Is it a disease or a drug company cash cow?

Randi Kreiss

Lately I’ve been practicing medicine without a license. Haven’t we all? And don’t we have to?

Ten years ago, my endocrinologist suggested I start taking Fosomax after a bone density test revealed osteopenia (thinning of the bones) and the beginnings of osteoporosis in my hip and spine. I chose this doctor carefully. He was, and is, an outstanding physician, very bright and devoted to his profession and his patients.

A year ago, he declared a drug holiday for me. After prescribing Fosomax for nine years, he said that the latest research indicated that in very rare instances, the drug, developed to strengthen bones, was actually causing spontaneous fractures in leg bones and necrosis of the jawbone (a very nasty thing). So I stopped the Fosomax. Keep taking your calcium pills, he said, and we’ll re-evaluate in a year.

I saw him last week. He had just returned from a conference where the most recent research on bone density medications was shared. “Don’t take anything,” he said. “Eat yogurt and green, leafy vegetables and other calcium-rich foods.” He said that even the over-the-counter calcium pills seemed not very useful. He said there were possible issues with all of the bone-density medications.

He advised me to get X-rays of my femur bones, I guess just in case I’m walking around on broken legs. I declined for the moment because I am so fed up with the situation.

I have no problem at all with the doctor; the problem is with a pharmaceutical culture that puts “miracle drugs” out on the market and then, when they become widely used, sometimes discovers that they cause devastating problems.

Women, especially, have suffered. The most tragic case in my lifetime was thalidomide, which purportedly eased nausea in pregnancy and then, unexpectedly, caused catastrophic birth defects in children. For years we were told that hormone replacement was the gold standard for ameliorating the symptoms of menopause. Now we’re told it can cause cancer.

Thousands of men took Avandia for diabetes for years; now it’s pulled from the market because it may cause heart disease and heart attacks.