SHALMALI PAL, Contributing Editor - Perelman School of Medicine/MedPage Today
Stephan: If you are one of the many post-menopausal women taking this medication perhaps you should take this report in and discuss it with your physician.
Source references:
Meier R, et al 'Increasing occurrence of atypical femoral fractures associated with bisphosphonate use' Arch Intern Med 2012; DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.1796.
If you are one of the many post menopausal women taking this medication perhaps you should take this in and discuss it with your physician.
Bauer D 'Atypical femoral fracture risk in patients treated with bisphosphonates' Arch Intern Med 2012; DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.1827.
Bisphosphonate therapy appears to be associated with an increased risk of atypical fractures of the femur, and may be driven by the duration of treatment, according to new research.
Of 477 patients hospitalized at one center, 39 had atypical fractures and 438 had common fractures. Among those with atypical fractures, 82.1% had been taking bisphosphonates compared with just 6.4% of those with common fractures, Raphael P.H. Meier, MD, from University Hospitals of Geneva, and colleagues reported online in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
They also noted that the atypical-fracture group had a longer treatment period on bisphosphonates — including alendronate (Fosamax), risedronate (Actonel), pamidronate (Aredia), and ibandronate (Boniva) — than the classic-fracture group, at a mean of 5.1 years versus 3.3 years (P=0.02).
Nonetheless, compared with a 200-patient fracture-free control group, use of bisphosphonates was associated with a 47% reduction in the risk of common fractures (OR 0.5, 95% CI 0.3 to 0.9), making the absolute risk:benefit ratio of bisphosphonates a positive one, they added.
The current evidence on bisphosphonate use and atypical fractures is conflicting. A recent meta-analysis of randomized trials found no association. But a registry-based study suggested that the risk of atypical fracture was more than doubled when bisphosphonates were taken […]
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Stephan: Here is an aspect of the climate change - old energy dynamic that has not received much attention, but which will have a profound effect on what happens in the transition to green energy.
SINGAPORE — Warmer water and reduced river flows will cause more power disruptions for nuclear and coal-fired power plants in the United States and Europe in future, scientists say, and lead to a rethink on how best to cool power stations in a hotter world.
In a study published on Monday, a team of European and U.S. scientists focused on projections of rising temperatures and lower river levels in summer and how these impacts would affect power plants dependent on river water for cooling.
The authors predict that coal and nuclear power generating capacity between 2031 and 2060 will decrease by between 4 and 16 percent in the United States and a 6 to 19 percent decline in Europe due to lack of cooling water.
The likelihood of extreme drops in power generation, either complete or almost-total shutdowns, was projected to almost triple.
‘This study suggests that our reliance on thermal cooling is something that we’re going to have to revisit,’ co-author Dennis Lettenmaier, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, said in a statement.
Thermoelectric power plants supply more than 90 percent of electricity in the United States and account for 40 percent of the nation’s freshwater […]
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RACHEL DONADIO, - The New York Times
Stephan: This is another trend that is reaching a crisis point, I think. The mounting evidence of rot in the Holy See has become so large it is impossible not to acknowledge it.
VATICAN CITY — In an undisclosed location here, the Vatican authorities are busy questioning Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s butler, and others in a widening leaks scandal that has made the seat of the Roman Catholic Church appear to be a hornet’s nest of back-stabbing and gossip.
Across town, in the lobby of a fancy hotel on the Via Veneto, Gianluigi Nuzzi, the investigative reporter whose new book based on some of the leaks has sent the Vatican into a tailspin, was holding court and looking rather pleased.
‘I’m serene, I’m tranquil, convinced that I did my work in a correct way, without raising questions about the Holy Father,
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MARY ELLEN CLARK, - Reuters
Stephan: This trend is reaching a crescendo, due to citizen intention, the obvious wrongness of the Federal prohibition model, and the growing body of research showing significant benefits.
It is interesting that far from surfing this wave the Obama Administration has been wreaking havoc on an emerging post-prohibition business model. I know it may seem farfetched, but I could make a case that the marijuana vote could be determinant in November's Presidential election.
NEW YORK — Connecticut on Friday became the 17th U.S. state to legalize the medical use of marijuana.
The state’s Governor Dannel Malloy signed into law legislation allowing licensed physicians to certify an adult patient’s use of marijuana for medical purposes, according to a statement from the governor’s office.
The new law puts in place restrictions to prevent the kind of abuse that has plagued some of the 16 other states and the District of Columbia where pot is legal for medical use.
‘For years, we’ve heard from so many patients with chronic diseases who undergo treatments like chemotherapy or radiation and are denied the palliative benefits that medical marijuana would provide,’ Governor Malloy said.
‘With careful regulation and safeguards, this law will allow a doctor and a patient to decide what is in that patient’s best interest,’ he said.
Under the bill, patients and their caregivers must register with the Department of Consumer Protection. In addition, a doctor must certify there is a medical need for marijuana to be dispensed, including such debilitating conditions as cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis or epilepsy.
Finally, only a pharmacist with a special license can dispense medical marijuana, according to the new law.
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ANNA YUKHANANOV, - Reuters
Stephan: The hypocrisy and cynicism of the illness profit system simply cannot be overstated. I keep saying this, let me say it again: As this report makes clear the illness profit system is about profit, and nothing else. Ask yourself: what does this tell us about American 'healthcare'.
WASHINGTON — At the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, pharmacists are using old-fashioned paper spreadsheets to track their stock of drugs in short supply – a task that takes several hours each day.
Most of the hospital’s medicines – with usage estimated at $100 million a year – are tracked by automated systems that allow for quick reorders when the supply runs low. But these automated systems, designed to help the hospital avoid purchases and storage costs of unused pills and vials, do not work if it is uncertain when the next batch of drugs will come in.
A few hundred medicines make the list of drugs in short supply: anesthetics, drugs for nausea and nutrition, infection treatments and diarrhea pills. A separate list has scarce cancer drugs for leukemia or breast cancer.
‘Now we have to go through the pharmacy and count those drugs on a daily basis … to make sure we don’t run out,’ said Ed Szandzik, director of pharmacy services at the hospital for over a decade.
The growing scarcity of sterile, injectable drugs is one of the biggest issues confronting hospitals across the country, and will be a key issue at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting […]
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