Starving for protection If you thought arthritis was bad, imagine what it would be like if your bones were starved of blood, which caused the tissue inside to die, leaving them to collapse in on themselves and causing you excruciating, incapacitating pain. It's a condition called bone necrosis and, while it's relatively rare, rates are increasing thanks to prescription drugs meant to protect the very bones they're destroying. In fact, according to a recent study, if you take one of the bisphosphonate osteoporosis drugs (like Actonel or Fosamax), your chances of developing bone necrosis are three times higher than if you avoided their so-called protection. Despite this startling finding, health authorities aren't recommending that people discontinue using these potentially dangerous drugs. Instead they advise patients to "pay attention to your pain." I don't know about you, but when I'm in pain, that's pretty much the only thing I CAN pay attention to. But if you wait until that point, it may be too late. The fact is, health authorities aren't cracking down on bisphosphonates because they don't have any other solutions for people struggling with -- or trying to prevent -- osteoporosis. But where mainstream medicine falls short, Nature has a wealth of alternatives. Dr. Wright has written about osteoporosis prevention many times over the years. And one of his most comprehensive articles on the topic appeared in the February 2003 issue of Nutrition & Healing. Subscribers can download this issue for free by visiting www.wrightnewsletter.com and logging on to the archives with the username and password listed on page 8 of your most recent issue. (And if you're not already a subscriber, the website also offers complete information on becoming one.) Source:
"Popular osteoporosis drugs triple risk of painful bone necrosis, study finds," ScienceDaily (www.sciencedaily.com), 1/15/08 | 
