Thanks for the input, and you are probably right that low bone density can lead to stress fractures of the femur. However, I think you will find that many of the cases presented here are not stress fractures but spontaneous shearing of bone and complete displacement fractures....not from low bone mass or density, but from low bone quality. My wife is 42, and her Xray shows plenty of bone mass and density in her femur. Despite this, he bone snapped out of nowhere because they where essentially rendered into chalk by the medication she was prescribed for 14 years. The problem is the intended mechanism of action in bisphosphonates is to retard the natural process of bone metabolism and regeneration. In my opinion, it was absolutely reckless of the manufacturers not to consider ALL the effects of the mechanism of action, not just the positive ones that made for a blockbuster selling opportunity. I also find it completely implausible that these long term effects were not forseeable. They may not have been quantifiable, but they were forseeable. Heck, if I had known how these drugs work and what they do to the natural cycle of bone, even an average schmoe like me would ask....."Hmm....aren't you just trading long term "healthy" bone cells for a little short term benefit from the mass and density provided by the "dead" cells?"
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Thanks for the input, and you are probably right that low bone density can lead to stress fractures of the femur. However, I think you will find that many of the cases presented here are not stress fractures but spontaneous shearing of bone and complete displacement fractures....not from low bone mass or density, but from low bone quality. My wife is 42, and her Xray shows plenty of bone mass and density in her femur. Despite this, he bone snapped out of nowhere because they where essentially rendered into chalk by the medication she was prescribed for 14 years. The problem is the intended mechanism of action in bisphosphonates is to retard the natural process of bone metabolism and regeneration. In my opinion, it was absolutely reckless of the manufacturers not to consider ALL the effects of the mechanism of action, not just the positive ones that made for a blockbuster selling opportunity. I also find it completely implausible that these long term effects were not forseeable. They may not have been quantifiable, but they were forseeable. Heck, if I had known how these drugs work and what they do to the natural cycle of bone, even an average schmoe like me would ask....."Hmm....aren't you just trading long term "healthy" bone cells for a little short term benefit from the mass and density provided by the "dead" cells?"
March 25, 2010 - 1:44pmThis Comment
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