Fosamex vs. Citracal

I am tired of having to spread out five Citracal tablets twice a day, plus include my other medications. I asked my doctor if I could take Fosamex instead. She gave me a prescription, but I haven't started taking it yet. Is anyone else taking this instead of the calcium tablets? My mother has osteoporosis, so she takes Fosamex. I have been diagnosed with osteopenia, so I am concerned about helping my bones.

Read the package insert. You'll see that you must take calcium with the Fosomax. If you don't you could have some bad side effects. The Fosomax WILL take calcium and build bone. If you aren't supplying your body with enough calcium, it will remove the calcium from your muscles and your muscles must have calcium to function correctly.

There are other forms of calcium you can try, but you can't not take it.

Why do you have to take it so many times per day. I take a 600mg caplet twice a day. The off brand of caltrate plus. You only need 1200-1600 mg per day if I am understanding things correctly. I get 1200mg from the pills and the rest from my diet. Overdoing calcium is not a good thing. How many mg's per day are you taking?

Thanks, ladies, for responding.

I am presently taking 1200mg of calcium. I take Centrum Silver, which has 200 mg. I am then taking 5 Citracal tablets. According to the directions, 2 tablets must be taken to equal 400 mg. of calcium.

I wasn't aware that I still needed to take calcium supplements when taking Fosamax. My doctor didn't mention that to me when I asked her if I could take the Fosamax as opposed to so many calcium tablets.

If I decide to take the Fosamax, I suppose I will need to contact my Dr. to see how much calcium I should be taking with it. It sounds like I might as well stay with "plain old" calcium!

she says the drug just causes your body to keep old bone that is really meant to be discarded and doesn't really replenish new bone cells. Old bone is brittle and it just appears that bone mass is not lessening.

Of course, she isn't a MD, but what she said makes sense.

Gee, my mother is part of the Fosomax study and has been for something like 8 years now. She's never taken calcium along with it. Her bone density studies have always been exceptional and she's 75 years old. Now I'm wondering if I should tell her to think about taking calcium too. Do you think it would be necessary at this point?

Juliana

My mother was given Fosomax, so I read the many pages of teeny tiny type that came with it. The makers themselves say that you should not take Fosomax if blood levels of calcium are low. And if you look at the side effects, a lot are from calcium deficiency--muscle cramps, muscle pain in particular. Since it's pulling calcium out of other areas, if I understand what they are saying, then those areas are affected. Of course, your mother, Juliana, might have a diet that's high enough in calcium that she doesn't have these problems. But yes, adding some calcium might make her feel better. Some people (like me) feel even better when calcium and magnesium are balanced (they work together in the body--and both are good for bone).

Oh, and the evidence so far is supporting the idea that Fosomax prevents fractures, so it's looking like the brittle bone argument might not be true. For instance, this year a study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society
Levis et al. March 2002

This was a randomized, placebo-controlled, double blind trial with several thousand women with osteoporosis. The group on Fosomax had a lower risk of getting broken bones. The trial lasted 4.3 years. So, it really is worth taking if your esophagus is ok.

Doolittle, I am curious about your mother's results. Do you
know her T-scores before and after fosamax?
I just learned that I also have osteopenia, so I took my
first fosamax on Sunday. I am curious to see if there is
any one with actual experience where the fosamax
really does improve the bone density. Trish, do you know
of studies where the T-scores really do improve?
I was on depo-provera shots for nearly 3 years trying
to avoid surgery, and after surgery I took bi-est and
progesterone along with calcium and other supplements
and some weight bearing exercises. Boy, was I ever
surprised when my T-scores came back low in the
the spine area. One section of the spine was even a
-2.4!!!!!!!!! My scores were lower than my sister who
is five years older than me, no surgery, and was on
prempro for over 10 years. Go figure!

Locki--

I am curious if you were told to take calcium along with the Fosamax.

Trish has written several times about the importance of
taking calcium especially when taking fosamax, not at the
same time. There is a thirty minute window of nothing but
an 8 oz. glass of water with the fosamax. If you scroll up
to Trish's post, you will see where she says the fosamax
pulls calcium from somewhere in your body.