What Can Go Wrong With Fluoride Supplementation?

The basic problem with the use of fluorides for bone health is that more bone is not necessarily better bone. Treating bones with the compound sodium fluoride, for example, increases the volume of a bone, but without "connecting" the new bone tissue to old bone tissue. This produces a new site for a potential fracture, or broken bone.

Even worse, a combination of fluorides and aluminum compounds (and remember, one of the biggest sources of fluorides in our environment is cryolite, which is used in the making of aluminum) "turns off" the osteoblasts, the cells that create the new bone or tooth enamel after it has been broken down by the osteoclasts.

Mottled Teeth, Knotty Bones

We aren't aware of what's going on with our bones, of course, until a bone breaks. It is a lot easier to detect changes in teeth, whether just by looking or because we are diligent about going to the dentist for routine checkups twice a year.

Many communities in North America and China have naturally occurring high levels fluoride in their drinking water. In these communities, many people develop a condition called dental fluorosis. The teeth repair the damage done by the overactive osteoclasts by creating brown, lumpy, mottled, unsightly crystals.

These teeth don't just look bad. They also tend to break off, requiring constant trips to the dentist to get crowns. And they are just a hint of what can be going on in the bones.

What You Can Do to Avoid Excessive Fluorides

In the communities in the US where the drinking water is contaminated with fluorides, far more fluorides than in the drinking water in towns and cities that fluoridate their water, people drink bottled water. But if you can't afford bottled water, here are some suggestions.

• Drink mineral water. The calcium and magnesium in mineral water combine with the fluorides in tap water so they are not absorbed through the small intestine.
• Use real milk, cream, or half-and-half rather than powdered creamer in your coffee. The "real thing" is lower in fluorides, and also helps bind fluorides from other sources.
• Go ahead and use fluoride toothpaste. It really does prevent cavities. But be sure to rinse out your mouth with water every time you brush so your body doesn't accumulate excessive fluorides that can damage your bones.

It takes 10 to 25 years of exposure to 4 to 10 times the recommended daily intake of fluorides to cause bone damage. If this happens to you, the first symptom is likely to be unexplained bone pain. What is going on is tiny fractures in the bone that hurt, but that don't interfere with motion. 

People of Cantonese and Korean descent are at greater risk for this kind of bone damage. In the United States, people who live in the South, in part because of the prevalence of iced tea as a beverage, are particularly susceptible to this kind of osteoporosis. If you have been drinking fluoridated water for a long time, there is no need to panic, but the three simple changes listed above may prevent painful changes to your bones caused by excessive fluoridation.