Deadly Side Effects from Osteoporosis Meds

Drug makers are making a killing off Osteo drugs without revealing newly discovered terrible side effects. If Sally Field knew what I knew - she would stop endorsing Boniva.

After going through nearly 6 months of misdiagnosis with my mother's "cheek infection" we finally discovered that the infection seeping through her cheek was a massive bone jaw infection caused by her "osteoporosis" medications also know as DEAD JAW! This is a disfiguring and disabling and possibly fatal side effect.

What they don't tell you:

"Osteo drugs or "bisphosphonates" used in Actonel, Boniva, Fosamax can prevent the formation of new blood vessels within jawbone tissue. Without being able to produce new blood vessels, the natural healing process of jawbone tissue is compromised, allowing for the degradation of bone mass.

The onset of ONJ is linked with the temporary or permanent loss of blood to bone tissue, leading to death of the tissue and the eventual collapse of the bone. There are approximately 10,000 to 20,000 new cases of osteonecrosis diagnosed each year in the United States.

If a case of osteonecrosis of the jaw goes undetected or untreated, it can potentially lead to the death of bone tissue and irreversible joint collapse within the jaw."

"There is no definitive way to treat ONJ. Antibiotic treatments can be administered to combat infections associated with the bone disease. Removable appliances can be manufactured to cover and protect any exposed sections of jawbone. In rare cases, small sections of necrotic tissue can be surgically removed, though the surgery is potentially fatal and can result in a patient's inability to chew solid food."


My mother had dead bone and tissue taken from her mouth. She's lucky it didn't kill her. Now she has a large hole in her upper jaw with no molars.

After this experience I've told all my friends - DO NOT take Osteo drugs under any condition! The side affects can be deadly.

SOURCE INFO: www.yourlegalguide.com...
www.onj-net.org...

WARNING: EXTEMELY GRAPHIC PHOTO:
www.onj-net.org...

Also: This goes for both Men and Women!

Osteoporosis as well as Arthrosis are mainly consequences to Magnesium depletion, as well as many other ailments.

Bones need a balanced intake of Calcium and Magnesium to stay healthy, since both work together - most people have too much calcium levels associated with severe magnesium deficiency. .

> "Mg" as almost disappeared from modern food...

Magnesium Chloride is the best way to take a healthy magnesium supplement :

1 $ for 20 g, 20 g. per 1 liter of water, 1 glass a day.


> this are the academic results of Drs Delbet, Robinet and Neveu, french doctors who worked on this between early and mid XXth century.




[edit on 27/9/2009 by Netzar]

Your mother's symptoms are listed as a side effect. Was the doctor who made the misdiagnosis aware that she was taking these medications? Six months, I hate to say it but it sounds like a good malpractice case.

Rarely, patients taking bisphosphonates have reported serious jaw problems associated with delayed healing and infection, often following dental procedures such as tooth extraction. If you experience jaw problems, please contact your healthcare provider and dentist.

www.boniva.com...

[edit on 9/27/2009 by Phage]

Magnesium supplementation and osteoporosis.

Sojka JE, Weaver CM. Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47904, USA.

Among other things, magnesium regulates active calcium transport. As a result, there has been a growing interest in the role of magnesium (Mg) in bone metabolism. A group of menopausal women were given magnesium hydroxide to assess the effects of magnesium on bone density. At the end of the 2-year study, magnesium therapy appears to have prevented fractures and resulted in a significant increase in bone density.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

[edit on 27/9/2009 by Netzar]

In a retrospective study from the University of Southern California (USC), four percent of female patients with a history of using the osteoporosis drug alendronate (Fosamax®) developed osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ). The study, published in the January 2009 Journal of the American Dental Association,

ADA.org

I don't think you can really consider 4 percent rare. They are touting less than that may die from H1N1 yet are giving a vaccine that is supposed to prevent it.

Drug companies ere on the side of what ever sells.

Thanks for the information OP

edit to add link

[edit on 27-9-2009 by liveandlearn]

reply to post by Phage


It was her primary care physician that could not figure out why she had a severe infection on her cheek. A biopsy was done and came back as a "common oral bacteria". We were given antibiotics and sent home. 3 months later the infection is back, so she sent us to a dermatologist who said the same thing and put us on more antibiotics. 3 months later the infection is back and then to a infection specialist at a hospital who couldn't figure it out either. They wanted to do more testing and though maybe she had cancer on her cheek.

So I said "wait a minute... lets review the two prior tests that came back with the same thing. Why would she have a oral bacteria on the ouside of her face?" So the doctor said "good question" - lets look in her mouth. As he did he said "bingo". There's our infection.

We were then sent to an oral surgeon who informed us he is seeing this in a lot of patients just this year and sent me PDF files on recent further medical findings.

reply to post by liveandlearn

That study is about a different drug. It was also a small sample group. Worrisome though.

Overall, the USC study was a relatively small, retrospective evaluation, and the findings do not provide definitive evidence on either the prevalence of ONJ or risk factors for developing ONJ in individuals with a history of oral alendronate use. However, the study findings require close consideration because they suggest that the prevalence of ONJ may be much higher than previously reported among patients who have undergone invasive dental procedures (e.g., tooth extraction) or who wear dentures, and have previously or are currently using oral alendronate (Fosamax)

www.ada.org...

Prolonged Magnesium Deficiency Causes Osteoporosis in the Rat
G. Stendig-Lindberg, MD, LRCPI, W. Koeller, Mech.Ing, A. Bauer, MD and P.M. Rob, MD

Dept Physiol and Pharmacol, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, ISRAEL, Dept of Orthopedics and Dept of Dialysis, University Hospital, University of Luebeck, Luebeck, GERMANY

(...)

Conclusion: Experimentally induced prolonged Mg deficiency causes osteoporosis in rats.

www.jacn.org...


Modern medicine is more obsessed with fixing (well, when it works...) the consequences than about finding the cause. More dollars that way, no doubt.



[edit on 27/9/2009 by Netzar]

Yes add that one to the long list of medications that big pharma is making billions of dollars on profits but that are worst than the problems itself.

Statin drugs is another one, and many adult onset diabetics.

Still the propaganda and millions of dollars that big pharma spend on telling you that you need a medication because is "good for you" keeps going.

I receive medical letters on side effects and problems with many medications that simple dietary changes and healthy life choices along with the right herbal and vitamin supplements can take care off or prevent.

But no wonder big pharma fight against any information or alternative medicine that will take away from the money gravy train they have.

I personally knows my family history, knows what have ailed my parents and the chances of me following sue, so what I am doing about it? rather than wait to get the symptoms I using prevention before is too late.

Now sometimes is certain factors that can get us no matter what, but trust me genetic links to certain health problems can be alleviated and prevented early on as long as you know what has been the problem for those in your family before you, but when is not other way no matter what you do, then by all means medicine can help those that otherwise can not help themselves at least to live a more comfortable life.

My mother now is diabetic even when nobody in the family have diabetes problems, including her mother and two aunts that are now in their 80s, her pancreas stop working properly she is now insulin Dependant in her 60s, but before that she was on nine different hart disease and related illness medications that until this day I blame them for her pancreas fall off.

But occurs her cardiologist will argue that one.

reply to post by marg6043



Diabetes seems related to magnesium levels as well, at least in some measure :

Magnesium may reduce risk of diabetes
Mineral appears to have effect on action of insulin

By Karen Collins, R.D.
updated 6:25 p.m. ET May 7, 2004

(...)

In a study of over 39,000 women, those who were getting the most magnesium had an 11 percent lower risk of developing diabetes six years later than those who got the least. Among overweight women the magnesium impact was even stronger: Risk fell more than 20 percent.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

High fiber and magnesium may cut diabetes risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - High levels of cereal fiber and magnesium are associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus, according to a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The findings stem from an analysis performed by Dr. Matthias B. Schulze and colleagues from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Nuthetal. The study involved over 25,000 adults, between 35 and 65 years of age, who were followed from 1994 to 2005 for diabetes. A food-frequency questionnaire was used to assess the participants for the amounts of dietary fiber and magnesium.

During follow-up, 844 subjects developed type 2 diabetes, the report indicates. Compared with the subjects with the lowest cereal fiber intake, those with the highest intake had a 28-percent reduction in diabetes risk.

www.reuters.com...

reply to post by Phage


Yes, different but related. The same class of drugs.

I agree, relatively small, but you start somewhere and expand. Had it been a very large study we likely would not have results for a few more years.

I do wonder if the companies are now telling physicians of the new findings. I doubt few physicians read ADA material.

I was on Actonel for many years. I took myself off from it when I began to understand how these drugs work. If I understand correctly, they work by keeping your 'old' bone cells which would have been sloughed off if left alone. Cells that are defective or damaged should be sloughed off, not kept just because they give you a higher bone density, in my opinion. After not taking it for a year, I saw my doctor (new to me, because I had moved). He looked over my records, and agreed there was no need for me to be on them. This relieved me a great deal, because my husband thought I was quitting them because of the cost. Here is a link about Actonelside effects. I'm not sure where I read the layman's terms description of how these drugs work.

Edited because link didn't work.

[edit on 27-9-2009 by novacs4me]

reply to post by Julie Washington


Thank you for posting this!!! My mom is having a Bone Density test tomorrow. I will express my concern for this type of medication if the situation arises. I would have never had known if you hadn't posted here!!
Thanks!!! S&F

reply to post by Netzar


I used magnesium in cream form, I follow a diet that is hart healthy (because my mother link even when her mother, mother two sisters in their eighties are relatively healthy) my mother was a smoker for over 30 years.

I count calories, yes I do, I have learned that the only way to fight weight gain that creeps on you as you age is adjusting your calorie intake depending your life style and activity or . . . those pounds will get to you.



I have learned a lot in my research for alternative medicine, because I have suffered with my mother slow deteriorating problems with her hart.

Big pharma in America has become a more than help the sick for profit monster and they care less if they kill you with their treatments because cures they are not, also doctors are more than happy to get you into long term treatments that will ensure, you be a milking cow for them.

Sad.

reply to post by Starseed32


In simple terms:
Osteo drugs DO NOT make the bone stronger...they help keep the bones from breaking down faster.

THE SIDE AFFECT: They do something that keeps the bones from being able to heal themselves! Certainly not a drug I would give an older person!

I have another medical horror story about my mother from taking Oxybutynin (in incontinence) that incapciated her, put her in the hospital, then to a nursing home for rehab and then to an assisted living facility, as she never recovered enough to live on her own again.... I'll do that on another thread.