Once geared just to women, those risky osteoporosis drugs are now going unisex

The headline in The Wall Street Journal story said “Men are new target for osteoporosis treatment.” And that really hit the nail on the head.

Because “target” is exactly what it is.

It looks like Big Pharma wasn’t happy enough with all the women it’s targeted for taking those dangerous bone drugs, so now guys are in the crosshairs, too.

To get men in “on the program” you need a study, of course. And any study that’s authored by a professor by the name of Peter Ebeling is the first tip of who’s really behind it.

Ebeling’s “declared interests” statement reads like a Rolodex from a top drug company executive. Merck, Sanofi, Novartis, and Eli Lilly are some of his pharma friends who have him on the payroll.

Nevertheless, his “in-depth” report, about why men need to be tested and take these crippling drugs was the darling of “World Osteoporosis Day” last year.

And even worse is the Merck-sponsored “pilot” project, now going on in three medical centers. The plan is to swoop down on any man who ends up in one of these hospitals with a broken bone and hustle him into a scam called the bone-density test or DEXA scan.

Of course, the real goal of this project is to see how many men can be started on drugs like Boneva or Prolia. Already MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in D.C. is reporting that the number of patients put on treatment is up “significantly.”

And these treatments aren’t just your run of the mill dangerous drugs, either. They’re actually a step above dangerous. They can cause fractures all on their own, not to mention cancer, heart inflammation, bone death, and low calcium levels that can be life-threatening.

So if you’re being coerced into a bone-density or DEXA scan here’s what you guys (and gals) need to know:

• The bone-density scan is said to be just about the most unreliable medical test you can get, one prone to problems and errors.
• You can get a different result each time, and different brands of scanners vary as much as 20 percent in readings.
• It’s such an unreliable test that experts say it takes around 10 years to overcome its margin of error.

If you want to keep, or build strong bones, take vitamins D and K regularly. It is simple, inexpensive and it actually works. (And vitamin K is especially important if you’re taking calcium.)

Source:

“Men are new target for osteoporosis treatment” Dana Wechsler Linden, March 23, 2015, The Wall Street Journal, wsj.com