The body maintains its fluid balance

 Mighty Minerals & Food : part-3

The rest is in extracellular fluid, which is all the other body liquids, such as, 7. Interstitial fluid (the fluid between cells) 8. Blood plasma (the clear liquid in blood) 9. Lymph (a clear, slightly yellow fluid collected from body tissues that flows through your lymph nodes and eventually into your blood vessels) 10. Bodily secretions such as sweat, seminal fluid, and vaginal fluids 11. Urine A healthy body must have just the right amount of fluid inside and outside each cell, a situation described as fluid balance. Maintaining your fluid balance is essential to life. If there is too little water inside a cell, the cell shrivels and dies. If therefs too much water, the cell bursts. The body maintains its fluid balance through the action of substances called electrolytes, mineral compounds that, when dissolved in water, become electrically charged particles called ions. Many minerals, including calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium, form compounds that dissolve into charged particles. But nutritionists generally use the term electrolyte to describe sodium, potassium, and chlorine. The most familiar electrolyte is the one found on every dinner table: sodium chloride. (In water, its molecules dissolve into two ions: one sodium ion and one chloride ion

The electrolytesf primary job Under normal circumstances, the fluid inside your cells has more potassium than sodium and chloride. The fluid outside is just the opposite: more sodium and chloride than potassium. The cell wall is a semipermeable membrane; Fluoridated water: The real Tooth Fairy Except for the common cold, dental cavities are the most common human medical problem. You get cavities from mutans streptococci, bacteria that live in dental plaque. The bacteria digest and ferment carbohydrate residue on your teeth (plain table sugar is the worst offender) leaving acid that eats away at the mineral surface of the tooth enamel to the softer pulp inside of the tooth, your tooth hurts. And you head for the dentist even though you hate it so much youfd almost rather put up with the pain. But almost doesnft count, so off you go. Brushing and flossing help prevent cavities by cleaning your teeth so that bacteria have less to feast on. Another way to reduce your susceptibility to cavities is to drink fluoridated water. 

Combines with other minerals in teeth and makes the minerals less soluble (harder to dissolve). You get the most benefit by drinking water containing 1 part fluoride to every 1 million parts water (1 ppm) from the day youfre born until the day you get your last permanent tooth, usually around age 11 to 13. Some drinking water, notably in the American Southwest, is fluoridated naturally when it flows through rocks containing fluorine. Sometimes so much fluoride is in this water that it causes a brownish spotting (or mottling) that occurs while teeth are developing and accumulating minerals. This effect doesnft occur with drinking water artificially supplemented with fluoride at the approved standard of one part fluoride to every million parts of water. Because fluorides concentrate in bones, some people believe that drinking fluoridated water raises the risk of bone cancers, but no evidence to support this claim has ever been found in human beings. Public Health Servicefs National Toxicology Program (NTP) study of the long-term effects of high fluoride consumption on laboratory rats and mice added fuel to the fire: Four of the 1,044 laboratory rats and mice fed high doses of fluoride for two years developed osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. The study sent an immediate frisson (shiver of fear) through the health community, but within a year, federal officials reviewing the study issued an opinion endorsing the safety and effectiveness of fluoridated water. Read More....