2,400 Patients Taking Fosamoax & Other Bone-Building Drugs Have Reported Bone Death in Their Jaws

Debra Ray, on The Debra Ray Show, read from an article in the Los Angeles Times. Most patients were taking intravenously delivered, especially potent versions of these drugs. An additional 120 people who were taking the especially potent version in pill form, to prevent bone thinning, have been stricken with incapacitating bone, joint or muscle pain. Some were bedridden and others required crutches, walkers, or wheelchairs. Most reports were after a minor trauma such as getting a tooth extracted. In the last two years, drug makers have added warnings about bone death to some of the medications' labels and about the pain syndrome to all of them.

"I've taken off several jaws because of this problem. Because bone death can't be reversed, there's nothing we can do for these patients except ease their pain and prevent it from spreading," says Dr. Salvatore Ruggiero, an oral surgeon at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York who was among the first to observe this phenomenon in 2001.

Read the Full Story, "Bone Drugs' Reverse Danger," on Los Angeles Times' website

See my January 28, 2005, posting - How to Listen to The Debra Ray Show, Healthy Talk Radio. Debra Ray's radio and streaming audio health show has been bringing researched health information to listeners since 1982.