-productivity, and ultimately, it’s anti-liberty, and I cannot stand it.” Want more from Dave Rubin?To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

One of the first horror games I ever played was Until Dawn, Supermassive Games' ever-iconic interactive slasher movie. From then on, I was hooked on that all-or-nothing style of gameplay, desperately trying to save everyone in The Dark Pictures Anthology while simultaneously praying I wouldn't end up in pieces. When I clocked that The Casting of Frank Stone, a Dead by Daylight spinoff, was being developed under the Supermassive banner, I was immediately hyped, but new details revealed during Gamescom's second Xbox showcase have me even more excited. Continue reading The Casting of Frank Stone breaks Supermassive’s worst tradition MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best horror games, The Casting of Frank Stone release date, Best adventure games

AMD has responded to the ongoing issue of its Zen 5, Zen 4, and even Zen 3 CPUs having lower performance in Windows when users aren't logged in with an admin account, suggesting a fix is coming soon. The AMD Ryzen Windows bug fix should see users of many recent AMD Ryzen processors getting a slight performance boost if they're still using a standard user account, rather than an admin account. The Windows 11 Ryzen performance problems are affecting some of the best gaming CPUs you can buy, with a discrepancy of as much as 8% being seen between tests run with different types of Windows user accounts. AMD has stated it's working with Microsoft to issue a fix, though, with a pre-release version of Windows 11 already including the change. Continue reading Here’s how a Window update will fix AMD’s Ryzen gaming CPU performance MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Ryzen 7 7800X3D review, Best gaming CPU, Radeon RX 7800 XT review

BOOM --> Megyn Kelly DROPS Mother of ALL Truth Bombs on Oprah Winfrey for Playing the Racist/Sexist Card

CNN's Chris Wallace Put an END to Dems Trying to Compare Biden to George Washington

*SNORT* CNN's Dana Bash Explains Democrat Men Are LOW Testosterone and Can't Relate to REAL Men (Watch)

Hey, what's going on with the backlash surrounding The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered? This week, we're diving deep into the reasons why people seem to be so upset about the game's very existence and if they're justified in feeling that way.

In the Yellow Wind Ridge, Black Myth: Wukong's setting for its second chapter, there are two gatekeeper bosses that will keep players from progressing through to the end of the second chapter.