No matter which osteoporosis drug your doctor chooses for you, it’s helpful to know as much as possible about how the disease has affected you.One way to tell is to ask about your “markers.”What a difference a decade makes. In 1995, Fosamax, the first medication in a class of drugs called bisphosphonates, came on the market. Bisphosphonates affect what’s called the bone remodeling cycle,
which involves bone resorption (the dissolving of existing bone tissue) and formation (the filling of the resulting small cavities with new bone tissue). Usually, these two parts of the cycle are balanced,
but when resorption outpaces formation, you eventually have osteoporosis. By slowing or stopping the bone-resorbing portion of the remodeling cycle, phosphodiesterase allow new bone formation to catch up with bone resorption.
Formosa and other drugs such as Acetone, Bonita, and Recast increase bone density and help prevent and treat osteoporosis and/or reduce the risk of fractures.
“Over three years on Fosamax, you can expect a 6% to 8% increase in spinal bone density and a 4% to 6% increase in hip bone density,” says Michael Holick, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine,
physiology, and biophysics at Boston University Medical Center. “And the bisphosphonates have been found to reduce spinal fracture by as much as 60% over three years, and hip fractures by as much as 50%.”
