Women using the drug Fosamax to prevent bone fracture from osteoporosis risk serious heart disease new research says. They are nearly twice as likely to develop atrial fibrillation, the most common kind of chronic irregular heartbeat. Fosamax, from pharma giant Merck, is the most widely used drug treatment for the bone-thinning disease.
Co-incidentally, the FDA has just approved the first generic version (called alendronate) this February. As if on cue Fosamax, we now learn, is associated with an 86% higher risk of atrial fibrillation compared with those never having used the drug. Atrial fibrillation causes palpitations, fainting, fatigue, and congestive heart failure. It can also lead to fatal embolic stroke. The warnings come from research published in Eurekalert and Archives of Internal Medicine in April 2008..Earlier research had shown Fosamax to be associated with a number of health dangers including increased risk of liver damage, ulcers, serious eye infection, even blindness, and osteonecrosis of the jaw.
It anyone needs a reminder of the disgraceful manner in which Big Pharma, our respective medical establishments and government bureaucrats collude at the expense of the health of the public at large, this would be it. Now Fosamax, the drug of choice for over a decade, has outlived its patent there is a new Fosamax, another stronger drug operating in the same way called Actonel. So now it’s OK to tell us of the dangers of the old drug and bring on the new. A decade from now, are we to be told Actonel is too dangerous to use or other new drugs, such as Aredia, Forteo and AMG162?
Take 2-a-day & Break a Hip....
Some ten years ago I got a refresher course, if one were needed, as to how this dirty game is played. In 1991 my wife was diagnosed with severe osteoporosis. A top American specialist at UCLA Medical Centre prescribed a drug called Didronel. It was, he said, the latest thing for putting on bone mass. Within a year research showed that Didronel did indeed put on bone mass, but actually it was “old” bone and caused more hip fractures than if you didn’t take the stuff. The specialist didn’t tell us this, I had to find out myself. Thanks, Doc! No matter, Lo and Behold! There was now this new drug called Fosamax, which my wife began taking. Five years later she moved on to a newer drug called Actonel.
Ten years ago my sister-in-law in New Zealand told me she had osteoporosis. “What are you taking?”, I asked. “Didronel”, she said. I hit the roof. What in hell was her doctor doing having her take a drug all the world knew for over a decade actually made bones break? Were they mad or simply criminally negligent?
It was worse. The whole system was rotten to the core and this in dear old New Zealand where, like Sweden, the State was thought to take good care of its citizens from cradle to grave. Well, if you didn’t know already, things have changed. My sister-in-law went back to her doctor, who now told her for the first time there was actually another drug called Fosamax, had been for years, but it wasn’t covered by national insurance. “It’s expensive”, she said. She wasn’t kidding. Fosamax in NZ at that time cost eight times as much as it did in the US, where drug prices are already shockingly inflated. In other words, the NZ Ministry of Health is subsidising the cost of a drug it has known for a decade is a bone breaker. If that isn’t bad enough, it gets worse yet. On looking into it I found out that the NZ Ministry of Health itself doesn’t actually make the decision about which drugs it will buy and subsidise. No, drug selection and purchasing is jobbed out to a private company. I own I was shocked. This wasn’t Zimbabwe ferchrissakes.... this was bloody New Zealand!
Finally, a Drug to Build Bone?
For the last two years my wife has moved on to the latest osteoporosis drugs. She now uses an annual infusion of a drug called Zometa from Novartis, which appears to be a better way of slowing the natural breakdown of bone. Most interesting of all is a new French drug called Protos 2g from Servier, which for the first time ever has the effect of increasing the growth rate of new bone. Something none of the previous drugs could do. And something is working. For the first time DEXA scans show my wife actually putting on bone mass in her spine.
Osteoporosis affects one in three women and one in five men over the age of 50, mostly because so many are unaware of the risk as you age and what can be done to prevent it. The disease affects 100’s of millions of people worldwide. There are 25 million sufferers in the US alone and 1.2 million bone fractures each year related to osteoporosis. Drugs like Fosamax, however, are not the solution.
What’s Wrong With Fosamax?
Fosamax is in the same chemical class (phosphonate) as cleaners used to remove soap scum from your bath tub. It’s a metabolic poison that actually kills your osteoclasts.osteoclasts are cells that break down your bone so your osteoblasts can rebuild them. In normal healthy bone, this breakdown and rebuilding of bone are interconnected processes involved in the normal rejuvenation of bone. In osteoporosis, the net rate of bone resorption (breakdown) exceeds the rate of bone formation, which results in a decrease in bone mass. It is quite clear that if you kill your osteoclasts your bone will get denser. However, what they don’t tell you is that eventually your bone actually becomes brittle, even though it is denser.
It’s tragic that drugs like Didronel and Fosamax are allowed to continue being touted as the answer to osteoporosis. The fact that Fosamax can nearly double your risk of developing atrial fibrillation was, according to the researchers, a “completely unexpected and previously unrecognized adverse effect” of the drug. But many other adverse effects have already been discovered, which include: Increased risk of ulcers, liver damage, gastric and oesophageal inflammation, renal failure, skin reactions, hypocalcemia (low blood calcium, osteonecrosis (jaw bone death) and serious eye inflammations and possible blindness.
Strengthening your Bones Naturally
If you have low bone density, or worry it might become a problem in the future, increase your consumption of vegetables. Consider vegetable juicing; maintain a healthy balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fats; consider supplementing with vitamin K which serves as the biological “glue” that helps plug the calcium into your bone matrix. Get enough vitamin D, which builds bone density helping your body absorb calcium. There are many osteoporosis formulations. Some good, some so-so, and 100’s of lousy ones not worth a dam’, so pick with care. Two of the best are Jarrow’s Bone-Up and Bone Restore from LEF.
Exercise. Studies show that exercise is just as important to your bone health as eating a calcium-rich diet.
Consider natural progesterone, which can increase bone strength and density by promoting osteoblasts growth (cells that build bone). You must consult your doctor on using supplemental progesterone, which is a powerful hormone. Avoid soda and sugar, which can deplete calcium.
Who Can you trust?
Please don’t misunderstand me. In many ways, particularly surgically, modern hi-tech medicine is an ongoing miracle. Despite their criminal ways the pharmaceutical majors save countless lives. But there is something rotten in the system when it comes to the treatment of chronic and degenerative disease. The discouraging thing about all this is, who can you turn to when you have a serious and debilitating chronic illness? You can’t trust Big Pharma. All the major pharmaceutical companies routinely behave criminally. I mean this literally. It’s a matter of record. It’s how the system works. You can’t even rely on the advise of your doctors, it seems. Our governments won’t protect us. And God help you if you trust in most alternative “practitioners”, flogging their pet nostrums and cure-all therapies.
There’s no simple answer, all you can do is research yourself and try to find those rare jewels, physicians who actually treat the body as an integral unit and/or those alternative practitioners who do know of what they speak. It’s not easy, it never is. Just remember, if you can, most chronic diseases are lifestyle diseases. That’s the hardest lesson of all.
