On this occasion we are sharing the following section from one of our email health newsletters.
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Dear Reader,
This has to be one of the strangest instructions for taking a drug I've ever seen: "Never take alendronate at bedtime or before you wake up and get out of bed for the day."
Got that? Don't take alendronate before you wake up.
That's just bizarre! But odd as it sounds, you could put your life in serious danger if you don't carefully follow that and other directions for alendronate, the generic name for Fosamax, the popular bisphosphonate drug that treats osteoporosis.
Here are some other Fosamax instructions:
* It must be taken right after you get out of bed, before you eat
* It must be taken with a full glass of water, followed by more water
* It can't be taken with any other liquids
* After taking, do not lie down for at least 30 minutes
* After taking, sit upright or stand for at least 30 minutes, then take
your first food of the day
When drug instructions are THAT specific and THAT demanding, what you've got is a big red flag warning that something potentially very dangerous is going on here.
And it is.
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Hard to swallow
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If Fosamax and other bisphosphonate drugs (Boniva, Actonel, etc.) aren't swallowed properly, the esophagus can be irritated. That's what's behind all those special instructions.
If the irritation is too frequent or too intense, it can cause esophagitis -- inflammation of the esophagus.
According to Fosamax prescribing instructions, esophageal ulcers and esophageal erosions "occasionally with bleeding" may also occur.
So just getting this pill down your gullet is very serious business. But as bad as those side effects are, the long-range potential for damage with esophagitis is MUCH worse.
A few years ago, Danish researchers reviewed more than 11,000 medical records and found that patients with esophagitis were significantly more likely to develop esophageal cancer.
Recognizing the importance of this potential link, a team of UK researchers examined medical records for more than 93,000 subjects. As reported this past September in the British Medical Journal, the UK team found that extended bisphosphonate use (10 or more prescriptions over five years) nearly DOUBLED the risk of esophageal cancer.
This is pretty horrifying when you consider that more than 20 million people have used Fosamax since it was introduced in the 90s. And that's just one brand of this very popular class of drugs.
I just met a woman in my horseback riding class on Saturday who was just diagnosed with osteoporosis and was looking at her different options. Obviously, I'm going to forward this email to her...and invite you to do the same if you know anyone who might be using or thinking about using a bisphosphonate drug. Most importantly, they should know that once they've successfully swallowed their pills, that's when other serious dangers loom -- especially when the drug is taken for several years.
You can click on this link to find out more about risk of bone fractures with bisphosphonate use.
And at this link you'll find a discussion of MUCH safer ways to improve bone health and reduce fracture risk.
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A couple of days after reading that email we read the following article on esophageal cancer.
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Strawberries Join the Fight Against Cancer
Strawberries are high on a select list of super-healthy foods that virtually everyone likes. And listen up -- now comes news that they are much more important to our health than previously thought. A new study done at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center on freeze-dried strawberries and precancerous esophageal lesions found that the berries were extremely effective in slowing the development of those lesions.
Anything that helps the fight against esophageal cancer is very welcome news. Not only have the number of cases been growing, it’s also a very deadly cancer.
Berries Bring Reversals
The research (which was sponsored by the California Strawberry Commission) was done in China, where the incidence of esophageal cancer -- the type known as squamous cell carcinoma -- is extremely high. Americans more typically suffer from a different type of esophageal cancer, known as adenocarcinoma. Lead researcher Tong Chen, MD, PhD, assistant professor in medical oncology at Ohio State, told me that strawberries may similarly affect the type of cancer common in the West because they impact some genes common to both types.
The study had 36 participants, average age 54, all of whom had precancerous lesions of the esophagus. Dr. Chen said that such precancerous lesions are graded mild or moderate (severe ones are clinically considered cancer) and that eventually about 25% of patients with mild lesions and 50% of those with moderate lesions progress to cancer. However, in her study, in which each participant ate about two ounces of freeze-dried strawberries a day, 29 of the 36 participants -- about 80% -- experienced at least some reversal of lesion progress, with some moderate lesions becoming mild and some mild ones reverting to normal. Dr. Chen said, "Our study is important because it shows that strawberries may be an alternative to -- or may work together with -- chemopreventive drugs to help stop esophageal cancer. But we will need to test this in randomized placebo-controlled trials in the future."
Big Power in a Little Berry
As a cancer fighter, strawberries have a powerful combination of molecular components, says Dr. Chen. They contain antioxidant polyphenols, of course, and also vitamins A, C and E, folic acid, calcium, selenium and zinc. As she points out, you can buy all of these in supplemental form, but in strawberries there seems to be a synergistic effect among the components that makes them more potent than the individual components are on their own. Freeze-drying the fruit takes it to an even more impressive level as a nutrient powerhouse -- this process removes water from the fruit, leaving a much denser nutritional content within. In the case of strawberries, which are 90% water, when freeze-dried, the end product is 10 times more nutritious than the equivalent weight of fresh berries.
Freeze-dried strawberries are widely available now in supermarkets and health-food stores. This is one rare case in which a processed version of a food might be more healthful than the natural version -- probably because freeze-drying takes out only water and adds no flavorings or sugar. As to whether eating strawberries can prevent esophageal cancer in people who don’t already have lesions, I’d be surprised if studies on that question don’t follow -- the potential is just too exciting.
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Now, if this info stimulates you, then you be the judge and perform your own due diligence.
The Sources For Both Email Articles:
"Exposure to Oral Bisphosphonates and Risk of Esophageal Cancer" Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 304, No. 6, 8/11/10, jama.ama-assn.org
"Oral bisphosphonates and risk of cancer of oesophagus, stomach, and colorectum: case-control analysis within a UK primary care cohort" British Medical Journal, Vol. 341, No. 4444, 9/2/10, bmj.com
Tong Chen, MD, PhD, assistant professor in medical oncology, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus.
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