I'm not sure who else spotted the recent Women's Enews commentary last week, "Let's Make May the Month to Tame Osteoporosis Hype," but the piece struck me as pretty irresponsible. (It's at www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3179/context/archive) The argument of the authors was to downplay the importance of the new once-yearly osteoporosis medicine, describing it as a "pharmeceutical-powered bandwagon." While clearly such a drug (which hasn't yet been approved by the FDA for osteoporosis) wouldn't be right for everybody, I didn't find it necessary to dismiss the possibility of a medication that could help a number of people. Even more disconcerting, the article pooh-poohed the need for bone-density scans, a valuable tool for finding out the status of one's osteoporosis and osteopenia. I have trouble understanding why anybody would refer to a disease that leads to 1.5 million fractures a year (just in the U.S.) and is a leading cause of loss of independence and mobility in older people as mere "hype."