Say Dr No to shifting from falls to osteoporosis

doi:10.1136/bmj.a2684

Published 25 November 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2684
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2684

Letters

Guidance on osteoporosis

Say Dr No to shifting from falls to osteoporosis

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

As clinicians, we agree with shifting the focus in fractureprevention from osteoporosis to falls,¹ and consider that lossof bone mineral is a risk factor rather than a disease.

This shift is seriously challenged in information campaignstargeted at the public. In the timeless women campaign promotedby the International Osteoporosis Foundation and sponsored byNovartis, Ursula Andress declares: "Say Dr No to osteoporosis."She describes how she didn’t take any drug after a bonemineral test and her T score was lower in the next examination.But now she’s saved from becoming a crippled old ladyby the once a year drug produced by the company sponsoring thecampaign.

However, ageing is always accompanied by loss of bone mineral,but most elderly women do not develop fragility fractures. Physicalexercise and healthy lifestyle are probably protective. AndUrsula’s treatment prevents clinical fractures in only4 out of 100 . . . [Full text of this article]

Emilio Maestri, consultant endocrinologist¹, On behalf of Oreste Capelli, Giulio Formoso, Lucia Magnano, Anna Maria Marata, and Nicola Magrini

¹ Unit of Drug Evaluation and Evidence-Based Primary Care (CeVEAS), 41100 Modena, Italy

boscoprofondo@tin.it

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