Dear Pam,

While starting on my New Year's resolutions for Bone Health I wish to ask this question which is paramount in the minds of all -- and what they must do at the start of the New Year about Biophosphonates!!

I thought it was about time that we gathered together to express what we have experienced with biophosphonates, as these are the only drugs for treating osteoporosis all over the world -- and they have recently drawn much fire. Yet there are some who claim to have benefited from them. Almost everyone is afraid to give them up -- because they are what the doctor prescribed!

My knowledge about them is very little. I took Actonel 35 mg once per week for about 13 months because I was diagnosed with osteopenia. And then I gave it up -- primarily because I just "forgot" so many weekly doses that I thought it was a lost battle! I didnt get a Dexa scan done after that.

All I can say is that during the days that I was taking Actonel I felt myself becoming weaker and weaker -- I became very prone to repeated bouts of influenza. My stomach was bad most of the time. And a feeling of ache and acute fatigue developed in my left leg which already had a compromised nerve from my slipped disc. 

After I gave up Actonel the ache in my leg disappeared, I stopped getting influenza, and my stomach and head became better. I dont know what it did for the oeteopenia.

I am now taking Vitamin D in high doses and moving about as much as I can, and rarely think in terms of biophosphonates. But I know of people who have taken Actonel and have had no bad symptoms from it and whose osteoporosis has benefited from it.

It would be most interesting to hear what so many learned folk here have to say on the subject. It is about time somebody cleared up the confusion so that we would either go ahead and take the biophosphonates without worry or else give them up without fear of the consequences.

Thanking you in anticipation,
Yours,
Priya