Too Much Tea Leads Detroit Woman To Fluoride Overdose

[Silent_Bob]

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/03/24/460558/

A 47-year-old Detroit woman is recovering after an extreme addiction to tea.

Henry Ford Hospital Bone & Mineral Research Head Sudhaker Rao says the patient drank the equivalent of 100 cups of tea a day for 17 years.  He says she lost all her teeth and doctors at first thought she had cancer, but as it turned out,  she was suffering from a fluoride overdose.

"Among the beverages that contain fluoride, tea actually contains the highest amount of fluoride, however, it is a small quantity in each bag so we don't drink that many. So if you overflow your system ... the kidney is unable to excrete this load of fluoride from this many bags of tea," said Rao.

"I should give due credit to her – she actually tried very hard and gave up tea and within a few months she started noticing signifacant improvment to her symptoms. However, the good thing is her bones are very strong, she will probably never break them," he added.

Dr. Rao says the patient is doing much better — but she still has a high bone density– that leaves her bones heavy and sore.  He says she is now hooked on another beverage: Diet Coke.

How does tea come to have fluoride in it? The tea leaves absorb the fluoride through the soil.

[KBCraig]

Not to mention, I'm sure she made her tea with flouridated water.

[Russell Kanning]

But fluoride is good for teeth

[MaineShark]

But fluoride is good for teeth

Anything is toxic in large enough doses.  And, conversely, nothing is toxic in a small enough dose.

Even the air we breathe is toxic, at the same time as it sustains our lives.  Antioxidants are only important in keeping you healthy, because oxygen is so toxic.  But long-term damage caused by oxygen is the price we pay for not dying within a few minutes, if it were gone.

The right amount of flouride will strengthen teeth.  Too much will damage them (and many other parts of your body).  From a health standpoint, the issue with things like flouridated water is not that no flouride should be consumed, at all, but that the dosing is uncontrolled - no one knows how much is in the water, and each individual's water consumption is different, so there's no way to get the correct dose.  Flouride toothpaste is a much better idea, because you can control how much you use, and you apply it directly to the teeth, then spit out the excess, instead of swallowing it.

(of course, the more important issue with things like flouridated water is the moral one - no one has the right to force a medical treatment on others against their consent, even if it will benefit them)

[Tom Sawyer]

It's ironic to note that it was "Right Wing Nutjobs" that were opposed to fluoridated water first... now it's "Left Wing Nutjobs" concerned. Of course you're right about the moral issue... the "Public Health" mentality is much more interested in treating us as a herd they manage.

[Russell Kanning]

I was joking about fluoride being good:-)

[MaineShark]

It is good.  At the right dose.

It's just that a lot of folks get this idea that, "if some of this is good, then more of this other thing that's sort of like it, would be better!"  So, if some charity is a good thing, then they decide that massive government wealth redistribution programs must be even better.

The right amount of flouride, used in the right way, is very beneficial.  Too little leaves you lacking, and too much is toxic.  Just like charity, or many other things.

[Becky Thatcher]

Damn...and I thought my family drank a lot of tea! 

We lived in Germany when I was a kid and my brother and I took a flouride pill every day.  I've only ever had two cavities (one in a baby tooth) and my brother has never had a cavity. 

[Russell Kanning]

No cavities for me but if you read the book kat did you would stay away:-)

[Tom Sawyer]

No matter how hard I beat her, them bones just don't break!      

[Pat K]

Ya and wouldn't there be a fine in wake at your house that night........