Should bisphosphonate treatment be stopped after only 5 years?

• By painter1998
• Posted June 25, 2009 at 11:50 am
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Thanks, rmchavin, for bringing up this important topic and keeping us abreast of the research. This should be a concern for any of the meds we are taking for Osteoporosis. Do you know if there is any research on the long term use/effectiveness of Evista?

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• By rmchavin
• Posted June 25, 2009 at 7:43 pm
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Dear painter1998:

I can mostly only find very positive things said about Evista (raloxifene). Many people have swallowed Evista pills continually for 10 years or more and enjoyed the benefits of Evista with few if any side effects. The only negatives are: (1) Evista will only adequately reduce your risk of vertebral fractures. Your risk of suffering a hip fracture or wrist fracture will not be reduced that much. (2) It would be a serious side effect if you allowed blood clots to form in your leg veins because you took Evista. Don't forget to minimize this risk by (a) swallowing one baby aspirin pill daily, (b) eating high-fat fish regularly, and/or (c) swallowing fish oil pills and/or krill oil pills daily. For some reason, Eli Lilly & Co. is not permitted to tell us how to minimize the risk of blood clots. (3) Evista will very slightly increase your risk of hot flashes. Estrogen, on the other hand, will greatly reduce your risk of hot flashes and reduce your risk of fractures much better than Evista. But estrogen with or without progestin will DECREASE your life expectancy by increasing your chance of death from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events, while Evista will INCREASE your life expectancy by greatly reducing your risk of breast cancer. (4) Evista can only be legally prescribed to postmenopausal women. Men and premenopausal women cannot legally swallow Evista pills. The big picture, however, is that Evista is an excellent choice for those with osteopenia (those whose osteoporosis is not yet too severe). The advantages of Evista are: (1) A higher percentage of people tolerate Evista than any other osteoporosis drug. (2) Evista is very convenient to swallow. Just swallow one 60 mg Evista pill daily. (3) Extremely poor people can swallow one 60 mg Evista pill once every 2 days and still derive 77% of the fracture-preventing benefit. (4) Evista lowers your risk of developing breast cancer by 50%. (5) Evista lowers your LDL (bad) cholesterol slightly. (6) Evista is not only helpful against osteoporosis but it is also somewhat effective in preventing and treating arthritis (7) Evista increases your bone density slightly and tries (but fails somewhat) to keep it there indefinitely. Tomorrow, I will give you many of the web addresses that I have bookmarked into my "Evista (raloxifene)" folder, which is inside my "Osteoporosis Prevention Studies" folder.

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• By rmchavin
• Posted June 26, 2009 at 5:17 pm
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The following 4 PubMed studies summarize the effectiveness of Evista: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10520416 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18534794 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16234962 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16352692 The following 4 PubMed studies say that long-term use of Evista does not thicken the wall of the uterus (endometrium) or increase the risk of uterine (endometrial) cancer: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15121561 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12618160 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16140483 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12020983 http://www.cancer.gov/ncicancerbulletin/NCI_Cancer_Bulletin_041806/page2 The following 1 PubMed study says that long-term use of Evista has no adverse effect on the risk of urinary incontinence, which afflicts about half of all women: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17487651 The following 2 PubMed studies say that Evista is useful not only in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis but also in the prevention and treatment of arthritis: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18435803 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17907171 The following 3 Pubmed studies say that Evista has favorable effects on cardiovascular risk factors such as total cholesterol, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and plasma fibrinogen: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12935394 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17439382 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12852708 The following 2 PubMed studies say that Evista reduces breast cancer risk by at least 50%: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10983739 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19299240 http://www.cancer.gov/STAR The following 4 PubMed studies say that Evista is better tolerated than any other osteoporosis drug: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18522288 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15967604 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15038947 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11528358 The following 3 Pubmed studies say that Evista can be swallowed daily for 10 years or even longer: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17223374 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16301191 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16197663 The following 1 PubMed study warns that although endometriosis is much more common in premenopausal women, postmenopausal women with endometriosis should not take Evista: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17067584 The following 1 PubMed study says that Evista might have a very slight antioxidant benefit: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16941230 The following 2 PubMed studies mention Evista's greatest defect, namely, that it only reduces the risk of hip fractures and wrist fractures by about 7%: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12161484 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10517716 However, the following 1 Pubmed study says that Evista didn't do any worse than either Actonel (risedronate) or Miacalcin (salmon calcitonin) in preventing nonvertebral fractures: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18458276 Finally, the following 1 PubMed study says that Evista reduces the risk of vertebral fractures by about 53%: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19487509

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• By rmchavin
• Posted June 26, 2009 at 11:31 pm
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Whoops. I forgot to say that Evista does not increase or decrease the risk of developing any cancer other than breast cancer.

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