02-07-2012, 05:20 AM
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Lecturer
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Join Date: Jul 2008
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Bringing Down the Fear Level About Age Related Bone Loss
https://hsionline.com/2012/02/07/bones-of-contention/
Quote:
Bones of contention
Ladies, you and I �we are a goldmine. We are a drug maker�s � and drug marketer�s � dream.
Scare us and we will fall in line. Throw in some help from the FDA, Congress and the mainstream medical establishment, and you can take us all the way to the bank.
And that has never been more true than with the bone density scam.
Creating the system, then gaming the system
Start with Medicare�
Medicare pays for bone density scans in older women once every two years. So over time, many doctors have come to regard this as a medical standard.
But as one bone specialist told NPR, like many things in medicine, this recommendation �didn�t come from anything scientific.�
Back in the 90s, Merck (the maker of Fosamax, the first blockbuster osteoporosis drug) aggressively promoted a new bone density test that was inexpensive and could be easily used in a doctor�s office.
This was the boost needed to make Fosamax sales take off. But that was just step one in Merck�s plan.
Step two: Washington, D.C.
In 1997, Merck�s intensive lobbying efforts paid off with the passage of the Bone Mass Measurement Act. This act set the standard for regular bone scans for older women covered by Medicare.
Brilliant: Medicare coverage led to more screenings which led to higher rates of osteoporosis diagnosis and a LOT of Fosamax sales.
But Merck executives weren�t finished.
Next, they developed a low-dose Fosamax pill that was approved by the FDA to treat osteopenia, which is nothing more than slightly diminished bone density which just about everyone experiences as a normal part of aging.
Your bones may be perfectly healthy, but if they�re not quite as dense at 45 as they were at 35, then your doctor may diagnose you with osteopenia and give you a prescription you don�t need. And of course, with this new �condition� that you supposedly have, you�ll need frequent bone scans.
But a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals what a complete scam all this has been. (Which is no big deal to Merck � the Fosamax patent ran out in 2008.)
Researchers from the University of North Carolina found that women who show no bone loss, or very little loss (osteopenia!) in their first bone scan don�t need another scan in two years, or five years, or 10 years�
These women are safe in waiting as long as 15 years for their next scan!
Even women with moderate bone loss at their first scan don�t need another scan for another five years.
In this study of 5,000 women, about half were in a low-risk, near-normal bone density group at age 67. The UNC lead researcher told NPR that they were surprised that a huge percentage of these older women with normal or near-normal bone density developed osteoporosis very slowly.
Just 10 percent of the women in this group were diagnosed with osteoporosis within 15 years.
Of course, one study � no matter how convincing, no matter how prestigious the journal � is not going to revolutionize bone treatment in post-menopausal women. Medicare still covers scans every two years and doctors will keep recommending that schedule.
But the scans are not the real problem. The problem is the medical mindset that a small loss in bone density is a crisis that requires medication. And that�s a HUGE problem, because many osteoporosis drugs are potentially dangerous, actually increasing the risk of fracture in some women. (You can read more about that here.)
Women, please share this new information with all your friends, and talk with your doctors about the results of this study if he recommends regular scans. The standard of care is not going to change until doctors start to realize that the osteoporosis crisis is not as urgent as we�ve all been led�lobbied� to believe.
Sources:
�Bone-Density Testing Interval and Transition to Osteoporosis in Older Women� New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 366, No. 3, 1/19/12, nejm.org
�Many Older Women May Not Need Frequent Bone Scans� Richard Knox, NPR, 1/18/12, npr.org
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