Fosamax Also Used to Treat Slight Bone-Thinning Disorder
Fosamax, the blockbuster osteoporosis drug linked to increased risks of throat cancer and irregular heartbeat, also may be prescribed to treat women with a less-serious and lesser known bone-thinning disease.
Most people have never heard of osteopenia, a condition causing a slight thinning of the bones that naturally occurs in women as they grow older. Most of the time, osteopenia does not result in disabling bone fractures.
To the contrary, osteoporosis is a more common condition that causes bones to become thinner and more porous, making them more likely to break easily. One in five elderly women who break a hip will die within a year. Tens of millions of Americans, many of them elderly women, take Fosamax to treat osteoporosis and prevent painful broken bones.
Fosamax Linked to Deadly Complications
A January 2009 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found from October 2005 (when Fosamax was approved) and May 2008, the Food and Drug Administration received 23 reports of cancer of the esophagus in users of the drug. Of those 23 reports, eight patients have died and more deaths may be reported.
Osteopenia was only widely recognized as a medical problem that required treatment in the 1990s. Still, many women who have never heard of the disease may be taking Fosamax. The risks of taking Fosamax may outweigh the benefits of treating osteopenia, which is not usually fatal.
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