To prevent osteoporosis from happening, some people resort to the use of bone-building drugs like bisphosphonates. They are the kind of drugs that can help reduce the possibility of losing bone mass. They are coined as such because it contains two phosphonate groups. It can even treat osteitis deformans or the Paget's disease of the bone, bone metastasis and multiple myeloma. Some common drugs include alendronate, risedronate, pamidronate, strontium ranelate, SERM raloxifene, Fosamax, Boniva and Actonel.

Although this kind of drug is used for many diseases, it also has a controversy. According to a research done Swedish researchers, it reports a minimal risk of some rare fractures. It is an irony because it's been known that bisphosphonates reduces the risk of osteoporotic fractures. The downside of it is that an individual has a small risk of developing a fatigue fracture. That has been confirmed by a lead researcher named Dr. Per Aspenberg from Linkoping University.

According to him, the odds of getting an atypical fracture are similar to the possibility of getting struck by lightning on a bright, sunny day. One should not be afraid because all drugs have unfavorable effects. If you have a disease that can be treated by the bone-building drugs, go ahead and take the risk. Anyway, it's curing the disease you have.

Take for example osteoporosis fractures. One out of 60 individuals with osteoporosis fractures treated with bisphosphonates may experience atypical fracture. In a group of 12,777 women, only 59 were confirmed that they experience atypical fractures. The absolute risk is minimal.

True enough, even Dr. Nelson Watts, director of the University of Cincinnati's Bone Health and Osteoporosis Center, agrees to what Aspenberg concluded. After all, there's no such thing as risk-free in life. Clearly, the benefits outweigh the adverse effects. According to Nelson Watts, it's more beneficial to use bisphosphonates as it reduces the complications of a hip fracture.

Being at risk of atypical fracture is relatively small. It doesn't impose a serious threat to the user of bone-building drugs. An expert even says that bisphosphonates don't directly cause the fractures. It may be due to a bone defect.

Medicine