Aging the Bone: The Degenerative Effects of Skeletal Fluorosis

Aging the Bone: The Degenerative Effects of Skeletal Fluorosis
Now let's look at the bone. Unlike the ameloblasts, and odontoblasts of teeth whose regenerative activity stops after tooth development, osteoblasts continue to actively lay down collagen, and new bone formation continues to take place.

If a tooth breaks or fractures, you're out of luck. The damage cannot be repaired. However, if a bone breaks or fractures, osteoblasts lay down collagen to produce a framework for new bone formation to repair the damage.

Bone also has the ability to rejuvenate itself. As older bone is removed by bone scavenger cells called osteoclasts, osteoblasts lay down collagen to produce a framework for new bone formation to renew the skeletal structure.

Thus, damage to collagen production in bone can interfere with the normal processes of bone rejuvenation and repair throughout life.

Cartilage

The balls and sockets of bones are lined with a smooth, tough elastic substance called cartilage. Maintaining the integrity of cartilage depends largely upon the ability of cells called chondroblasts to lay down noncalcified collagen which is the major structural component of cartilage.

The Effect of Fluoride on Bone and Cartilage

Fluoride has been shown to interfere with collagen formation in osteoblasts and chondroblasts. If, as pointed out, increased production of imperfect collagen or collagen-like protein results in mineralization of tissues which should not be mineralized, and vice versa, one would expect a calcification of ligaments, cartilage, and tendons as well as the formation of poorly and overly mineralized bone. This is exactly what happens after exposure to fluoride.

In discussing their examination of tissues from patients exposed to fluoride, Drs. A. Singh and S.S. Jolly, world-renowned experts on the clinical effects of fluoride on bone, point out that

- The most noticeable changes are detected in the spine with calcification of various spinal ligaments, resulting in pronounced bony outgrowths. The other bones show numerous spiky outgrowths especially in tendons (collagen-rich fibrous tissue which attach muscles to bone) and ligaments (collagen rich fibrous tissue which holds bones together). Under careful inspection, the bony outgrowths are found to consist of coarse, woven fibers which are largely uncalcified.

- Irregular bone is also laid down in joint sockets

and interosseous membranes (membranes between bones in arms and legs).

- In more advanced cases of fluoride exposure, bones become held together by masses of new bone laid down in the joint socket, ligaments and tendons. This results in the locking up of joints and permanent inability of victims to move or flex their joints. Vertebrae become fused at many places. This results in the characteristic 'hunch back' symptom of skeletal fluorosis.

- There is a low degree of remineralization of the bone itself, which is partly due to a wide seam of uncalcified osteoid (collagen).

In 1973, Dr. Jolly and co-workers presented radiological evidence of skeletal fluorosis which results in these bone deformities in parts of India where the drinking water contained as little as 0.7 parts per million fluoride, with the occurrence and severity increasing with increasing levels of fluoride in the drinking water.

In 1985, Dr. I. Arnala and co-workers of Kuopio University in Finland reported that: 'The upper limit for fluoride concentration in drinking water that does not increase the amount of unmineralized bone is roughly 1.5 parts per million. We should however, recognize that it is difficult to give a strict value for a safe concentration in drinking water because individual susceptibility to fluoride varies.'

In addition to fluoride-induced bone irregularities, one could expect that the fluoride-induced irregularities of the joint cartilage (which is normally smooth) would result in the irritation and inflammation commonly referred to as arthritis. One could also expect fluoride to cause an increase in the incidence of fractures and a decrease in the body's ability to heal bone breaks and bone fractures.

Clinical observations show that this is exactly what happens.

Arthritic Changes

Drs. Singh and Jolly point out that early symptoms of fluoride-induced damage to bones and cartilage start with 'vague pains noted most frequently in the small joints of the spine. These cases are frequent in the endemic [local] areas and may be misdiagnosed as rheumatoid or osteoarthritis.

'In later stages, there is an obvious stiffness of the spine with limitation of movements, and still later, the development of kyphosis [hunch back].

'There is difficulty in walking, due partly to stiffness and limitation of the movements of various joints.

'Some patients complain of dyspnea, [difficulty in breathing] on exertion because of the rigidity of the thoracic cage.'

Dr. Jolly and co-workers reported these symptoms in parts of India where the drinking water contains as little as 0.7 parts per million fluoride, the occurrence and severity increasing as the fluoride content in the drinking water increased.

In the United States, Dr. George Waldbott also diagnosed some of the early symptoms listed above, including arthritis and joint pains, as being due to the consumption of water fluoridated at 1 part per million. He was able to bring about a reversal in these symptoms by eliminating fluoridated water from the patients'diets. However, if left unattended, the degeneration leads to the advanced stages of arthritis and 'old age.'

Similar arthritic symptoms have been reported among people exposed to air-borne fluoride in Switzerland, Germany, Britain, United States, Canada, and North Africa. Dr. Yiamouyiannis was contacted by an independent British broadcasting company who consulted him concerning a problem they had found in a brick manufacturing area about 50 miles outside of London where they reported that over 90% of the population was suffering from arthritis induced by air-borne fluoride.

Dr.Waldbott noted the possibility of the age-accelerating effects of fluoride with respect to arthritis and stated:

'Among the elderly, arthritis of the spine is an especially common ailment that is customarily attributed to 'aging.' Since fluoride retention in bones increases as a person grows older, how can we disregard the possibility that this 'old age' disease might be linked with fluoride intake? For example [others have] described in detail X-ray changes encountered in skeletal fluorosis in North Africa, that are in every respect identical to those present in the arthritic spine of the elderly.'

Breaks and Fractures

In 1978, Dr. J.A. Albright and co-workers from Yale University reported at the Annual Meeting of the Orthopedics Research Society that as little as 1 part per million fluoride decreases bone strength and elasticity.

In 1983, Dr. B. Uslu from Anadelu University School of Medicine in Eskisehir, Turkey reported that addition of fluoride to the drinking water of rats with fractured bones resulted in defective healing of the fracture due to disruption of collagen synthesis.

In 1978, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an editorial pointing out that 'in several short-term studies, fluoride has been administered for treatment of involutional osteoporosis, alone or with supplemental calcium, vitamin D or both. No studies have demonstrated alleviation of fracture[s]. However, studies in humans have shown an increased incidence of fractures. When high doses of fluorides have been given to animals receiving a diet that was otherwise unchanged, most studies have shown no change or a decrease in the strength of the bone.' They also pointed out that administration of fluoride resulted in nonmineralized seams in bones, resulting in the disease called osteomalacia. These nonmineralized seams imply that breaks and fractures in the patients' bones would tend to heal more slowly.

It is ironic that anyone would ever think of treating osteoporosis (a disease in which the bones lose calcium) with fluoride, a substance which leads to decalcification of bone. In 1977, Dr. Jennifer Jowsey, one of the originators of fluoride therapy for osteoporosis, admitted that fluoride was leading to a greater degree of osteoporosis (demineralization) in some bones while leading to osteosclerosis (overmineralization) in others. In other words, fluoride treatment of osteoporosis 'robs Peter to pay Paul' and leads to a general weakening of the bones.

In 1980, Dr. J.C. Robin and co-workers from the Roswell Park Memorial Institute confirmed the foolishness of using fluoride for the treatment of osteoporosis by publishing their results in the Journal of Medicine. According to the authors, 'fluoride had no preventive effect. In some experiments there was even a deleterious effect of fluoride.' They found fluoride accelerated the process of osteoporosis leading to a loss of calcium from the bone.

Claims that the amount of fluoride found in fluoridated water would help prevent osteoporosis have been studied epidemiologically. Researchers from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics claimed to find no preventive effect, while researchers from the National Board of Health in Finland claim to find a preventive effect. However, the number of people examined in these two studies was far too small to yield statistically meaningful results. The studies of Drs. Singh and Jolly as well as the studies of Dr. I. Arnala and co-workers who report increases in unmineralized bone, are consistent with the finding of Dr. Robin that fluoride accelerates the process of osteoporosis.

In 1973, a report from the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases found 50 to 100% increases in the incidence of a disease called osteitis fibrosa among patients whose artificial kidney machines were run on fluoridated water. Osteitis fibrosa is a disease characterized by fibrous degeneration of the bone; it results in bone deformities and sometimes in fracture...

Hardening of the Arteries

In a number of areas where people consume water containing 3 parts per million fluoride or more, calcification of the arteries has been clinically correlated with the fluoride-induced bone disorders described in Chapter 6. The indication again is that fibroblasts in the arterial cell walls are producing larger amounts of an imperfect collagen or collagen-like protein, resulting in hardening of the arteries or arteriosclerosis, the leading cause of death in the United States.

During aging, hardening of the arteries is probably due to disruption of collagen production, according to Dr. John Negalesko, director of the first year medical program at the Ohio State University Medical School and an expert in the field. Thus, fluoride, by disrupting the production of collagen and by stimulating the calcification of arteries, has speeded up another phase of the aging process