When I had my first bone density in 2000, my spine was -3.6 and my hips -3.5 Over the past 23 years with fosomaxx and actonel, my hip scores improved some, down to -3.0. My spine never improved, but didn't get worse. My new density test this month showed a major improvement in my spine -2.7 and my hips -2.6. That's still osteoporosis, but so much better. From what I've been reading, improvement seems to be really good in the spine. Yale is my local hospital, so the doctors available to my family have been great and I don't question their treatments. As I noted, my only possible side effect was a minor rash that I think was due to my mild allergy to sulfa.