Socio-economic groups lower

A major benefit of water fluoridation to children is that it reduces disparities between socio-economic groups [133,134], Children in lower socio-economic groups tend to suffer more severely from dental caries, and though the reasons for this are not clear, the result has been confirmed in many parts of the world. Children in these groups therefore benefit enormously from fluoridation of the water supply and in areas where the water supply is fluoridated, the differences in dental caries experience between the social classes are much less than in non-fluoridated areas [135],... 

Erythrocyte transketolase activity was found to be lowered in different groups of TD patients (Herve et al. 1995 Khounnorath et al. 2011) (Table 33.2). However, post mortem brains of alcoholics who died without symptoms of Wernicke s encephalopathy (WE) revealed 20-35% reductions in the activities of all TDP-dependent enzymes in various brain regions (Lavoie and Butterworth 1995). This means that some degree of TD-induced reductions in oxidative metabolism may be tolerated. In fact, individual sensitivity to TDP deficits may be modified by coexisting clinical conditions such as alcoholism, renal insufficiency, dialysis programmes, aging, diabetes, cardiovascular complications, and voluntary or socio-economically dependent dietary habits (Tables 33.1 and 33.2). 

---