This is important information for Parkies on Fosamax...it's hard enough
to time all your PD meds and taking Fosamax makes it even
more complicated...this news will bring relief to many!
Fosamax Can Be Taken Before Lunch or Dinner
By W. A. Thomasson, PhD
Special to DG News
CHICAGO, IL -- June 19, 2000 -- Official dosing directions for
Fosamax (alendronate sodium) require it to be taken a half-hour
to an hour before breakfast, a regimen that many patients find extremely
inconvenient.
Data presented yesterday (June 18) at the World Congress on
Osteoporosis, however, suggest this may not be necessary: Results showed
that equivalent effects are obtained when the medication is taken an
hour before lunch or dinner.
Pierre Delmas, MD, of Claude Bernard University in Lyon, France, and
colleagues enrolled 139 post-menopausal women with osteoporosis and
randomly assigned them to 10 mg daily dose of Fosamax either half an
hour before breakfast, one hour before lunch, or one hour before dinner.
Those women taking the doses before lunch or dinner were required to
take them at least four hours after their previous meal.
Biochemical markers of bone turnover were measured at three months and
at six months, with approximately the same decrease from baseline being
seen in all three groups.
The only statistically significant differences were seen in patients
taking their dose before dinner, where there was a smaller decrease in
one marker at three months and in another marker at six months. The
decrease from baseline was statistically significant in all cases.
Approximately 90 percent of the patients in each group were classified
as responding to Fosamax.
Critical data comparing effects on bone mineral density are not yet
available, since they will be obtained at one-year follow-up. Fracture
data will likewise require longer follow-up and perhaps a larger study.
Nevertheless, the biochemical data encourage hope that patients may soon
have a more convenient Fosamax dosing regimen available to them.
Hugs,
Gail Vass
