Day 4: Bones

Hi again :) so we’ve made it to Day 4! After a post last week about dental fluorosis, some questions were raised and controversies were uncovered. Moving on from that, we're talking about the skeletal system!
Since teeth and bones are similarly constructed (mostly of calcium), it's only natural that if fluoride infects the mouth and teeth, the skeleton is congruently impacted.
Upon ingestion, fluoride is stored in the body by the bones and teeth, as opposed to residing in fat cells like most toxins. The chemical accumulates slowly and does not disintegrate over time...meaning, once it's in your system, it's there for good. No take-backs! As the chemical accumulates, it can lead to joint pain, greater risk of fractures, and even bone deformation. With an increased dosage, fluoride causes the ligaments of the body to calcify—which translates to highly restricted movement. Also from fluoride exposure, bony spurs can appear on the limbs along with forcing the vertebrae to fuse together. Essentially, you could tie the intake of fluoride to the exponentially rising number of elderly people being sent to nursing homes. Fluoride drastically weakens the skeletal system, which leads to brittle, easily broken bones (especially hip fractures); and broken bones are currently the number-one cause for nursing home admission in the United States. To clear up a point made by myth buster on Friday: sure, dental fluorosis can only be acquired before the enamel is fully formed on teeth (children), but the physical effects can be delayed in their appearance and are also visibly prevalent for the rest of your life. Similar to this is skeletal fluorosis. This would be, as you could probably guess, the calcification of all bones instead of just teeth. Skeletal fluorosis makes your bones weaker, brittler, and mottled just as your teeth would be. However, there is clearly not as much emphasis on the cosmetic effect of skeletal fluorosis since your bones are neatly tucked away. Instead, the impact is even more dangerous, in my opinion. Often, skeletal fluorosis is indistinguishable from arthritis since many of the symptoms are analogous. Because of this, skeletal fluorosis goes disregarded, untreated or improperly treated, leading to little or no progression of healing in patients.
Arguably the most perilous health hazard that fluoride poses to the skeletal system is the greatly increased risk of cancer. Osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, will be addressed later in November along with other cancerous effects. As you can see, fluoride does not stop at the oral cavity as it terrorizes the body. Wednesday we'll learn about its dangers in to the mind.