Last month, the New York Times reported that researchers were "puzzled" by the role of bisphosphonate osteoporosis drugs like Fosamax in "rare thighbone fractures."
Patients, on the other hand, are neither puzzled nor do they believe the fractures are rare.
"I broke the left femur (shattered it 2 times in 2006 and 2007)," while on Fosamax writes a 72-year-old patient this week on askapatient.com. "I now walk with a walker and the Dr. says it can never be repaired."
"I twisted my left leg while shopping & broke left femur in two places, requiring surgery, pins and a rod," wrote a 61-year-old patient on the site after taking Fosamax for 13 years. "Then in 2/08 I jarred same side foot coming off a step & developed a stress fracture that won't heal. I now have a stress fracture on the right side femur after walking on the beach."
"After six years of taking Fosamax, I slipped in ice in my driveway and broke my femur (thigh bone). Two years later, still taking Fosamax, I fell in the snow and my other femur snapped before I hit the ground," wrote another woman.
"I did nothing really physical except water therapy, yet I have a break" in the 3rd lumbar vertebrae posts a 67-year-old patient who had been taking Fosamax for 14 months.
In 874 patient ratings since 2001, women as young as 32 recount being advised by doctors to take Merck's Fosamax, approved in 1995, and other bone drugs called bisphosphonates. Many were scared into using the drugs by readings from bone density machines now known to have been planted by drug companies and by encroaching "osteopenia," the risk of osteoporosis--a term made up by pharma.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
