Bisphosphonates! :(

[ClockworkOrange]

Just curious of other views on this drug.

I was put on Alendrolic Acid a bisphosphonate, for a year while I was on Prednisolone during a flare up of Aspergilliosis, thankfully that has disappeared for a while and consequently I was taken off them.

Then after breaking my back and after having a scan it was noticed that I was just in the zone of having Ostopenia, so I was put on this one a week tablet once again.

http://www.wellnessresources.com/freedom/articles/the_delusion_of_bone_drugs_big_pharma_cons_millions_of_women_of_billions_of/

After reading a lot on the internet from both the UK and US, I have decided I do NOT want to be taking this medication. So, by eating plenty of foods containing calcium and exercising, that should help considerably, also I discovered how amazing the humble prune is, so much so they have now started calling it a dried plum, which it is anyway. :rolleyes: I found this link fascinating. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=103

Recently my GP has told me to stop taking Calcium tablets as earlier this year there has been a lot written linking them to heart problems!

It would be interesting to hear other views.

Cheers.

Clock

[Owlie]

At the risk of being flamed, and in the interest of full disclosure, my parents worked for P&G Pharma (R&D), on a related drug (risedronate). I still remember my dad's t-shirt with the somewhat scary cartoon character with buck teeth on it. Eesh.

Anyway...
What I know about them is culled from vaguely remembered snippets of information (my mother showed me slides of osteoporotic rat bone from the controls when I was five and said "This is what happens if you don't drink milk.")
That and "Hey, what was that stuff?"-inspired research. The side effects of the N-containing bisphosphonates look pretty nasty, I can say that, though how rare they are (esp. the ONJ), I don't know.

Even though my career (and personal) interests put me on a path that is very much pharmaceutical-oriented, I don't necessarily believe that meds are the answer to everything. Drugs may be a solution for some. For others, a wait-and-see approach regarding the drugs combined with diet and/or lifestyle changes is the best bet.
If I had a condition that could get worse and be remedied by a drug with potentially nasty side effects, but could also be remedied by some lifestyle and diet adjustments...I think I'd see if I could put off the drugs for a while.

[ClockworkOrange]

Cheers Owlie, that is just the type of reply I was hoping for.

If I had cancer I would be willing to risk toxic drugs but for my current condition, I feel I would sooner take a chance and do it my way.

Clock

[Crankin]

Clock, I am not one to take a lot of medications, but I have been down this road. I was diagnosed with osteopeinia when I was in my mid forties. I tried the diet, weight training, calcium plus D supplements, nasal spray made from salmon bones, and Evista (a hormonal treatment for osteoporosis). Despite 25 years of impact exercise, I was diagnosed with osteoporosis last year, at age 55. I had tried the medications you are referring to (in pill form) about twelve years ago and had the terrible gastric side effects. So this year, I tried the Reclast infusion, which is basically the medication you are talking about, but it is given once a year in an IV, for 30 minutes. It by-passes the gastric system, so it doesn't have those side effects. Yes, there are other side effects, but at this point, the fear of breaking my hip from a bike crash or other sport I do is enough for me to want to try to stop my bone loss with drugs. Nothing else has worked. I saw both my grandmother and mother lose inches from this disease. My grandmother broke her hip and she was never the same.
Anything you read on the Internet is not going to be positive... I stopped looking at that stuff a long time ago. I am not about to stop all of the activity I do; I decided to stop mountain biking because of this, and while it's not a sport I was great at, it kind of pissed me off.
It's quite possible that your broken back may have had something to do with the state of your bone density. And yes, I read the study about calcium related to heart attacks, but if I remember, it was a pretty specific population that was in the study. I would absolutely not stop taking calcium/vitamin D/magnesium, along with dietary changes.

[jessmarimba]

I'm forcing myself to try and get more calcium now too...

I can't stand the taste of milk though, but I figure the added sugar of putting something - ANYTHING - in it to make me drink it is worth the extra calories.

I hate medication and will pretty much refuse to take anything unless forced (as in, someone injects it into an IV when my back is broken and I can't fight!)

[OakLeaf]

One thing to remember is that milk isn't the best place to get calcium, since it also contains a lot of phosphorus. Try to increase your magnesium intake and decrease phosphorus.

[spindizzy]

Just another thought. The body tries to maintain a neutral ph. A lot of what we eat causes the body to be in a more acidic state forcing it to draw from alkaline stores i.e. bone. Lots of fruits and vegetables will help the body stay alkaline and prevent the use of bone stores to neutralize pH. Rather than trying to add more calcium (though I'm not saying that isn't important, especially now) perhaps focusing on preventing the body from losing it's calcium will better align with your feelings about not subscribing to the pharmaceutical regime suggested.

I know some individuals who had major jaw issues that developed while on bisphosphinate.

[Owlie]

Yes, necrosis of the jaw bone (what they used to call "fossy jaw") is a potential side effect of some of those drugs.

If you keep a healthy level of circulating calcium, the body won't have to draw on bone stores to keep the calcium levels in the bloodstream (and consequently other tissues) at the right place. There's probably a reason they tell you not to use bisphosphonates (at least, residronate) if you've got low blood calcium...

[shootingstar]

I'm forcing myself to try and get more calcium now too...

I can't stand the taste of milk though, but I figure the added sugar of putting something - ANYTHING - in it to make me drink it is worth the extra calories.

I hate medication and will pretty much refuse to take anything unless forced (as in, someone injects it into an IV when my back is broken and I can't fight!)

I was slightly lactose intolerant for a certain time in life, simply because I forgot to drink enough milk.

Then I slowly put myself back on it, in a slightly absent-minded way. :o I don't always think much about what I eat in a super analytical way. I've always liked the taste of milk. But now it's only skim milk or 2% milk. I no longer care for the creaminess of homogenized milk.

I have it in my daily oatmeal (my oatmeal tends to be milky which is how I learned to have it as a child) or in cereal if I'm travelling, away from home. I put it in coffee or tea (which I know doesn't do it much good. But I need to soften the taste of black coffee or tea.. but without sugar).

THis will sound dumb..to many people here but I have noticed within my generation of Asians born and raised in Canada...the kids, now adults are /look bigger boned and taller. But not fat/much overweight. Just healthy and stronger looking. Amongst some folks, part of the informal comments is the milk, differences in quality of diet.

To illustrate: I am a petite person with small bones but most likely if you were to meet my cousin who is one year older than I, is 4'11" (I'm 5'1"), she really does look more fragile thin. A combination of reasons might be her exercising (if she does any) is not the same intensity/frequency as mine and also she just was never raised on any dairy products. She probably still doesn't eat much dairy products after being in Canada for last 25 yrs.

Her intake of calcium was more on the tofu, plant-based calcium. Some veggies do have higher concentrations of calcium compared to others. **Dairy if it has too much fat, too often, of course is not a good thing.

But now, the next generations thereafter me, well, it's more fat, etc. due to pop, fast foods, if the kids look whole lot bigger than parents. A gross generalization. But all one has to do is look into people's shopping carts in the grocery store lineup. (Restaurant customer observation may not always be accurate since people might eat stuff they normally don't at home.)

From the U.S. National Institute of Health, the source where health care professionals do start:

On calcium, sources of dairy and non-dairy:

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/calcium.asp

Orange: What I'm saying may not totally apply for your serious bone injury that you are trying to heal. Am just making generic comments.

[jessmarimba]

Thanks for the link. I've never been fond of milk. I'm not generally a picky eater but I'm a picky chef, and a lot of foods that are high in calcium just aren't things I'd prepare or think to add to recipes. Milk and yogurt (and ice cream) are just easiest to think about for me!

[Crankin]

I have never been able to stand the taste of milk. Only had it at breakfast as a kid, never, ever with meals... I think this is a left over from the fact that when my parents grew up, their parents were kosher for a time and milk was never served with any meals, just breakfast and maybe with cake, desserts. Seriously, the thought of drinking milk with any type of real food makes me nauseous. And now, I am somewhat lactose intolerant. I use Lactaid when I eat ice cream or yogurt, though. Sometimes it works and others, well, it doesn't.
So my lack of milk drinking, coupled with the fact that I have every risk factor in the world for osteoporosis, really did me in. No amount of dietary changes in the world could help this. I have taken 12-1800 mg of calcium/vit D for 26 years (before attempting to get pregnant with DS #2) and recently added magnesium to the mix. I eat plenty of the calcium rich veggies, too. So, this is why I have no issue taking Reclast.