CAUSES OF OSTEOPOROSIS: FLUORIDE
In water supplies. Fluorides are chemical combinations of fluorine and other common elements. Fluoride is an important mineral needed for good bones, blood, teeth, nails, skin and hair.
When fluoride is taken during childhood or adolescence, it is incorporated into the structure of developing teeth, making the enamel more resistant to acids produced by bacteria, as well as strengthening bone tissue. Fluoride is rapidly taken up by bone and is known to stimulate bone growth, and it has been used successfully in experiments treating sufferers of osteoporosis. Harvard studies have shown that elderly people suffer less calcium loss from bones and fewer hip fractures when fluoride is in their drinking water.
Fluoride can occur naturally in water in certain localities, dissolving from rocks where the water is flowing. The optimum level is considered to be 1 part fluoride to a million parts of water (1 ppm), which provides a fluoride intake of about 1 milligram per day. Some regions have as little as 0.1 ppm and a few have as much as 5 to 10 ppm. The average level of natural fluoride in UK drinking water is low – only about 0.2 ppm. People who drink water containing higher levels of fluoride, such as 5 ppm, may have mottling of teeth but virtually no tooth decay and good strong bones. Moderate bone ‘fluorosis’ can be beneficial for greater skeletal strength among elderly people, and moderate fluoride supplements can prevent the onset of osteoporosis.
Too much fluoride can be as harmful as too httle, however, although bone fluorosis generally occurs only where the fluoride level of water is more than 10 ppm (10 mg of fluoride per day). For instance, in the Punjab region of India, where the naturally present fluoride is extremely high, bone changes are connected with severe joint and nerve disease.
Fluoridation of public water supplies continues to create controversy, and perhaps you’ve heard about other possible adverse effects of fluoride. Fluoride is toxic at excessive levels, but 2500 ppm is required for fatal poisoning – many times higher than that in fluoridated water. And although you may hear rumours and reports that fluoride is associated with human cancer, there is no scientific truth or medical basis. Studies have tried to link fluoridated drinking water with Mongolism (Down’s Syndrome), but have failed for lack of scientific evidence. The US Consumers Union medical panel has concluded that there is no scientific controversy over fluoridation safety, and finds it economical and beneficial.
Water Authorities in the UK have twenty-three different schemes for fluoridation of our water supplies, for about 9 million people or 17 per cent of the population. Check to see if your community water supply is naturally fluoridated, or if it has been amended to the approved level of 1 ppm of fluoride. If you have a reverse osmosis system in your home to provide purified drinking water, this could be removing fluoride. Check this with your dealer. And ask your physician or dentist about the fluoride needed by you and your family, and before giving fluoride tablets to your children.
Commercial companies that sell bottled drinking water sometimes offer the option of water that has been treated with fluoride to the 1 ppm level, at a small extra cost compared to regular drinking water.
If your children are relying on fluoridated water as their source of fluoride, make sure they are actually drinking it, and not consuming the more tempting soft drinks.
Fluoride in foods. Although water is the main source of fluoride in the diet, it also occurs in various foods – sardines, whole fish, and tea, for instance. Food can contribute up to 25 per cent of your daily fluoride intake, particularly if fluoridated water is used in processing or the crops are grown in regions naturally high in fluoride. Tea leaves have the highest fluoride levels found in plants: 6 cups of an average brew in England supplies about 1 mg. A relatively high concentration of fluoride has been found in wine from grapes growing near active volcanoes in Italy.
In other parts of the world, fluoride has been specially added to foods: in Hungary and Switzerland it has been added to salt. Experiments have also tried the fortification of fluoride in flour, milk, fruit juices and sugar.
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