Fluoride: a risk factor for inflammatory bowel disease?
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Updated: Mar 21, 2026
Chronic Salmonella Infection Induced Intestinal Fibrosis
Published on: September 22, 2019
Benoit Follin-Arbelet1, Bjørn Moum2
1a Department of Gene Technology , Akershus University Hospital , Lørenskog , Norway ;
Abstract:
Although the association between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and oral hygiene has been noticed before, there has been little research on prolonged fluoride exposure as a possible risk factor. In the presented cases, exposure to fluoride seems indirectly associated with higher incidence of IBD. Fluoride toxicology and epidemiology documents frequent unspecific chronic gastrointestinal symptoms and intestinal inflammation. Efflux genes that confer resistance to environmental fluoride may select for IBD associated gut microbiota and therefore be involved in the pathogenesis. Together these multidisciplinary results argue for further investigation on the hypothesis of fluoride as a risk factor for IBD.
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