Just something for everyone to be aware of…

I bought a brand new Berkey filter with new black filters and fluoride filters at the beginning of July. This was my first time adding fluoride filters onto a Berkey system but I’ve had a Berkey for years with no issues. Roughly a week after starting to drink the filtered water I started having weird symptoms in my mouth (extreme dryness, burning tongue, tingling on the roof of my mouth). As the weeks went on that progressed into my tongue swelling at random times, swollen taste buds, ulcers on the insides of my cheeks and my tongue was permanently pale in color. As it got into August, I started to experience dizziness, blurred vision, muscle weakness, loss of appetite (I ended up losing 20 pounds in 6 weeks), tingling in my left arm and extreme anxiety and panic at all times of the day. All of the symptoms in my mouth were still happening as well. I saw my doctor 4 times in that 6 week period and all of my blood work always came back fine with the exception of elevated red blood cells and platelets. My husband finally mentioned that the only thing we had done differently was the fluoride filter so I checked the Berkey and found a coating of white dust on the bottom of the basin as well as white flecks floating in the water. I did a quick Google search and found all the blogs about aluminum leaching into the water. My doctor ordered a heavy metal hair sample test and I submitted the fluoride filtered water to a water testing lab and both came back with high levels of aluminum.

I started drinking the water on July 9th, symptoms appeared on July 17th. Symptoms progressed over 5 weeks until I stopped drinking the water on August 20th and virtually all symptoms disappeared within 3 days of switching to a new water. However, I now have new health issues that I am still dealing with (oral thrush, swollen tonsils and lymph nodes, muscle cramping, anxiety and panic) and my doctor thinks it will take a few months for my nervous system and immune system to recover as heavy metals are hard to detox from.

Berkey accepts no responsibility for what I’ve been through the last 2 months because according to them, the activated alumina in their filters doesn’t cause health issues. My test results show different. I would caution everyone to pay attention to the water coming out of your fluoride filters if you use them and if you suddenly have any weird health issues, get your water tested!