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@jeffmarc Hi Jeff, these are forms of bisphosphonate drugs. If your DEXA scan shows you have osteoporosis, then perhaps they are appropriate.
If not (scan shows Osteopenia or better) then it’s safer to focus on vitamins and exercise and diet.
Bisphophonates are very strong drugs with some “interesting” side effects. Goggle is a valuable tool here.
Doctors like writing scripts for these drugs and they may be right for your specific condition, but get that DEXA scan first and then be an informed patient.
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@rlplaut
As I said, this was not my advice
This was not my opinion a bone doctor that is a prostate cancer specialist said this at a conference about six months ago. He was pretty emphatic about the fact that people need those drugs to keep their bones healthy while on ADT.
ADT can very quickly, deteriorate your bones, That’s why the doctor said this.
I was on Fosamax for six years, Had no real side effects from it, but it did make my bones a lot stronger. I am on Zometa now, Had infusions every three months for about the last year and a half. Never had any side effects from it at all
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@rlplaut Same experience here. I didn't have a bone-density scan 4 years ago because I was in medical crisis and they were focused on saving my life and mobility, but earlier this year my oncologist noted the gap and ordered a baseline. At the time, I wa 3½ years into ADT+Apalutamide, 18 months of which I'd spent with extremely limited mobility (starting out immobile in a hospital bed).
The scan showed only very mild osteopenia, only a little worse than you'd expect for an average 60-year-old male without prostate cancer and a serious spinal injury, so, as you mentioned, he saw no point adding more polypharmacy complications to my life.
We'll do a follow-up scan in a couple more years and see if it has changed at all then. If it gets worse, then yes, bone-strengthening meds may be in my future.