Options for Bone Loss, but No Magic Pill

A reader recently complained that her elderly mother had faithfully taken the medication prescribed to protect her osteoporotic bones from fracture but still broke her hip as she walked from her bedroom to the bathroom one morning. The older woman recalled that she had felt her hip give way and then fell, not the other way around.

This is not an uncommon report of low-trauma fractures occurring despite treatment with drugs licensed to prevent them. The surprise among people who have these fractures, and among their family members, may reflect a failure of prescribing doctors to explain the drugs’ limitations adequately — or wishful thinking on the part of patients who believe too strongly in the magic of modern medicine. (Read More)

Source: The New York Times