Click “PLAY” to listen to the interview

Here are the highlights of the conversation:

• In 2004, Melanie Haas, from buffalo New York, doctor recommended that she drink a lot of milk to prevent further bone loss evidenced in her Bone Density Scan.
• Two years later, Melanie was diagonosed with Osteopenia, (increasing her milk consumption only made her gain weight) and was prescribed Fosamax. Her doctor also warned her that if she didn’t start taking the medication immediately, she could fall and break a bone, and become immobile.
• Melanie was worried about taking Osteoporosis drugs since she knew that they contain harsh chemicals, and read first-hand accounts from people who suffered and continue to suffer from the side-effects of the drugs. After further research online, she came across the Save Our Bones website.
• Melanie read Vivian’s story and noticed how similar it is to her’s, and decided to order The Bone Health Revolution program so she could start to strengthen her bone density naturally without taking the drugs.
• Melanie found the program very easy to understand and follow, and this further motivated her to stay off the drugs.
• After a year of following The Bone Health Revolution program, she went back to her doctor for a Bone Density Scan and was amazed to find that her spine showed a normal reading and and that her hips had improved to only a -1. She had a great deal of success with the program.
• Melanie told everyone she knew about her results, and emailed Vivian to report the good news.
• This is just one example proving that The Bone Health Revolution program is effective in increasing bone density without drugs. Whether you have Osteoporosis or Osteopenia and even if you have already started taking the drugs, The Bone Health Revolution program will increase your bone density.

Click here to learn about the drug-free program
Mellanie used to increase her bone density »

On December 31st, just on time to herald the New Year, Reuters reported the following:

Diane Wysowski of the FDA’s division of drug risk assessment said researchers should check into potential links between bisphosphonate drugs and cancer. In a letter in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, Wysowski said since the initial marketing of Fosamax, known generically as alendronate, in 1995, the FDA has received 23 reports in which patients developed esophageal tumors. Typically, two years lapsed between the start of the drug and the development of esophageal cancer. Eight patients died, she reported. In Europe and Japan, 21 cases involving Fosamax have been logged, with another six instances where Procter & Gamble’s Actonel or risedronate and Didronel or etidronate, and Roche’s Boniva (ibandronate) may have been involved. Six of those people died.

The article also comments on the known fact that these drugs can cause “esophagitis, which is an inflammation of the lining of the tube carrying food to the stomach…which is why patients are instructed to remain upright for at least a half hour after taking them.”

As if this were not enough, on January 2nd 2009 The New England Journal of Medicine
(Volume 360:53-62) published an article titled “Giant Osteoclast Formation and Long-
Term Oral Bisphosphonate Therapy” by Robert M. Weinstein, M.D., et al., that seems to shatter everything we were told about how these drugs work.

Until this study, bisphosphonates were believed to destroy osteoclasts, the crucial bone cells that remove bone so new bone can be deposited. But now – and I’m quoting from the article’s conclusion – “long-term alendronate treatment is associated with an increase in the number of osteoclasts, which include distinctive giant, hypernucleated, detached osteoclasts that are undergoing protracted apoptosis.” And to make matters worse, nobody knows what these strange cells can do!

And last but not least, even though it is a known fact that bisphosphonates can cause osteonecrosis of the jaw, few expected the definitive study in the January 1st issue of Journal of the American Dental Association stating that “even short-term oral use of alendronate led to osteonecrosis of the jaw.” According to Science Daily (January 2, 2009):

This is the first large institutional study in the U.S. to investigate the relationship between oral bisphosphonate use and jaw bone death, said principal investigator Parish Sedghizadeh, assistant professor of clinical dentistry with the USC School of Dentistry. After controlling for referral bias, nine of 208 healthy School of Dentistry patients who take or have taken Fosamax for any length of time were diagnosed with osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ). The study’s results are in contrast to drug makers’ prior assertions that bisphosphonate-related ONJ risk is only noticeable with intravenous use of the drugs, not oral usage, Sedghizadeh said. “We’ve been told that the risk with oral bisphosphonates is negligible, but four percent is not negligible,” he said. The results confirm the suspicions of many in the oral health field, he said. “Here at the School of Dentistry we’re getting two or three new patients a week that have bisphosphonate-related ONJ,” he said, “and I know we’re not the only ones seeing it.”

I am really not surprised that this information is now divulged by mainstream medicine because sooner or later, as in the case of Vioxx, the truth will be known. My heart is with all those who are suffering the horrible consequences of being human guinea pigs. As the list of serious side-effects of bisphosphonates continues to grow, I hope that those who are given a prescription will question its value and at least try to discover the truth about these drugs and seek a safe and natural alternative.

When somebody asks me about their “number”, my response is invariably focused not on that particular number, but rather on two very important points. First and foremost, I explain that the T-score is a flawed determination of the actual condition of our bones because it is based on arbitrary guidelines (more on this later). Next, I mention that regardless of the T-score, statistics show that most people never break their bones.

And finally, I predictably go on to say that regardless of its density, when a bone is hit in a certain way, it’ll break. Here’s a perfect example:  Abby Wambach, a member of the US Olympic soccer team, fractured both her tibia and fibula (the two bones that make up the lower leg) on July 16th during a game against Brazil, and will miss the 2008 Olympics.

But wait a minute…Could 28 year old Abby, who was named U.S. Soccer’s Female Player of the Year for 2003, have osteoporosis or osteopenia? That would most certainly explain why a consummate athlete would fracture bones…

Of course not! Abby collided with another player and fell down hard on the floor, and common sense dictates that the impact is what caused her fractures. We will most certainly never read in the news that Abby’s bones might be weaker than normal and that she has decided to “take action” and get a bone density scan.

And it’s just as well… Dr. Susan Love, clinical professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles says: “We’ve convinced people that you’ve got to have a certain bone density or you’ll have fractures and horrible things will happen to you, but bone density is only one aspect of bone health. It just happens to be the one we can measure.”  Indeed, what a shame we can’t measure bone flexibility!

And here’s the kicker (pun intended): Dr. Love goes on to mention that most people who suffer hip fractures have normal bone density.  So why is it that as we age there is so much emphasis on bone density rather than on overall bone health, you might ask?

The answer is quite simple: because, as Dr. Love mentions above, it is the only aspect of bone health that can be measured. Hence it can be studied, and the results produce statistical comparisons that will ultimately benefit Big Pharma.

Here’s a brief history of the T-score, and how its creation coincided when long-term Hormone Replacement Therapy was deemed too dangerous to simply tackle bone health.

In 1994, a World Health Organization (WHO) working group proposed that, in epidemiologic studies, osteoporosis could be determined when bone density at the hip, spine, or forearm is 2.5 standard deviations or more below the mean for healthy, young, adult women (a value defined as the T-score), or when a history of a fracture is present in the absence of trauma.

The group also proposed that osteopenia be determined when the bone density was 1.0 to 2.5 standard deviations below the mean for young, healthy women (Osteoporosis in Postmenopausal Women, US Department of Health and Human Services.) These guidelines were rapidly adopted worldwide.

Somehow, the fact that the public doesn’t know anything about the “young and healthy women” used as the example of a perfect score never created a stir. But what we do know is that from then on, most of us were condemned to fail the bone density test.

And then Fosamax came to the rescue in 1995, like a knight in shining armor, hastily converting the bone health landscape for years to come.

I’ve devoted an entire chapter of The Bone Health Revolution to discuss the dangers of the drugs currently used to treat osteoporosis, so there’s no need to rehash now. But here’s a new and important twist that most doctors will never tell you: should someone have the misfortune of breaking a bone while taking Fosamax or any other bisphosphonate, the recovery period may be much longer than if they would not be taking the drugs.

According to orthopedic surgeon Jonathan Cluett, “bone is constantly in a state of turnover, even when not damaged or injured. We continually absorb and replace the cells that make up our bones. Because of this natural turnover, the process of healing bone also comes about quite naturally.”

It is a fact that bisphosphonates alter the normal bone turnover, therefore actually delaying the healing process and, in some cases, potentially increasing the risk of complications. So now you are aware of one more good reason to stay away from Fosamax, Actonel, or Boniva…and one more good reason to be happy that your bone health does not have to depend on these dangerous drugs.

Stay strong, smile often, and until next time.

Vivian