And speaking of trade-offs, bisphosphonates, which stop bone loss by turning off the body's bone "remodeling," are associated with esophageal ulcers, bleeding and blockage. (Which is why women need to remain upright when taking them.)
Women taking bisphosphonates have twice the incidence of chronically irregular heartbeat according to two recent journal articles and can develop incapacitating musculoskeletal pain that leaves them bedridden or using wheelchairs according to the Los Angeles Times.
Bisphosphonate caused osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) or jaw bone death has surfaced as a new dental nightmare inspiring oral and maxillofacial surgical groups to recommend abstinence from the bone drugs before women undergo procedures and dentists to only work after signed waivers.
Worse, like hormone therapy itself, scientists increasingly believe bisphosphonates can actually cause the fractures they were designed to prevent because the non-renewed bone becomes brittle. Atypical skeletal fragility, subtrochanteric stress fractures and delayed healing of fractures are frequently seen.
And then there's cancer.
Twenty-three cases of esophageal cancer in bisphosphonate patients in the US since 1995 were reported earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine. Eight were fatal. In Europe and Japan, 31 cases were reported, six of them fatal.
Clearly, like the Old Woman, each new therapy is worse than the one before--and no one remembers why she even swallowed the fly.
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