Steady Drop in Hip Fractures

From the New York Times:
Rates of hip fractures, an often devastating consequence of osteoporosis, have been steadily falling for two decades in Canada, a new study finds. And a similar trend occurred in the United States, researchers found. But it is not clear why.
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Drugs that slow the rate of bone loss may be part of the reason, but they cannot be the entire explanation, osteoporosis researchers say. And although experts can point to other possible factors — like fall prevention efforts and a heavier population — the declining rates remain a medical mystery.

The new study, published Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed Canadian hospitalization data. From 1985 through 2005, the researchers report, hip fracture rates, adjusted for the age of the population, fell by 32 percent in women and by 25 percent in men. ...more

Aging men may be under-prescribed bone-saving drugs, osteoporosis study finds

From the Canadian Press:
A new study suggests aging men and their doctors may not be paying enough attention to bone health.

The report from the Canadian Institutes for Health Information says older men in Canada are substantially less likely to be taking bisphosphonate drugs than are women.

Bisphosphonates are drugs used to counter the effects of osteoporosis and to prevent fractures.

While one in five senior women were using these medications in 2006-2007, only one out of every 30 senior men had been given a prescription for one of the drugs.

It is true that osteoporosis affects women more often than men; in fact, women are twice as likely to develop the bone-weakening disease.

But the report found the gap in prescribing rates between men and women is much bigger than the difference in disease incidence. ...more

AR pharmacy offers bone density scan

From Nova News Now (NS):
A new bone scanner is making it easy for Valley residents to get a heads-up on their thigh-bones.

Hutchins Pharmasave in Annapolis Royal has purchased an ultra-sound scanner that measures bone density. Weekly clinics are now being scheduled to give folks a chance to see how their bones are shaping up, and if needed, take steps to reverse the early stages of osteopenia, or low bone mass.

Krista and Danny McClair, owners of Hutchins Pharmasave, decided to buy the scanner after hosting several bone screening clinics last year. This is the only pharmacy in Atlantic Canada to offer this service, and it’s the only bone scanner in Kings and Annapolis counties. ...more

High fracture risk seen in heart failure patients

From the CBC News:
People with heart failure have an elevated risk for bone fractures, particularly a broken hip, and doctors should be on the lookout in these patients for signs of osteoporosis, Canadian researchers said Monday.

Among 16,294 patients with heart disease in Alberta, those treated for heart failure were four times as likely to have a fracture in the next year as those with other types of heart disease, the researchers report in the journal Circulation.

The heart failure patients were six times as likely as the others to sustain a hip fracture, the researchers added.

It was the first study to indicate heart failure patients are at greater risk for bone-weakening osteoporosis, said Dr. Justin Ezekowitz, director of the Heart Function Clinic at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, who helped lead the research.

"This intersection is important because orthopedic fracture, especially hip fracture, is very debilitating. On top of a very debilitating disease such as heart failure, this is a very big problem," Ezekowitz said in a telephone interview. ...more

Heartburn drugs boost hip-fracture risk over long term: study

From CBC News:
Popular heartburn medications may significantly increase the risk of suffering a disabling broken hip when taken over the long term, Canadian doctors say, and the drugs may be being prescribed inappropriately.

Proton pump inhibitors, or PPIs, such as Prilosec, Nexium and Prevacid, constitute class of drugs commonly prescribed for peptic ulcers and reflux, and they are often taken for years. In 2004, 12.4 million prescriptions were written for the drugs in Canada, according to the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health.

In Tuesday's issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr. William Leslie, director of Manitoba's bone density program, and his colleagues find that taking PPIs for seven years or more nearly doubles the risk of an osteoporosis-related fracture.

Hip fractures can be severe, leading to death in about 20 per cent of cases. The number of Canadians who suffer the injury is predicted to increase to more than 88,000 in 2041, up from 23,375 in 1993-1994, an earlier study suggested. ...more

Bone loss screening can be less frequent, study finds

From CBC News:
Elderly men and women are at high risk of hip fracture due to bone loss, say researchers, but given rates of bone loss, screening can occur as infrequently as every five years.

Bone loss can lead to osteoporosis, a condition in which the bones become brittle and more prone to fracture.

The study, which tracked 9,423 participants between the ages of 25 and 85, found bone loss among women aged 50 to 54, which data showed had the most pronounced bone loss of all age groups, was 1.3 per cent.

According to the researchers, this decrease is within the margin or error of most bone densitometry machines, meaning that the loss is not as significant as once thought.

"The extent of the bone loss that we observed suggests that repeat measurements of bone density could be delayed to intervals of up to five years in the absence of other risk factors," they write. ...more

Bone drugs iffy

From the Toronto Sun:
Can drugs that strengthen your bones actually hurt them?

That question has been asked recently by many women upon reading reports that osteoporosis drugs (prescribed to strengthen thinning bones) can trigger osteonecrosis (destruction of bone, in particular the jaw).

Some women who take this class of drugs, called bisphosphonates or BFs, also report stiffness and pain.

BFs are used by millions world-wide. As our population ages, it's likely that even more people will take them to prevent osteoporosis -- a condition that plagues 1.4 million Canadians.

Use has increased as well since women discovered they could no longer rely on estrogen (now linked to breast cancer) to keep bones strong. ...more

Study suggests those taking osteoporosis drugs risk painful bone condition

From the Canadian Press:
Millions of women around the world who take a certain class of osteoporosis drugs may be at higher risk of a painful and disfiguring condition, Canadian researchers warn in a new study.

The study released Tuesday found the popular class of osteoporosis drugs almost tripled the risk of developing bone necrosis.

The study by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Montreal's McGill University is the largest of its kind into the connection between the disease and specific brands of bisphosphonates sold under the names Didrocal, Actonel and Fosamax.

The warning follows a recent alert from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about bisphosphonates and the higher possibility of severe and sometimes incapacitating bone, joint and muscle pain in patients taking the drugs.

"I think the study's important just basically to let the public know if they do experience any severe, unusual pain they could tell their health professional," said Dr. Mahyar Etminan, the principle investigator from the University of British Columbia. ...more

Common diabetes drug may increase chances of developing osteoporosis

From CBC News:
The popular diabetes drug marketed as Avandia may increase bone thinning, a discovery that could help explain why diabetics can have an increased risk of fractures.

New research raises the possibility that long-term treatment with rosiglitazone, as Avandia is also called, could lead to osteoporosis. The diabetes drug is used to improve response to insulin.

While bones seem solid, they constantly are being broken down and rebuilt by the body. Researchers found that in mice, the drug increased the activity of the cells that degrade bones, according to a report in this week's online issue of Nature Medicine. ...more

New drug drastically reduces fractures, research shows

From the Globe and Mail:
A drug that needs to be injected only once a year can sharply reduce fractures in women suffering from the bone-weakening disease osteoporosis, according to a new study.

Annual treatment with zoledronic acid produced impressive results in a large clinical trial, including:

A 70-per-cent reduction in spine fractures;

A 41-per-cent drop in broken hips;

A 25-per-cent reduction in other fractures, such as broken wrists.

On the downside, the drug appears to increase the risk of atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that greatly increases the risk of stroke. ...more