India - CUTTING DOWN ON ROCK SALT AND FLUORIDE CAN HELP TACKLE ANAEMIA, A NEW STUDY FINDS

For several decades, India has been trying to reduce the health burden due to anaemia.This condition is known to be a result of insufficient red blood cell and low haemoglobin production in the body and is linked with iron deficiency.Now, scientists say that the problem is more layered than it appears to be and cannot be tackled by supplementing iron and folic acid alone.In a new study involving over 2400 school children in New Delhi, scientists have found that consumption of excess fluoride is intricately linked to anaemia.

Children were divided into groups as per their haemoglobin levels – non-anaemic, moderately anaemic and severely anaemic.Urine tests showed that fluoride level was higher than the acceptable limit in all children. Their families were then advised simple diet modifications such as avoiding fluoride-rich rock salt, replacing fluoridated toothpaste with low-fluoride ones and including inexpensive nutritious vegetables in daily diets.Water source in their homes and schools were also tested for fluoride.At the beginning of the intervention, about 98 percent of students were either mildly or moderately anaemic. After six months of dietary intervention, 45% of them became non-anaemic....