Day: June 17, 2006

Bisphosphonates, a class of drugs used to prevent broken and deteriorating bones in cancer and osteoporosis patients, have been linked to a serious side effect called osteonecrosis, in which areas of bone in the jaw die. However, while small, but increasing, numbers of complaints seem to be popping up, along with rising numbers of lawsuits aimed at the drugs’ makers, many unanswered questions remain. One major question is just how many people are suffering from osteonecrosis of the jaw related to bisphosphonates. There are two varieties of the drugs, one taken intravenously by cancer patients (Zometa and Aredia), the other taken in lower-dose pill form by those with osteoporosis (Fosamax, Actonel and Boniva). Incidence of osteonecrosis among cancer patients is estimated at between 1 percent and 10 percent, while incidence among osteoporosis patients is unknown.

Drug for Bones Is Newly Linked to Jaw Disease

“Should cancer patients stop taking bisphosphonates for a year or so and then start again? Should osteoporosis patients stop periodically? ‘The pharmaceutical industry has every desire that a patient who starts on a bisphosphonate would take it for life,’ said Dr. Robert Gagel of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. ‘The bone community, of which I am a member, has always been a bit suspicious of that viewpoint.’ Some patients say they are left unsure of the medical advice they have already been given.”

WHAT?!?! I know, it sounds way off track… but the answer is not as simple as it sounds. Western society (well, American society) stresses taking at least one bath per day, then using anti-bacterial soaps, reducing exposure to bacteria and germs, and use of deodorants. What if the lack of daily exposure to germs and bacteria weakens our immune system, since it doesn’t have to “face” the bacteria? What if the chemicals and additives in the soaps further reduce our immune system’s capabilities? And, finally, what if the deodorants have heavy metals and chemicals that actually promote disease? Some of these possible outcomes are being studied now:

Wild vs. lab rodent comparison supports hygiene hypothesis

“In a study comparing wild rodents with their laboratory counterparts, researchers at Duke University Medical Center have found evidence that may help to explain why people in industrialized societies that greatly stress hygiene have higher rates of allergy and autoimmune diseases than do people in less developed societies in which hygiene is harder to achieve or considered less critical. The prevailing hypothesis concerning the development of allergy and probably autoimmune disease is the “hygiene hypothesis,” which states that people in “hygienic” societies have higher rates of allergy and perhaps autoimmune disease because they — and hence their immune systems — have not been as challenged during everyday life by the host of microbes commonly found in the environment. The study suggests that an overly hygienic environment could simultaneously increase the tendency to have allergic reactions and the tendency to acquire autoimmune disease, despite the fact that these two reactions represent two different types of immune responses.”