Another medical industry scam exposed.

[silverweb]

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]My long-held opinion vindicated:

[font color="black"]Bone Scan Mania: A 12 Year Drug Industry Con Finally Exposed.

In 1994, a year before Fosamax, Merck’s blockbuster bone drug, was approved, Merck began marketing the dangers of osteoporosis “far beyond ailing old ladies.” It hired researcher Jeremy Allen to whip up osteopenia fears to sell bone drugs by planting bone scan machines in medical offices across the country, says National Public Radio. Allen created the faux “Bone Measurement Institute” to establish osteopenia, the “risk of osteoporosis,” as a health epidemic.

<snip>

The bone density units, called “T scores,” used to define osteopenia are equally as fallacious, wrote Susan Kelleher in Seattle Times: They had “boundaries so broad they include more than half of all women over 50.”

If bone drugs like Fosamax, Boniva and Actonel (called bisphosphonates) weren’t harmful, the bone scan con would simply be a case of overmedicating women, ripping off patients, taxpayers and raising insurance costs. But bisphosphonates have been reported to greatly increase the risk of esophageal cancer and osteonecrosis of the jaw–jawbone death. Some dentists will not work on women who take them. Bisphosphonates are also linked to irregular heart beats and intractable pain, according to medical journals.

_source article_

[Scuba]

1. No, no, no, all the fraud and abuse in healthcare is lazy people getting benefits they don't deserve

... I know 'cause a winger told me so.

[silverweb]

2. Of course.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]How silly of me not to remember that!

[Why Syzygy]

3. Prunes ..

.. and once you are adjusted to them they won't cause disruptions in your day ..


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110818093048.htm

No Bones About It: Eating Dried Plums Helps Prevent Fractures and Osteoporosis, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (Aug. 18, 2011) — When it comes to improving bone health in postmenopausal women -- and people of all ages, actually -- a Florida State University researcher has found a simple, proactive solution to help prevent fractures and osteoporosis: eating dried plums.
(...)
"Over my career, I have tested numerous fruits, including figs, dates, strawberries and raisins, and none of them come anywhere close to having the effect on bone density that dried plums, or prunes, have," said Bahram H. Arjmandi, Florida State's Margaret A. Sitton Professor and chairman of the Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences in the College of Human Sciences. "All fruits and vegetables have a positive effect on nutrition, but in terms of bone health, this particular food is exceptional."
(...)

[mopinko]

4. i'm still not eating 10 prunes a day.

and such a short study? color me very skeptical.

[silverweb]

5. Very interesting.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I didn't know that about prunes. I eat them because I love them, and because I know they're a good source of iron and vitamin A.

I've had issues with the pushing of bone scans and bisphosphonates for years now. Nature's way of keeping bones strong is good nutrition, sunshine, and exercise, but our culture has pretty much zeroed out those natural ways for the majority of people.

Instead of helping restore natural good health, our pharmaceutical industry has magnified the deficit and capitalized on their "cure," which just causes more (and potentially more serious) problems.

[mopinko]

6. "nature's way"

is to let post menopausal women rot and die. no thanks.

[silverweb]

7. Nature's way...

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]... means eating a diet that's wholesome and nutritious, with ample vitamins and minerals, including adequate calcium, and excluding junk like carbonated cola drinks that have been shown to decrease bone mineral density in women.

Nature's way means getting adequate sun exposure, which we don't get anymore. Too many people live most of their lives indoors and then slather themselves with sunscreen when outside. Sunscreens block absorption of the same rays that our bodies use to produce vitamin D, which has multiple important functions including maintaining bone health and density.

Nature's way means getting plenty of weightbearing exercise to maintain bone mineral density and healthy muscle tone.

Your reference is to the loss of estrogen in postmenopausal women, and I agree with you there. That part of "nature's way" is consistent with the natural order among all species, which is to maintain health and vigor until reproduction ends, and then allow degeneration and death.

Unfortunately, TPTB have determined that estrogen replacement in women increases the risk of breast cancer significantly enough to all but ban hormone replacement therapy, and I have some problems with that determination.

However, I have more problems with a culture that has replaced a healthy diet with junk and empty calories, has replaced sun exposure with sun avoidance without supplementing vitamin D, and has replaced even the normal exercise of daily living with sitting most of the time for work and for recreation.

[SheilaT]

8. Menopause is not

a fatal disease. Really.

Eating a healthy diet, doing some kind of minimal exercise, going out in the sunshine occasionally are infinitely superior to most medications.

Oh, and the last time I checked we all die eventually.

[mopinko]

9. we all do, but

most days i am in no hurry. i am betting on science to keep me around and sound for a long time. what's the worst that could happen? like you say, we all die.