Osteoporosis Research Paper

Osteoporosis is a disease of the skeletal system that is often thought to be just a disease of postmenopausal women. Men are carriers of the disease and account for 25 to 30 percent of all hip fractures because of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is on the rise in America and seems to be on a scaling upward trend without signs of slowing. Recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors are performing experiments with the drug alendronate to increase bone density. In this study 241 men, ages 31 to 87 years old, all over America and 10 other countries participated in this study. The main population of the study was white men averaging 65 years of age. Two groups divided the men based of low serum free testosterone concentrations and normal serum free testosterone concentrations and there were some randomly placed to insure a balanced experiment. All the men would receive 10 mg of alendronate or placebo everyday for up to two years. They also …show more content…
The lumbar-spine bone mineral density increased in the alendronate participants along with lack of losing hardly any height. The study also shows a decrease in the amount of vertebral fractures while taking alendronate. During the course of the experiment there were no significant differences in the incidence of serious adverse effects. In the end taking 10 mg of alendronate daily for 2 years has been proven to increase overall bone mineral density of the spine, hip, and total body. Just like postmenopausal women, alendronate has proven that bone density can be increased and the chances of vertebral fractures, hip fractures, and other types of fractures will decrease. This study however, does not speak for all men on this planet. Keep in mind that most of the participants were white and there has been few researches done involving other racial groups to know if the outcome would be the