286 of 289 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you only read one book on osteoporosis, make it this one!, March 30, 2006
This review is from: The Myth of Osteoporosis (Paperback)
If you are thinking about reading this book, you probably recently got a diagnosis of "osteopenia" or "osteoporosis" via a DEXA scan, and your doctor is urging you to take drugs to "heal" your "disease." If so, this well-written, well-researched and well-annotated book can be invaluable to you in making an informed decision about a medical choice that could affect your health--and your pocketbook--the rest of your life. Some of the most important insights this book offers in that direction are the following:
First, since there is no consistent, world-wide standard for determining what is "normal" bone density for either females or males, it is a crapshoot as to what standard any given maker of a DEXA machine will employ to measure your bones against--and therefore a crapshoot as to what diagnosis you might get, whether "normal" or "diseased." Second, there seems to be no consideration in the prevailing standard of care for creating and interpreting DEXA results of these crucial concepts about bone health: (a) Loss of bone density is a normal aspect of growing older and for the vast majority of people, it will never either cause or contribute to bone disease. (b) Virtually any adult over the age of 30 randomly selected to have a DEXA scan would find herself diagnosed as either imminently "diseased" (osteopenia) or currently "diseased" (osteoporosis). This is because few people over 30 have the bones of someone in their 20's, and certainly not the bones of elite athletes in their 20's--a comparison group too often held as the "norm" by DEXA machine manufacturers. (c) The definition of true osteoporosis is a disease of poor quality bones in which the internal, inter-linked trabecular structure of the bone has eroded to such an extent that the bones are subject to fracture from low-force impact. A case of true osteoporosis is sometimes extreme enough to reveal itself on a regular high-radiation x-ray, but, unfortunately, it will never show up via a low-radiation DEXA scan. This is because the DEXA is incapable of identifying anything other than raw bone mass AKA "bone mineral density" or BMD. It cannot inform the physician about the micro-architecture of bone, its crystal size and shape, the degree of brittleness, the state of the connectivity of the trabecular network, the vitality of the bone cells, the ability to repair micro-cracks, or the structure of the bone proteins--there is currently no medical test that can do that. (d) As the book emphasizes again and again: BMD is only one of multiple symptoms of the disease of osteoporosis--not the disease itself.
If the author's assertion about BMD is true, you might well wonder why the World Health Organization (WHO) in the not-so-distant past altered its official definition of osteoporosis to a low BMD score on a DEXA test. The author wondered, too, and her research uncovered that this change came about due to successful lobbying of WHO by Big Pharma. She also discovered that Big Pharma moved on from that strategic victory to an equally successful lobbying effort to get doctors in the prosperous West to consistently engage in two inter-connected, DEXA-related actions: (1) urge their patients at increasingly younger ages to get an initial "precautionary" DEXA exam, from which the vast majority of them will inevitably receive "abnormal" readings for the reasons cited above, (2) encourage these newly bone-disease-labeled patients to embark on a lifetime regimen of expensive "bone-building" drugs in order to become and stay "cured" of their "disease."
On reading all this, I could not resist doing the math (which the author did not go so far as to include in her fascinating book): As long-lived as people are these days in the prosperous West, the kind of money Big Pharma could potentially make over time off 30-50 years of drug usage per DEXA-scammed patient could run as much as $50-75,000--or even more, if one factors in inflation and the price gouging Big Pharma is notorious for. If one multiples that figure by potentially tens of millions of patients, the profits could amount to not just billions, but trillions of dollars over time. This is what is known in the world of multi-national-corporate wheeler-dealing as a proverbial "cash cow."
The conclusion is as inevitable as the rigged results of the DEXA machines: if you don't want to be milked by Big Pharma's osteoporosis machine, this book will help you in multiple ways. Chief among them are numerous tips on inexpensive, medically documented ways to protect your bones under your own steam and a list of the major predictive factors of fractures in the elderly (the only authentic reason for alarm at a true diagnosis of osteoporosis). This comprehensive list will show you that BMD is only one among many crucial risk factors for osteoporosis, and reassure you that all of them--including BMD--can be controlled without expensive drugs with serious side effects.
Update November 11, 2010: Lawsuits are coming in thick and fast for oral bisphosphonates such as Fosamax, Actonel, Boniva, Reclast and Atelvia and their generic alternatives because women on these drugs are experiencing "jawbone death," where the bone in the jaw is destroyed, as well as unusual and unexpected breaks in the thigh bone. The FDA is now forcing Big Pharma to post a warning on these drugs stating that "the optimal period for using the drugs is unknown." In addition, doctors are beginning to rethink urging women over 50 to stay on these dangerous drugs the rest of their lives.
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220 of 222 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Indispensable Guide, March 1, 2005
This review is from: The Myth of Osteoporosis (Paperback)
The title of this book is misleading, because Ms. Sanson does not claim that osteoporosis itself is a myth. Her subject is the variety of myths surrounding the disease of osteoporosis. In Ms. Sanson's view, due to insufficient, inaccurate and contradictory information about osteoporosis, we are filled with fear of inevitable decline and encouraged to make bad choices with respect to prevention. This thorough and well-researched book is easy to read, concise, and convincing. Ms. Sanson cites top-notch scientific sources from around the world that lay to rest the common fallacy that low bone density per se is an accurate predictor of future fractures. She also tackles, with statistics, not theories, the myth that dairy intake prevents osteoporosis, and that the current pharmaceutical options on the market are all you need to prevent fractures and bone loss. But Ms. Sanson does not simply tear down the myths of osteoporosis; she also provides clear and easy-to-follow lifestyle actions that one can take to protect ones bones for the long term. I have recommended this book to every woman I know over the age of 40, and now I am recommending it to you, the Amazon reader.
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171 of 172 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, but do more research!, October 30, 2005
This review is from: The Myth of Osteoporosis (Paperback)
Sanson's book is a wake up call to all of us who get low BMD scores and are encouraged by doctors to reach for drugs. This is a well-researched, clearly written book highlighting the questions and controversies surrounding the treatment of osteoporosis. She views the tactics of the pharma industry and medical profession as alarmist, and wonders how all of a sudden this "new disease" has become rampant based on technology that didn't exist a decade or two ago. Her own family has serious issues with low bone mass density, but has had success preventing fractures without drugs.
But--when you read the book, be aware of her bias! She relies heavily on the findings of a Dr. Susan Ott, who happens to have an easily accessible website. I looked at it (just type Susan Ott into your search engine) and what I found was the best resource I've ever seen on osteoporosis. Ott's work is much more balanced. There ARE links between low BMD and fractures--Sanson makes it sound like there aren't. Drugs do help, although the side effects are bad. Calcium helps too, but is not the "silver bullet" some say it is. Ott's website has a terrific "calculator" you can use to assess your personal risk of fracture--try it! She also includes an excellent tutorial on how to read those dexa reports. Analyze your report and figure it out before you see your doctor--for sure you'll be more informed about what it says than he or she will be--most docs glance at the total score and prescribe based on that alone.
I found Sanson's discussion of differences in BMD and osteoporosis among countries particularly interesting. Sanson draws the conclusion that animal protein may be a negative factor; interestingly Ott isn't so sure. She notes that in Asian cultures, for example, it is common to suck on chicken bones, even if otherwise the diet consists of fish and vegetables.
As usual, the picture is murky. Sanson argues that the ACTUAL risk of fracture is small, and Ott would agree, especially before the age of 70. And there's no question that there are NO studies beyond a 10 year term or so that track BMD, the efficacy of the drugs and the side effects. But after a lot of research, I've found that everyone agrees heredity, diet and other lifestyle changes are critically important (what else is new?). If you get a bad test result my advice is NOT "consult your doctor"--read up on it first. Sanson's book is a good resource--but not the only one.
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