image by: HWN

HWN Suggests

Worst Drug for Osteoporosis: The Truth About Bisphosphonate Drugs

Osteoporosis is a progressive condition that weakens bones, increasing the risk of unexpected fractures. Affecting millions worldwide, it silently undermines bone health and quality of life. As individuals strive to maintain their independence and well-being, bisphosphonate drugs emerge as a popular treatment option. Yet, these medications are enveloped in controversy—are they a solution or the worst drug for osteoporosis?

read full article

Featured

 Most Osteoporosis Drugs Don’t Build Bone. This One Does.

Standard treatments, drugs called bisphosphonates, stop the loss of bone but do not build it. The alternatives, parathyroid hormone and a derivative, build bone but also break it down, limiting the therapeutic effect. The new drug, romosozumab (brand name Evenity), developed by Amgen in collaboration with the Belgian drug company UCB, restores bone without breaking it down, according to the findings of two large clinical trials.

 Why the Benefits of Osteoporosis Drugs Outweigh the Risk of Rare Side Effects

“You are more likely to suffer a bone fracture from untreated low bone density than you are to have one of the rare side effects from taking a drug,” says Chad Deal, MD, Head of the Center for Osteoporosis and Metabolic Bone Disease.

Articles of Interest

Bisphosphonates: Controversies and Clarifications

The growing concern over the long-term safety of bisphosphonates combined with the lack of evidence of any fracture reduction benefits after 5 years of therapy would constitute a reasonable argument for limiting the duration of bisphosphonate therapy to 5 years.

Shunning osteoporosis treatment isn’t a wise decision for most women

Forgoing drugs that slow bone loss to avoid rare side effects can be the wrong decision for your hips and spine.

Why bone drugs should be your last resort

When conventional doctors diagnose a woman as having osteoporosis or osteopenia, they are likely to prescribe so-called bone-building drugs like Fosamax, Reclast, Forteo, Evenity, Tymols or Prolia. The problem with this approach is that bone drugs should be a last resort for most women with bone health concerns, not a first choice.

Did Merck circumvent its duty to warn on ‘Fosamax fractures’?

How would you feel if you were harmed by a medicine you took as prescribed and then learned that the drug company wasn’t liable — even though it knew about the risk and didn’t tell you or your doctor? This is exactly what has happened in the case of Fosamax (alendronate), a drug used to treat bone-thinning osteoporosis and osteopenia. After it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and women across the country began taking the drug, the FDA and its maker, Merck, started receiving reports about spontaneous fractures of the thigh bone among women taking the drug.

Did Merck circumvent its duty to warn on ‘Fosamax fractures’?

How would you feel if you were harmed by a medicine you took as prescribed and then learned that the drug company wasn’t liable — even though it knew about the risk and didn’t tell you or your doctor? This is exactly what has happened in the case of Fosamax (alendronate), a drug used to treat bone-thinning osteoporosis and osteopenia. After it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and women across the country began taking the drug, the FDA and its maker, Merck, started receiving reports about spontaneous fractures of the thigh bone among women taking the drug.

Doctors are blasé about bone health, and it’s leading to more broken bones in the elderly

Osteoporosis could spiral out of control if we don’t get serious about these screening and treatment issues.

Fearing Drugs’ Rare Side Effects, Millions Take Their Chances With Osteoporosis

Millions of Americans are missing out on a chance to avoid debilitating fractures from weakened bones, researchers say, because they are terrified of exceedingly rare side effects from drugs that can help them.

Has Pendulum Swung Too Far on Bisphosphonates?

Physicians and patients may be overreacting to risks with long-term treatment.

How Bone Loss Drugs Can Actually Cause Fractures

New research offers a couple of possible explanations for why bisphosphonates—drugs like Fosamax, Boniva, and Reclast—can leave users more vulnerable to a rare but serious form of bone fracture.

More Support for Osteoporosis Drugs

The benefits of bisphosphonates outweigh the risks for many patients, according to new research and experts.

Osteoporosis drugs may make bones weaker

"Rather startlingly, we found the bone from the bisphosphonate patients was weaker. That's a conundrum because the bone should be stronger."

Osteoporosis Treatments and Overall Mortality

A meta-analysis suggests that drug treatments for osteoporosis should be recommended only for the prevention of fracture and not for any additional reduction in mortality.

Osteoporosis: A Review of Treatment Options

In recent years, major therapeutic advances in osteoporosis treatment have been made as scientists gain a greater understanding of bone morphology and the underlying mechanisms causing osteoporosis. This article will review the pathophysiology, etiology, screening, and diagnosis of osteoporosis; selected professional guidelines and recommendations; nonpharmacological management; pharmacological options; and the cost-effectiveness of those options.

Taking osteoporosis drugs shouldn't prevent you from getting oral surgery

A drug holiday is one recommendation to reduce the risk of a rare bone condition that affects the jaw.

Wider Use Of Osteoporosis Drug Could Prevent Bone Fractures In More Elderly Women

And while National Osteoporosis Foundation guidelines recommend drug treatment for women at risk for fractures, the American College of Physicians' guidelines say current evidence of the benefit of drugs for osteopenia is "limited."

Resources

StatPearls

Alendronate is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis, steroid-induced osteoporosis, and male osteoporosis, as well as for the management of Paget disease of bone. Alendronate belongs to the class of bisphosphonate medications, which aids in the prevention of bone resorption and the promotion of bone density, making it a valuable treatment for osteoporosis and various other bone-related conditions. By binding to hydroxyapatite crystals within bone, alendronate downregulates osteoclast-mediated bone reabsorption, thereby leading to a reduction in bone matrix breakdown.