Now in her 60s, Sally Fields still looks pretty darn good. I’m sure the big shots at Roche Laboratories thought so too when they picked her as their spokesperson for Boniva, the latest and greatest osteoporosis wonder drug.
But after reading new research about Boniva, it makes me think good old Gidget doesn’t really have a clue about the drug she’s endorsing.
Somebody Oughta Warn Gidget, because…
New research shows that popular osteoporosis drugs like Fosamax and Boniva (they belong to a class of drugs called bisphosphonates) may actually weaken bones and slow their ability to heal. Isn’t this exactly what the darn drugs are supposed to prevent? I sure thought so, but doctors from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center uncovered something quite different when they analyzed the cases of 70 women admitted to the hospital for thigh bone fractures. The doctors looked closely at their fracture patient cases. They noted that 20 women suffered serious stress fractures due to very little or even no trauma. This means they suffered a fracture from something as simple as bumping into a table. And guess what?
Of these 20 women, 19 of them were taking Fosamax…the very drug that’s supposed to protect them from fractures!
On average, these women had been taking Fosamax for almost 7 years. They thought they were safe from this kind of freak fracture. But they weren’t. Instead, the very drug that was supposed to protect them actually contributed to their injury. In addition… While the Cornell report only involved women taking Fosamax, researchers believe all bisphosphonate drugs could eventually cause problems for women. Other bisphosphonate drugs like Boniva are just as risky, they say. It’s just that they haven’t been on the market as long, so the effects haven’t had time to surface. In the Cornell report, researcher Dean G. Lorich didn’t mince words when he stated: “We believe long-term use of these drugs may suppress the ability of bones to heal in some patients. As a consequence, patients with routine stress fractures are unable to properly heal, and minor damage can worsen until a serious fracture occurs.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Fosamax and Boniva were two train wrecks waiting to happen…
Most of us think of bones as static structures. But they’re not. They’re actually in constant flux: breaking down calcium, sending it into the blood, absorbing new calcium, and building new bone. But bisphosphonate drugs like Boniva and Fosamax block the activity of osteoclasts, which break down bones in order to transfer calcium into the blood.
Drug makers figure if they could block the osteoclasts,
the bones would retain more calcium.
When a woman starts taking Boniva or Fosamax, the osteoclasts stop working. And, yes, bones never lose their calcium. But they never absorb the new calcium either. In fact, bone turnover completely stops and the whole natural cycle of regeneration grinds to a halt. So, after about seven years on the stuff, you get old, brittle bones. And a women who thinks she’s safe, breaks her thigh bone doing something as simple as bumping into a table.
There’s no quickie, one tablet approach for preventing osteoporosis.
But there are steps you can take that are non-toxic and won’t cause your bones to break!
For anyone serious about preventing osteoporosis, calcium alone won‘t do it (and never did). You also need:
- Magnesium (food sources include: green leafy vegetables, whole grains, bananas, apricots, meats, beans, and nuts), manganese, boron, silica, and strontium.
- Vitamin D: It builds your bone density by helping your body absorb calcium. Strive for 30 minutes a day in the sun, without sunscreen, and you’ll get up to 20,000 IUs of vitamin D!
- Digestive enzymes and betaine hydrochloride: These will help improve absorption of vital nutrients.
- Avoid caffeine & alcohol: These rob your body of nutrients.
- Exercise: Low estrogen combined with low exercise is an osteoporotic situation waiting to happen. Weight bearing exercises are best, three times a week. Bones are meant to bear weight. That’s why astronauts who spend a lot of time in zero gravity conditions actually lose bone mass.
If you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis, try the hormonal approach.
I treated my own mother with natural progesterone when she was diagnosed as ‘severely osteoporotic.’ You apply progesterone (also known as bioidentical progesterone) directly to the skin. My mother responded quickly to this treatment. With each bone density reading over a three year period, she just kept improving. The docs said the first scan must have been wrong because they never see this kind of improvement. The natural progesterone solution comes from the late John R. Lee, M.D.. He pioneered this effective non-drug treatment to osteoporosis. Here’s his web site to learn more: http://www.johnleemd.com/
If all else fails, check your testosterone. Yes, women need it too!
For some women, blood testing can show low serum levels of testosterone (you can order a saliva test from John Lee’s web site). This could be the root cause of your osteoporosis. If you find you’re low in testosterone, look for bioidentical testosterone treatments. I think you’ll see improvements.
As always, the body has all the tools it needs to heal itself. So be wary of any drug like Fosamax or Boniva that messes with your body’s natural healing process.
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