Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that sodium fluoride therapy may be an effective treatment for vertebral osteoporosis. Unfortunately, the high frequency of side effects may limit the use of this treatment modality. This report documents the repeated exacerbation of rheumatoid arthritis on three occasions after the initiation of sodium fluoride therapy. This apparent complication of sodium fluoride treatment may be mediated by stimulation of leukocyte production of reactive oxygen species and other mediators of the acute inflammatory response. We suggest that sodium fluoride should be used cautiously in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

• Related Studies :

  • Review of the Bartlett-Cameron survey: a ten year fluoride study.

    Analysis of the data produced the following conclusions: 1.  As was expected, dental fluorosis was significantly greater in Bartlett than in Cameron (all of the participants born and in continuous residence in Bartlett during the tooth formative period exhibited positive evidence of dental fluorosis). 2.  The incidence of cardiovascular disease was higher

  • Fluoride intoxication from drinking water (a report of 52 cases)

    In previous publications, cases of incipient fluorine 1) poisoning from drinking artificially fluoridated water at the 1 ppm concentration were reported. A specific disease pattern could be discerned closely tallying with what has b??n observed in industrial poisoning from fluorine intake at higher levels. There are three groups of symptoms: 1. Those

  • Clinical and pathogenetic features of chronic occupational intoxication with fluorine compounds in modern conditions

    Multi-year follow-up of 358 workers of aluminum pot rooms, including 165 individuals suffering from fluorosis, has shown significant changes in the clinical picture of the chronic occupational fluorine intoxication, developed under modern conditions of production, at lower concentrations of fluorine compounds in the air of working area. In this connection,

  • An epidemiological study of skeletal fluorosis in some villages of Chandrapur District, Maharashtra, India

    Fluorosis is an important public health problem in certain parts of India. Chandrapur is one of the fluorosis endemic district of Maharashtra. An investigation was undertaken in three villages of study area to assess the clinical symptoms of skeletal fluorosis and in turn to find out the severity of the

  • Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards.

    Excerpts: Summary Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to establish exposure standards for contaminants in public drinking-water systems that might cause any adverse effects on human health. These standards include the maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG), the maximum contaminant level (MCL), and the secondary

• Related FAN Content :

  • Is the Ingestion of Fluoride an Immunosuppressive Practice?

    This paper records several observations which suggest that habitual ingestion of small doses of fluoride, even as small as the 1 mg/L contained in fluoridated water, may decrease the function of the immune system.

  • Fluoride & the Immune System - Summation from the US National Research Council (2006)

    “There is no question that fluoride can affect the cells involved in providing immune responses. The question is what proportion, if any, of the population consuming drinking water containing fluoride at 4.0 mg/L on a regular basis will have their immune systems compromised? Not a single epidemiologic study has investigated whether fluoride in the drinking water at 4 mg/L is associated with changes in immune function. Nor has any study examined whether a person with an immunodeficiency disease can tolerate fluoride ingestion from drinking water.”

  • Does Fluoride Ingestion Affect Developing Immune System Cells?

    Considerations, supported by some published experimental evidence, suggest that fluoride released during the resorption of high-fluoride bone may produce detrimental effects not only on bone cells but on developing cells of the immune system.

  • Skeletal Fluorosis: The Misdiagnosis Problem

    It is a virtual certainty that there are individuals in the general population unknowingly suffering from some form of skeletal fluorosis as a result of a doctor's failure to consider fluoride as a cause of their symptoms. Proof that this is the case can be found in the following case reports of skeletal fluorosis written by doctors in the U.S. and other western countries. As can be seen, a consistent feature of these reports is that fluorosis patients--even those with crippling skeletal fluorosis--are misdiagnosed for years by multiple teams of doctors who routinely fail to consider fluoride as a possible cause of their disease.

  • "Pre-Skeletal" Fluorosis

    As demonstrated by the studies below, skeletal fluorosis may produce adverse symptoms, including arthritic pains, clinical osteoarthritis, gastrointestinal disturbances, and bone fragility, before the classic bone change of fluorosis (i.e., osteosclerosis in the spine and pelvis) is detectable by x-ray. Relying on x-rays, therefore, to diagnosis skeletal fluorosis will invariably fail to protect those individuals who are suffering from the pre-skeletal phase of the disease. Moreover, some individuals with clinical skeletal fluorosis will not develop an increase in bone density, let alone osteosclerosis, of the spine. Thus, relying on unusual increases in spinal bone density will under-detect the rate of skeletal fluoride poisoning in a population.