Adverse effects of Excessive Tea Consumption

Tea is believed could lower cholesterol, promote weight loss, and help treatment of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

However, if an excessive consumed, it can cause interference effects on bone, as experienced by 47 years old woman from Michigan, United States.

Woman who live in Detroit was experiencing a rare bone disease after she consumed a pot of tea made of 100 tea bags every day for 17 years. She went to the doctor after experiencing pain in the lower back, arms, legs, and hips over the past five years.

"The X-ray results revealed the presence of a very dense area of ​​bone in the spine and classification on ligaments hands," said Dr. D. Sudhaker Rao, an endocrinology and bone and mineral metabolism specialist at Henry Ford Hospital, who examined the case.

A 47-year-old U.S. woman developed a bone disease rarely seen in the U.S. after consuming an excessive amount of tea. An x-ray showed calcifications on ligaments (left) and areas of dense bone on the spinal vertebrae (right). (Picture from: http://www.livescience.com/)

The researchers suspect that woman suffer from skeletal fluorosis, a type of bone disease caused by an fluoride excessive consumed, a mineral found in tea or water to drink. Levels of fluoride in the blood of this patient was also four times higher than normal.

In the case that published in the New England Journal of Medicine, March 21, 2013, it was revealed that skeletal fluorosis is endemic in some regions of the world. The disease was found in an area that has naturally high fluoride levels in drinking water, including some parts of India and China, but rarely found in Europe and North America.

Excess fluoride is usually removed from the body through the kidneys. But, if there are people who consume large amounts of fluoride formed long crystals deposit in the bones. Other cases also have been reported in the United Sarikat. In this case, the patient drank 3.8 liters of tea every day. After tea consumption is stopped, deposits slowly disappear and bone fluoride improves. It's true, if something exaggeration consumed will give not good results. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | LIVESCIENCE | TJANDRA DEWI | KORAN TEMPO 4177]

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