More bad news about medication for Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis, drugs that could harm you & your posture
I was reading the September 7, 2008 N.Y. Times on-line and surfing mindlessly through the website when I came across this article on Osteoporosis. I don’t exactly know how I got there, but if you’ve ever been on the web, you know how this happens. After reading a while I thought this would be a good topic to write about in this issue of our email newsletter.

Drugs that could harm youThere was an article in the July 15th 2008 edition of the on-line Times. It reported that patients taking certain medications to prevent weak bones may not be getting the protection they thought they were. Many physicians were reporting seeing spontaneous fractures in their patients taking the exact medication that is supposed to prevent this. There has been research that proves the long-term use of Fosamax could lead to weak bones. Wow!
I have been aware for years of the dangers of the different prescription medications that have been used to treat osteoporosis. The argument has always seemed to be one of an individual’s ability to maintain adequate lifestyle modification (a healthy lifestyle) versus taking medication. I can understand why a family physician would assume that his/her recommendations of lifestyle modifications and proper diet and exercise would not be widely accepted or should I say diligently adhered to. We all know to some degree what is and what isn’t healthy to eat. However, few can consistently make the correct decisions as to what to eat and when to eat it. This is why they call the standard American diet SAD.

A few years ago one of the most common medical interventions for women was HRT (hormone replacement therapy). A very popular healthcare-related website reported “HRT boosts the risk of stroke by almost one-third and the risk of fatal or disabling stroke by more than half. These conclusions were drawn based on 28 trials involving nearly 40,000 women”. (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2005/01/26/hrt-strokes.aspx)

Here’s a brief statement about how widespread Osteoporosis is.
“Researchers estimate that about 1 out of 5 American women over the age of 50 have osteoporosis. About half of all women over the age of 50 will suffer a fracture of the hip, wrist, or vertebra (bones of the spine).” From the N.Y. Times website. http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/osteoporosis/overview.html

Osteoporosis & your posture
We commonly see the aging becoming more and more hunched forward. Most assume this is a product of aging and even more think this is caused by Osteoporosis. Both are entirely false. If hunching forward was a part of aging, why wouldn’t everybody creep forward and hunch forward at the same rate? Some simple logic will point out the weakness in the argument that age causes forward hunched posture (we refer to it as Forward Head Posture).

There was research conducted by a Mechanical engineer and published in one of the most prestigious spine-related research journals in the world, Spine. This researcher found that the forward bending posture of the upper back (thoracic) and neck causes Osteoporosis or bone weakening to begin. I have copied and referenced part of the conclusion from that research article. I added some explanation after it in bold italics.

“Postural forces are responsible for initiation of osteoporotic spinal deformity in elderly subjects. Vertebral deformities are exacerbated by anterior translation of the upper spinal column, which increases compressive loads in the thoracolumbar region of the spine.”
http://www.spinejournal.com/pt/re/spine/abstract.00007632-200303010-00009.htm;jsessionid=LGQMCNXv5kwwYhy2htkn1v4ysJL342P04PJ1LGtsLQ1XTP2PqNzp!-1004083789!181195629!8091!-1

The researchers concluded that the forward bending posture of the upper back and neck (like the Forward Head Posture I describe to my patient’s that are so afflicted) is an initiating event in the beginning stages of Osteoporosis. To make this a bit clearer, Forward Head Posture is a very important risk factor which can tell us if a person may eventually develop Osteoporosis. Just like smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer, having poor posture could eventually lead to Osteoporosis. Every week I am lucky enough to see patient’s improving their Forward Head Posture. They are happy because they feel better, I am happy because I know they are healthier in so many other ways.