Osteoporosis. A disease caused by Conventional Medical Drugs?

Osteoporosis. Description of the disease

Osteoporosis is a disease of the skeletal system when the bones lose density, become brittle and become more prone to fracture. It is the major cause of bone fractures in older people, particularly post-menopausal women. Women are affected by the disease 4 times more than men. The risk of osteoporosis can be reduced by adequate nutrition, especially with calcium and vitamin D, regular weight bearing exercise, and by stopping smoking and avoiding alcohol.

History and facts about the disease

The International Osteoporosis Foundation has provided the following facts about the incidence and impact of this disease.

• Osteoporosis affects an estimated 75 million people in Europe, USA and Japan.
• 30-50% of women and 15-30% of men will suffer a fracture related to osteoporosis in their lifetime.
• Nearly 75% of hip, spine and distal forearm fractures occur among patients 65 years old or over.
• A 10% loss of bone mass in the vertebrae can double the risk of vertebral fractures, and similarly, a 10% loss of bone mass in the hip can result in a 2.5 times greater risk of hip fracture.
• By 2050, the worldwide incidence of hip fracture in men is projected to increase by 310% and 240% in women.
• In white women, the lifetime risk of hip fracture is 1 in 6, compared with a 1 in 9 risk of a diagnosis of breast cancer.
• In women over 45 years of age, osteoporosis accounts for more days spent in hospital than may other diseases, including diabetes, myocardial infarction and breast cancer.
• It is estimated that the lifetime risk of experiencing an osteoporotic fracture in men over the age of 50 is 30%, similar to the lifetime risk of developing prostate cancer.
• Approximately 1.6 million hip fractures occur worldwide each year, by 2050 this number could reach between 4.5 million and 6.3 million.
• Hip fractures cause the most morbidity with reported mortality rates up to 20-24% in the first year after a hip fracture, and greater risk of dying may persist for at least 5 years afterwards. Loss of function and independence among survivors is profound, with 40% unable to walk independently, 60% requiring assistance a year later. Because of these losses, 33% are totally dependent or in a nursing home in the year following a hip fracture.
• Vertebral fractures can lead to back pain, loss of height, deformity, immobility, increased number of bed days, and even reduced pulmonary function. Their impact on quality of life can be profound as a result of loss of self-esteem, distorted body image and depression. Vertebral fractures also significantly impact on activities of daily living.
• The incidence of vertebral fractures increases with age in both sexes. Most studies indicate that the prevalence of vertebral fracture in men is similar to, or even greater than, that seen in women to age 50 or 60 years.

Pharmaceutical Drugs used to treat this disease

Drugs used to treat Osteoporosis have been found to cause more problems for the bones! So paradoxically instead of the drugs improving the condition, they can actually make it worse!

The website Physorg published an article on15 January 2008 "Popular osteoporosis drugs triple risk of bone necrosis" .The article outlined a study undertaken by the University of British Columbia, and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute that found the most commonly used Osteoporosis drugs almost tripled the risk of developing bone necrosis, a condition that can lead to disfigurement and incapacitating pain. 

The research was described as “the largest study of bone necrosis and bisphosphonates, a class of drugs used by millions of women worldwide to help prevent bone fractures due to osteoporosis”. 

It was also said to be the first study to explore the link between bone necrosis and specific brands of the drug group bisphosphonates, such as Actonel, Didrocal and Fosamax. Researchers apparently found that all three brands had similar outcomes.

The online Journal of Rheumatology published the findings, undertaken following 

“a recent USA FDA alert about bisphosphonates drugs that highlighted the possibility of severe and sometimes incapacitating bone, joint and/or muscle pain in patients taking the drugs”. 

This is perhaps the reason why NHS Choices is extremely coy when it outlines the treatment for Osteoporosis!

          “You may not need or want to take medication to treat osteoporosis. However, you should ensure that you're maintaining sufficient levels of calcium and vitamin D. To achieve this, your healthcare team will ask you about your current diet and may recommend making changes or taking supplements”.

Bisphosphonate drugs are the most commonly used medications used to treat osteoporosis. The DIEs of this treatment have been outlined above, yet they were approved, and continue to be approved by Drug Regulators throughout the world. They are used both for the prevention and treatment of the disease. They include the following:

• Actonel (risedronate)
• Boniva (ibandronate)
• Fosamax (alendronate)
• Reclast (zoledronic acid)

Other side effects for bisphosphonates taken orally include gastrointestinal problems such as difficulty swallowing, inflammation of the esophagus, and stomach ulcers.

Side effects for bisphosphonates taken intravenously include flu-like symptoms, fever, pain in muscles or joints, and headache.

Other drugs used by the Conventional Medical Establishment to treat osteoporosis include:

• Evista (raloxifene), which belongs to a class of drugs called selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs).
• Miacalcin and Fortical (Calcitonin), a hormonal drug.
• Forteo (teriparatide), another hormonal treatment which has a ‘black box’ warning from the FDA as it can increase the risk of developing osteosarcoma, a rare but serious cancer. 
• Estrogen/Hormone Therapy (ET/HT). This treatment is is often known as estrogen therapy. It can increase a woman’s risk of developing cancer of the uterine lining (endometrial cancer), breast cancer, blood clots and heart attacks. Other side effects include vaginal bleeding, breast tenderness, mood disturbances, blood clots in the veins, and gallbladder disease.

Pharmaceutical Drugs that may have caused this disease

So what are the causes of the enormous rise in the incidence of Osteoporis? Several factors are usually mentioned in relation to osteoporosis. For instance, it has been shown to have a large genetic component; and body weight in infancy has also been associated. Physical inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, high alcohol intake are also frequently mentioned. 

Yet all these factors have not changed fundamentally over the decades that have seen the increasing incidence of the disease, certainly not enough to explain the increase. 

As usual, the evidence that pharmaceutical drugs have played a role is rarely mentioned. The International Osteoporosis Foundation provides a long list of conventional medical drugs drugs contribute to osteoporosis by causing bone loss. This is what they say, followed by the list of medicines implicated.

“Some medicines can be harmful to your bones, even if you need to take them for another condition. Bone loss is usually greater if you take the medication in high doses or for a long time.

• Aluminum-containing antacids
• Antiseizure medicines (only some) such as Dilantin® or Phenobarbital
• Aromatase inhibitors such as Arimidex®, Aromasin® and Femara®
• Cancer chemotherapeutic drugs
• Cyclosporine A and FK506 (Tacrolimus)
• Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) such as Lupron® and Zoladex®
• Heparin
• Lithium
• Medroxyprogesterone acetate for contraception (Depo-Provera®)
• Methotrexate
• Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) such as Nexium®, Prevacid® and Prilosec® 
• Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Lexapro®, Prozac® and Zoloft®
• Steroids (glucocorticoids) such as cortisone and prednisone
• Tamoxifen® (premenopausal use)
• Thiazolidinediones such as Actos® and Avandia®
• Thyroid hormones in excess

Note: This list may not include all medicines that may cause bone loss.

Yet perhaps there are three types of Big Pharma drug are the worst culprits. The first is Proton Pump inhibiting drugs, such as Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid, Tagamet, Zantec, Pepcid, which can reduce the absorption of calcium from the stomach. Long-term use (a year or more) of these drugs can increase the risk of hip fracture by up to 60%.

Then there is Steroid, or Corticosteroid drugs. It has been estimated that between 30-50% of patients on long-term Corticosteroid drugs will experience fractures, with a 2-fold increased risk of hip fracture in women, and 2.6-fold increase in men. Yet Steroid drugs are regularly prescribed for a variety of conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, Crohn’s disease, lupus and allergies. They are often prescribed to relieve inflammation. They are also used along with other medicines to treat cancer and autoimmune conditions and to support organ transplants.

Yet perhaps the biggest culprit in the rise of Osteoporosis is conventional medicine’s meddling with our hormones, and in particular, the hormones of women. Large numbers of women were, until relatively recently, prescribed hormonal treatments (HRT), particularly for menopausal symptoms. Add to these numbers the huge number of women who have taken the contraceptive pill over the last 50-60 years, the it become undeniably that conventional medical drugs have played, and continue to play, a large role in the disruption of normal hormonal balances within our bodies, and thus in the rise of Osteoporosis. Perhaps it is little wonder that Osteoporosis mainly affects older women, who have suffered most of the abuse caused by these drugs.

Cancer? Bad luck? Or dangerous drugs?

It's all over the mainstream media! The BBC Today programme heralded the news to me this morning as I awoke! Read the BBC version of this wonderful new 'scientific' evidence here.

Cancer is just bad luck!

The research was published in the journal 'Science' and this is part of the abstract...

These results suggest that only a third of the variation in cancer risk among tissues is attributable to environmental factors or inherited predispositions. The majority is due to “bad luck,” that is, random mutations arising during DNA replication in normal, noncancerous stem cells. This is important not only for understanding the disease but also for designing strategies to limit the mortality it causes.

And it is important for us to understand this rather than understand one of the major causes in the epidemic rise of all kinds of cancers during recent times.

Pharmaceutical drugs!

For anyone who relies on the BBC, or the mainstream media for health information, or who believe that their doctors and the NHS would tell them if were true, that might come as something of a surprise! It would be unbelievable. Big Pharma drugs that cause cancer? Surely not!

The idea that the drugs our doctors and the NHS give us, and which our mainstream media never questions, should cause cancer should not really be such a surprise. any scientists now believe that our DNA is the basis of the genetic code that gives orders to all cells, and that cancer can be caused by chemicals, radiation, and viruses these cells come into contact with. There can be little doubt that many of these 'chemicals' and much of this 'radiation' have been introduced to our bodies via conventional medical drugs. And it is well known that many ConMed drugs cause cancer.

HRT
Hormone Replacement Therapy is perhaps the best known. HRT was once prescribed for many millions of women throughout the developed world for menopausal symptoms until it was proven, without reasonable doubt, that it caused both breast and uterine cancer. And remember, HRT is still not banned despite this, and is still prescribed to some women, quite regardless of the risks.

Tamoxifen
Many women are given drugs for the treatment of breast cancer, particularly Tamoxifen, without being told about the evidence that the drug is known to be carcinogenic, and indeed that it causes a much more virulent form of breast cancer.

          "Many of the drugs used to treat breast cancer today are probable or known cancer-causing agents. Tamoxifen, for instance, is classified by the World Health Organization as a "human carcinogen"...

It is also known to cause uterine cancer too. (International Journal of Gynaecological Cancer 2007).

Statin Drugs
Cholesterol-lowering drugs, notably Statins, are also implicated in causing cancer. The Journal of the American Medical Association (3 January1996) warned that these drugs can cause cancer in rodents.

Exubera
This 'safe' drug, used for Diabetes, was approved in 2006, and withdrawn in 2007 because it was found to dramatically increase the chances of lung cancer. In clinical trials, carried out by the drug company, six of the 4,740 patients taking Exubera developed lung cancer compared to just one out of 4,292 people who were not taking the drug.  After the trial finished, another Exubera patient also developed lung cancer. (Source:  FDA website)

Omeprazole (Philosec)
This heartburn drug has been found to cause abnormal cell growth and stomach tumors in rats, although it appears that no one is certain (yet) whether it does the same for humans!

Spironolactone (Aldactazide, Aldactone)
This is a blood pressure medicine, also prescribed for hormonal imbalances and facial hair growth in women, is also know to cause tumors in rats.

Elidel cream and Protopic ointment
These topical skin treatments, used for ezcema, are now associated with lymphoma and skin cancer. The FDA has warned against using them in children under age 2, and has admitted that the long-term safety of of these ointments are "unknown".

There are many, many more pharmaceutical drugs, currently being prescribed to patients, that are known to cause cancer. These few examples are just the tip of a very large iceberg. There is little doubt that Conventional Medicine plays a large role in the epidemic levels of all types of cancers. Indeed, the rise and rise of cancer in recent decades mirrors very closely the rise and rise in the consumption of Pharmaceutical Drugs. This is NOT a coincidence.

But the Conventional Medical Establishment would prefer that we did not know that their drugs were a known cause of cancer. They prefer us to think that it is just 'Bad Luck'! 

Advance Notice of a new E-Book - DIEs

The year 2015 will see me engaged in a massive project to demonstrate how most, if not all chronic illness and disease, can be caused by the conventional drug we are being given to treat more minor conditions.

I call this the 'disease-inducing-effects' or DIEs of pharmaceutical drugs

The purpose of this new ebook will be to demonstrate that the many modern epidemics of chronic disease and illness are not merely the result of 'bad luck', as this study suggests. They are the result of misadventure - the disastrous misadventure associated with the Conventional Medical Establishment during the last 100 years and more.

Conventional Medicine and the despair of patients? Avoid breast cancer by voluntary mastectomy?

Conventional medicine is failing, and failing badly.

Okay. Pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines are unsafe, and often downright dangerous. Given time, most pharmaceutical drugs are either withdrawn of banned as a result. They cause serious illness and disease. They kill 10s of 1000s of people every year.

Okay, Big Pharma drugs are ineffective, most of them quite useless. Recent studies have suggested that 85% of pharmaceutical drugs just don't work.

Okay. We know that a growing number of people are refusing to take them, most notably doctors and  nurses - yes, the very people who are willing to give them to us!

But how does this medical failure show up in the behaviour of patients?

• Apparently, Doctors are now agreeing to remove healthy breasts for women who fear getting breast cancer.
• Apparently, even one Miss America contestant will have both her breasts removed - even though she does not have cancer.

Conventional Medicine appears to operate in a continual state of panic. There is usually an annual panic about flu epidemics. Or the re-emergence of diseases, like Whooping Cough. But usually in this blog I have discounted these (and other 'panics') as a ploy by Big Pharma companies to sell their drugs and vaccines to us. However, it is becoming apparent that this is not the only consequence.

The willingness of healthy women to remove their breasts is a huge vote of 'no confidence' in the only medical system they know about - ConMed.

What does this mean? Contract breast cancer, and women have no confidence that ConMed will be able to help them. But worse, doctors who agree to this surgery must also agree with this assessment - that they have no effective or safe treatment for breast cancer. Otherwise they would surely refuse to contemplate such an horrendous violation of a woman's body.

* Moreover, as the articles above suggest, the risks of the operation are probably equal to the risk of contracting breast cancer - certainly more certain!

* And Homeopathy informs us that if a disease is treated by suppressing it, or removing the part involved in the disease, the disease is likely to emerge elsewhere.

Conventional Medicine, on the surface, appears very arrogant. They regularly inform us about new 'miracle' treatments, or 'wonder' cures. They tell us they are overcoming disease. They tell us we are all living longer because of the medication. They tell us that conventional medicine is the only 'science-based' medicine.

Yet, under the surface, there appears to be little confidence in their ability to treat disease. The regular panics about disease epidemics, the willingness of conventional medicine to perform unnecessary mastectomy operations, both suggest that the conventional medical establishment recognises, and acts on the basis, that it is short of safe and effective treatments for a variety of diseases.

The Disease-Inducing-Effects (DIEs) of Big Pharma drugs

The terms 'side-effect' or 'adverse reaction' do not adequately describe the damage that Big Pharma drugs can do to us. Indeed to describe the carnage caused by these drugs as 'side-effects' is an understatement of enormous proportions. They are inadequate descriptions of what drugs can do, and a gross underestimate of the human tragedy they cause on a regular basis. The terms make a mockery of the reality - that thousands of people every year suffer serious ill-health as a direct consequence of taking drugs which they believed would make them better. 

Big Pharma drugs can, and do, create new diseases, often diseases much worse and more life-threatening than the original condition for which the drugs were given. And they can kill us.

·        Beta blockers may lower blood pressure. But they are also known to cause diabetes.

·        Statin drugs are said to protect against heart disease. But they are also known to cause Parkinsons disease, and a muscle wasting disease called rhabdomyolysis, which is a killer.

·        Cox-2 painkillers may deaden pain. But they are now known to cause cancer and heart attacks.

·        Antidepressants may be thought to treat depression. But some have proven to increase the risk of suicide, especially in children and young people.

For this reason we need a new, more accurate way of describing the real outcome and consequences of taking drugs - a description that illustrates realistically what they do to the human body. 

Drugs produce Disease-Inducing-Effects, incapacity-inducing affects, addiction-producing effects, quality-of-life destroying effects - and too often, killer-effects.

So the term 'side-effect' and 'adverse reaction' should be replaced by 'Disease Inducing Effects' or DIE's, particularly apt as the 'D' can be used interchangeably for both 'disease' and 'death'.

This article was first written for the free e-book 'The Failure of Conventional Medicine'.

Lethal drug combinations

If the dangers of Conventional Medicine or Big Pharma drugs are not bad enough when just one drug is implicated, when two or more are involved, the dangers are that much more serious. And doctors know little about them. Drug testing is largely unhelpful. Well, conventional medicine does not know about the DIEs (disease causing effects) of individual drugs before patients start taking them! Why should we imagine that they are aware of the consequences of giving us two or more drugs. Some older people are taking 10, 12 or more drugs every day.

Now, research has shown that one of the most widely used drug combination is responsible for kidney failure and death. Does it matter what this combination is? Probably not. Any two drugs can interact within the body in ways that not even the smartest doctor is aware. But you might as well know about this particular combination, and go straight to your doctor to get you off them.

Combining an ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) drug with an ARB (angiotensin receptor blocker) can be lethal, especially among elderly patients, say researchers from the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary.

And at least 15 per cent of patients shouldn’t be taking the combination at all, as they have don’t even have the heart problems for which the drugs are intended to treat.

Most of the deaths and kidney problems occur within three months of starting treatment.  After that time, those patients still alive invariably come off the combination because their blood pressure has fallen perilously low.

(Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2011; doi: 10.1503/cmaj.101333).

Thanks to 'What Doctors Don't Tell You' (WDDTY) for this information.

http://www.wddty.com/popular-drug-combination-is-a-killer-say-researchers.html

Pharmaceutical Drugs cause Disease!

The idea that pharmaceutical drugs cause disease is fast growing in acceptance. I have written extensively about this in my e-book, ‘The Failure of Conventional Medicine’.

What pharmaceutical drugs do is not to cause ‘side-effects’, or even ‘adverse reactions’. These terms are quite inadequate to describe what they do. Drugs cause diseases, which is why I have used the term, DIEs, or ‘Disease Inducing Effects’ to replace these two wholly inadequate descriptions. The ‘D’ can, of course, stand for either ‘Disease’ or ‘Death’ so the term is doubly relevant, and aptly descriptive.

So it is not a surprise to read this in the e-magazine, Natural News.

               A recent U.S. News & World Report piece highlights new studies that point to serious problems down the road for the over-medicated population. According to reports, more than 60 percent of American adults now take at least one drug every day for a chronic health problem, and more than half of seniors take at least three medications every day. But the end result is more diseases like diabetes, heart disease, obesity, arthritis and cancer.

http://www.naturalnews.com/032016_pharmas_disease.html#ixzz1JEGUeLH1

Multaq is a dangerous drug

Multaq has been around a couple of years now. Initially it was supposed to show such fantastic results the FDA in the USA 'fast-tracked' it for approval. Then, of course, after 1000s, millions of patients suffer, the truth begins to trickle out. The drug is dangerous. It causes disease, and death.

But nothing is done, immediately, of course. The evidence of harm has to be more extreme, or experienced over a longer term. Patients are not told anything other than that "the benefits outweigh the disadvantages".

Pharmalot has now outlined the short history of the drug at  http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/11/heartstopping-news-more-multaq-safety-signals/

" Since its approval last year, the Sanofi-Aventis Moltaq heart drug has been controversial. For instance, a study published last spring found the pill is only modestly effective and has not clear safety benefits and more recently, questions were raised about the study that led to FDA approval.

Now, a new analysis of FDA adverse event reports indicate Multaq may cause or worsen heart failure, trigger potentially lethal irregular heartbeats and impair kidney function. There is also a glaring discrepancy between the language in the Med Guide given docs and patients, and the warning label about pregnant patients. And the findings led The Institute for Safe Medicine Practices, which conducted the analysis, to conclude that “we have seldom seen a drug with so many issues in so many areas of its safety profile.”

Why? The non-profit points out that development stopped several years ago after a study of patients with severe heart failure found the drug doubled the risk of death; other data found signals of cancer and birth defects in animals; there are potentially serious interactions with other drugs used to treat atrial fibrillation, and Multaq causes new heart rhythm disturbances in some patients.

The report goes into more detail about the findings, but what is important is what this story tells patients. This is a relatively 'new' drug, so 'good' that the FDA wanted you to have it as quickly as possible. Within less than 2 years, serious disease-inducing-effects (DIEs) have been reported.

But patients will not be told. Nor will the drug be withdrawn, at least not yet. It might take a decade for this to happen. Big Pharma is the only industry allowed to peddle dangerous merchandise to customers which are unsafe, and are given the benefit of the doubt. They may purchase 'scientists' to provide spurious evidence of safety. The medical science never protects patients from these drugs.

Imagine what would happen to a car company if they produced a succession of cars that proved to be unsafe! The company would be in big trouble. People would not buy their cars. The mainstream media would publicise the dangers, and warn the public. The government would demand action.

But none of this happens as far as Big Pharma drugs are concerned. Their products are considered 'safe' until they are proven to be dangerous. They are treated in exactly the opposite way to any other industry.

AND IT IS OUR HEALTH THAT IS AT STAKE HERE!

This blog will keep an eye on the future of this drug, which if it takes a normal course will end in the drug company withdrawing it, or the FDA banning it. 

Yet for many patients, this will be too late. So anyone who knows about these 'early' problems should take sensible precautionary action now. I suggest that they tell their doctors they are not prepared to take the drug, and demand to be told the whole truth!

Depression and Homeopathy

Dana Ullman, one of the world's leading homeopaths, has published another of his articles in the Huffington Post, this time on the homeopathic treatment of depression. In it he compares the safety of homeopathy with the obvious dangers of pharmaceutical drug treatment. Published in 2010 you can read it here. And for anyone struggling with mental health problems it is well worth the effort.

All pharmaceutical drugs cause disease-inducing-effects (DIEs). Whilst the drug companies call these 'side-effects',  diseases, and indeed the death of a patient, is NOT properly described by this term! The issue Dana raises through his article, because it is dealing with depression, is an interesting one.

Depression is an ailment that focuses on the brain, the most sensitive of all our organs. Therefore, if pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines cause disease, it is quite likely that drugs will cause more diseases of the brain than anything else. And this, indeed, is what we find. The epidemic levels of dementia, autism, depression, ADHD are without parallel, and have probably been largely caused by pharmaceutical drugs.

The message for anyone who feels depressed is simple; they should spend time studying and comparing the outcome of pharmaceutical drugs used for depression (drugs like Prosac, once a wonder drug, now known to cause many chronic diseases), with the safety and effectiveness of homeopathy.

Vaccination DIEs

I have just come across this website, based in Germany, but with an English version. If you are concerned about the safety and effectiveness of conventional vaccinations, and you feel that vaccination 'side-effects' are 'rare', than this is a must read website.

http://www.impfschaden.info/en/home.html

The site has managed to gather together large numbers of people who are reporting serious adverse reactions, or DIEs, about the main vaccinations we are being subjected to. The disease-inducing-effects are not rare, as we are led to believe, they are all too common.

They are just not worth the risk.

Back Pain and Homeopathy

Anyone suffering from back pain should go to this link for some good advice!

As John Sherman says, we should all understand the dangers of Conventional Medical treatment - they all have serious Disease-Inducing-Effects; and try safe homeopathic remedies instead.

Also in this article are some helpful suggestions for what remedies to try.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/100947629.html

Homeopathy is invariably safer, more effective, and less expensive too.