14 DAY TRIAL // A 47-year-old woman in Detroit is now making headlines due to her drinking so much tea that she ended up developing a rare bone disease known to the scientific community as skeletal fluorosis and eventually losing all her teeth.
For those who are unfamiliar with said medical condition, it need be said that “skeletal fluorosis” is basically doctors' talk for stiff joints, bone pain and easily breakable teeth.
The researchers who had the opportunity to have a look at this woman's medical records explain that her developing skeletal fluorosis was a direct result of her ingesting a tad too much fluoride.
Long story short, fluoride is a mineral which, when administered in controlled and relatively small amounts, is actually quite beneficial. Thus, it prevents tooth decay and it improves on one's overall wellbeing. Medical Daily reports that negligible amounts of fluoride can be found in the tea that some people drink on a fairly regular basis.
However, this woman's habit of daily drinking a pitcher of tea made from over 100 tea bags for a period of roughly 17 years eventually led to her body's being exposed to whopping amounts of said mineral.
More precisely, doctors maintain that the fluoride levels inside this woman's blood were roughly four times higher than what is considered to be safe and normal.
The same source informs us that, once the fluoride began to accumulate inside this 47-year-old's organism, her ligaments began to calcify. As well as this, her bones grew to have a rather abnormal density and she even lost all her teeth.
“The patient reported that for the past 17 years, she has habitually consumed a pitcher of tea made from 100 to 150 tea bags daily (estimated fluoride intake, >20 mg per day). She reported a 5-year history of pain in the lower back, arms, legs, and hips. Because of brittleness, all her teeth had been extracted,” the researchers write in their paper.
Still, there is one very good news: the woman's skeletal fluorosis has every chances of healing in time, provided that she cuts down on her tea intake and turns towards other beverages instead.
A report concerning this peculiar case of tea overdose was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.