Health Issue: Drink too much black tea can cause bone problem

Drinking too much of black tea can cause bone problem Washington: A new research by Medical College of Georginhas shown that black tea contains higher concentration of fluoride than previously thought.           "The additional fluoride from drinking two to four cups osf tea a day won't harm anyone; it's the very heavy tea drinkers who could get in frouble," said Dr Gary Whitford, Regents Professor of oral biology in the School of Dentistry. Most published reports show 1 to 5 millingrams of fluoride per litre of black tea, but a new study shows that number could be as high as 9 milligrams.         Fluride is known to help prevent dental cavities, but long-term ingestion of excessive amouts could cause bone problems. Whitford discovered that the fluoride concentration in black tea had long been understimated when he began analysing data from four patients with advanced skeletal fluorosis, a disease caused by excessive fluoride consumption and characterised by joint and bone pain and damage.          "When we tested the patients' tea brands using a traditional method, we found the fluoride concentrations to be very low, so we wondered if that method was detecting all of the fluoride," Whitford said, noting that the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, creates a quandary when measuring fluoride.