Here are five notes:
1. Use of these drugs, known by brand names including Fosamax, Boniva and Reclast, dropped 50 percent after stories surfaced in 2008 and 2009 of women who were taking bisphosphonates suffering sudden fractures, usually to the femur.
2. Timothy Bhattacharyya, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., said bisphosphonates are very effective and very safe medications and the side effects are extremely rare.
3. The right patients to use bisphosphonates would be those already diagnosed with osteoporosis, and not those with osteopenia, a much milder form of bone density.
4. A number of factors are used to determine who would be a good candidate for osteoporosis drugs, including family history, ethnic status and whether the patient was ever a smoker.
5. The patients who reported sudden fractures and other side effects had been on bisphosphonates for more than five years.
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