Osteoporosis

Some people develop osteoporosis, the mineral loss disease that leads to brittle bones, because their bodies cannot tolerate wheat and similar grains, a study has found. Gluten intolerance, called celiac disease, can be treated, so the damage done by osteoporosis can be reversed in such patients, added the report published in the Feb. 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Bones need calcium. Doctors, dietitians and researchers agree on this point. Conventional wisdom holds that dairy foods are the best source of calcium, and that American adults need to pump up their dairy intake to get the large amount of calcium their bodies need every day. Not everyone, however, believes the conventional wisdom. Researchers are even raising questions about whether children need as much milk as guidelines recommend.

Dentists may be able to help screen women for osteoporosis by looking at X-rays that they are taking anyway. Panoramic dental X-rays, which show the whole jaw, can also show the beginnings of low skeletal bone mineral density -- the first step toward osteoporosis, Japanese researchers have reported. Dr. Akira Taguchi of Hiroshima University Hospital in Japan and colleagues studied 316 women past menopause who had no symptoms of osteoporosis but who got dental X-rays.

Weight training has gained attention in recent years as a way to prevent bone loss in postmenopausal women. Now experts say that this type of exercise is crucial for everyone -- the young, the elderly and everyone in between. In issuing updated, broad exercise guidelines for children and adults, the American College of Sports Medicine emphasized not just the benefits of cardiovascular exercise but the advantages of often-overlooked resistance training as well.

Men as well as women should do more to prevent osteoporosis, or cases of the bone-wasting disease will mount with the aging population and put a heavy burden on the country's medical system, Surgeon Gen. Richard H. Carmona said Thursday. Osteoporosis "represents a major public health problem," largely because people lack awareness of it and fail to take available steps to combat it, said the surgeon general's first report on the condition.

The financial community finally got a look at Amgen Inc.'s highly touted bone drug on Sunday, and in general it liked what it saw. The Thousand Oaks company presented data at a medical meeting here that showed the drug was as good at increasing bone density as Merck & Co.'s Fosamax, the leading osteoporosis treatment.

Folate and other B vitamins appear to be more of a wonder drug than anyone suspected: Already known to prevent severe birth defects and heart attacks, they may also ward off broken bones from osteoporosis, two major studies suggest. The findings underscore many doctors' long-standing recommendation that people take multivitamins. They could also further support the government's decision to require bread and cereal makers to fortify their products with folate, also known as folic acid.

As a weapon against osteoporosis, the drug's beginnings were inauspicious -- it was shelved for almost 50 years, and its main component is a mineral widely regarded as nonessential. But the compound could become a potent treatment for the bone-thinning disorder affecting millions of Americans. Called strontium ranelate, the medication is made from the mineral strontium, discovered in lead mines in Europe more than a century ago.

Kyphon Inc. said Monday that it had received U.S. regulatory approval for a bone cement used to treat fractures in the spine brought on by osteoporosis. Shares of the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company closed up $4.36, or 17.96%, at $28.64 in Nasdaq trading. WR Hambrecht & Co. analyst David Turkaly said the bone cement was the first material specifically indicated for the treatment of osteoporotic fractures.

The osteoporosis drug Fosamax keeps strengthening bones, easing fears that the medicine might eventually boomerang and start making hips and spines brittle and prone to break, researchers said in a study released today. The study is the longest test yet of Fosamax, which was approved in 1995. It has gained quickly in popularity as an alternative to hormone supplements, which have been linked in recent years to heart disease and cancer.