fosamex and tums?????

Had a bone density test and my doctor has put me on Fosamex.
He said it may cause stomach upset and I'm to take extra strength Tums with it.

Do I take the tums after 30 minutes?
Has anyone else been told to do this?

Also, I'm curious to know why we can't have food with this medicine?

Thanks,
Marlene

Marlene:

Yeah, Fosomax is a real pain to take...all sorts of rules .

For maximum absorption, it must be taken on an empty stomach. The Tums might well help, and won't impair the absorption.

I know some people who take it and then go out for a half-hour walk, returning to eat breakfast. You do have to stay totally upright for that time...it has a tendency to "reflux" on you (yuck, I know).

However, if it's a choice between that, or sneezing and suffering a vertebral fracture (a 47 year old female friend of mine did just that, thanks to osteopenia) -- well, I know which way I would go! And you may not have the side effects unless you have a sensitive stomach anyway.

Another suggestion: if you drink sodas, especially with artificial sweetener, now is a good time to quit. They do deplete your calcium stores. And make sure that you get enough magnesium, which helps the calcium to absorb.

Hope this helps!

Audrey

I just want to underline what Audrey said.

Fosomax is very hard to absorb and the minute that there is ANYTHING competing with it for absorption then you get a fraction of the amount that you are supposed to be getting. So follow the instructions faithfully.

Tums actually worry me a little because of the calcium content, which already competes with nearly everything for absorption. I would definitely wait the length of time listed on the package insert. It tells you exactly how long to wait before you put anything else in your mouth. I'm thinking he's telling you to take it as much that you can get calcium into your system as to settle the stomach. Many doctors prescribe daily Tums as the source of calcium.

Fosomax can cause a lot of irritation of your esophagus, so you do want to drink the water with it and stay upright. My mother has been taking it for two years, following the instructions faithfully, and she's doing fine on all counts on it.

Audrey for your friend. Osteoporosis is a frightening condition when you see it up close and it's worth a bit of self-discipline to combat it.

Marlene: Agree with Trish, Tums worries me, too! My book on medications says not to take antiacids at the same time of day as alendronate (fosamax). It also says it isn't usually recommended for mild cases of osteoporosis, or to prevent osteoporosis, or in women before menopause. It is a serious medication, with long term effects still not known. Key is to watch your diet and watch out for those calcium leaches, like mentioned here.

	Quote:
The Tums might well help, and won't impair the absorption.

You can't take these until that 30 minutes is up. What you might want to do is to use them with whatever meal you eat after you take your Fosamax.

It depends upon why your doctor is recommending Tums, too. Is he recommending them as a calcium supplement, or to combat the esophageal and gastric irritation that they cause? (or both??).

Do also watch whatever NSAIDs (Aleve, ibuprofen, Advil, Motrin) that you take. Both the Fosamax and the NSAIDs have gastric effects and kidney effects. You can still take these, according to Merck's website, but you do increase your chances of gastric or kidney side effects.

My friend who suffered the fracture also got a very delayed diagnosis. Osteoporosis is so under-diagnosed...and she will never walk normally, or without pain, again. So, if the Fosamax works for you, it's well worth it. Osteoporosis is a horrible disease.

There's a dietary calcium calculator here: http://www.fosamax.com/fosamax/hcp/i...um_intake2.pdf . Keep an eye on that intake!

Good luck with this...

Audrey

Hi everyone,
The reason my doctor wants me to take Tums twice a day
(one around noon and one at dinner) is because of the irritation of the esophagus, not for calcium supplement.

I bought Calcium, Vitamin D and Magnesium last night ...
I have to take these also.

Thanks everyone!
Marlene

Just wanted to add some additional info here. Trish, I'm sure you are familiar with microcrystalline hydroxyapatite. It deposits minerals into bones. It is available without prescription, perhaps why Doctors don't recommend it. It's available in the better osteo formulas. The research is quite good on it. This could be a safer alternative to the meds.

Hi Sue,

Yeah, I guess I'm happy with my calcium citrate so I haven't thought to bring it up. I'd kind of thought it as coral calcium--an expensive gimmick. But in fact it does look interesting.

Microcrystalline hydroxyapatite is a way to get calcium supplementation. It claims to be a more absorbable form (though I couldn't find a comparison against calcium citrate, which is usually listed as the most absorbable form). It has a statistically significant improvement over calcium gluconate. It also has some trace minerals since it's processed (ultra ground up) veal and lamb bone--though the trace minerals are readily available from a multivitamin, so the argument is that they are more natural ratios, but that's an hypothesis at this stage of the research. I would be interested to find out what proportions move from the gut to the bloodstream.

The big advantage is it might be more likely to bind with bone--it has a statistically significant edge over calcium gluconate in one study of people on steroids who have terrible problem with osteoporosis. The other human study is from a long time ago, has no bone density measurement, and has no control group. So, the degree that it makes a difference is unknown.

I'm not sure it's a substitute for something like Fosomax if there's true osteoporosis. The human studies haven't been done--but I think the good news is that you could take it along with Fosomax etc. and add to the benefit. If one was just working on the prevention stage, I'd think it would be a good experiment to see how well it did.

So, it's an interesting choice--probably the most interesting to me are the things like Osteo plus that have that and calcium malate (also absorbable) and chelated minerals, which are supposed to be good. But I've got a bunch of calcium citrate I stocked up on, so I've not experimented yet--or priced them.

There's a pretty good write up (though they are also selling the stuff so a little grain of salt is needed) at
http://www.villaparkpharmacy.com/abs04.htm

But if someone takes this, you might have to lower the other sources of calcium since you can definitely get too much.

Thanks for mentioning this, sue. It might give someone a really good edge.