When a patient is diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis, a condition of thinning bone density, they are often prescribed a bisphosphonate drug. These drugs are designed to prevent further loss of bone density. Unfortunately, their method of action prevents bone rebuilding, in the hopes of maintaining bone integrity.

Normally when bones suffer wear and tear, your body would naturally break down the old or damaged bone and replace it with new bone materials to make it as strong or dense as before. Bone drugs, on the other hand, ensure that the old bone doesn’t undergo this remodeling, keeping old bone around. On a bone density or DEXA (x-ray) scan, this bone looks as if it is denser. However, the old bone becomes more brittle and actually increases the risk of fracture.

Research published May 2015 revealed using bisphosphonates, "the dominant approach to hip fracture prevention is neither viable as a public health strategy nor cost effective." The study further states using pharmaceutical drugs can “achieve at best a marginal reduction in hip fractures at the cost of unnecessary psychological harms, serious medical adverse events, and forgone opportunities to have greater impacts on the health of older people.”

What do the study authors recommend instead? Other methods, such as nutrition and exercise as more effective prevention against hip fractures. In other words, give the body what it needs to repair as it normally functions. Nutritional support offers the building materials that the body uses to repair bone. Exercise, specifically weight bearing like walking, stresses bone in a good way to become denser and thus stronger, potentially decreasing fracture risk.

If you would prefer to assist your bones in repair and building healthy new bone, consider Fibro-Care Cal™, which contains organic calcium as a building block for bones with vitamin D3, and organic magnesium to ensure bones are more flexible. Source of study: BMJ 5/15

Read these articles in the TyH Online Health Library for more information:

•      Calcium & Magnesium, Dance of Life
•      Osteoporosis, If Bones Could Talk
•      Q&A on Albion Minerals
•      The Truth About Calcium

 ©TyH Publications (M. Squires). For informational purposes only.