Excessive tea consumption causes unusual bone disease

A 47-year-old Michigan woman developed a bone disease rarely seen in the US after she drank a pitcher of tea made from at least 100 tea bags daily, for 17 years, researchers report published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The Detroit woman visited the doctor after experiencing pain in her lower back, arms, legs and hips for five years. X-rays revealed areas of very dense bone on the spinal vertebrae and calcifications of ligaments in her arm, said study researcher Dr Sudhaker D. Rao, a physician at Henry Ford Hospital who specializes in endocrinology and bone and mineral metabolism. The researchers suspected the woman had skeletal fluorosis, a bone disease caused by consuming too much fluoride (a mineral found in tea as well as drinking water). According to research report the patient's blood levels of fluoride were four times higher than what would be considered normal, the researchers said.