Actos and Avandia Double Fracture Risk in Women with Type 2 Diabetes

Page changed: Actos and Avandia--Dangerous Diabetes Drugs

Added reference to metastudy that concluded that TZD drugs double a woman's risk of fracture.

Long-term use of thiazolidinediones and fractures in type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis. Yoon K. Loke et al. CMAJ Early release, published at www.cmaj.ca on Dec. 10, 2008.

The article reporting on this study published on Science DaiIy quoted one of the researchers, stating,

In absolute terms, Singh said, if thiazolidinediones (TZDs) are used by elderly, postmenopausal women (around 70 years) with type 2 diabetes for one year, one additional fracture would occur among every 21 women. Among younger women (around 56 years), use of the drugs for one year or longer would result in one additional fracture for every 55 women.

With hip fractures representing a major cause of death for older women, this is not a trivial finding. Other studies have also found that Actos and Avandia weaken bone by turning the bone stem cells that should become new bone into new fat cells instead.