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The Myth of Osteoporosis |  | Author: Gillian Sanson
Publisher: MCD Century Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
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Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 34986
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5
ISBN: 0972123342
Dewey Decimal Number: 616
EAN: 9780972123341
ASIN: 0972123342
Publication Date: June 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"Gill Sanson's book is a well-researched breath of fresh air that will help women everywhere better trust the wisdom of their bodies." -- Christiane Northrup, M.D. The Myth of Osteoporosis is a research-based work that provides clear insight into the myths of osteoporosis. These myths motivate both patient and physician into a lifetime of unnecessary testing and drug therapy therapy that can in fact be life-threatening. Gillian Sanson's well-documented explanation of these myths can spare women great anxiety. She takes the fear out of aging and restores women's sense of control over their bodies. She gives women good reasons for challenging the common way that osteoporosis is handled in the United States and in many other industrialized nations.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 39
An Indispensable Guide March 2, 2005
A reader (New York City)
192 out of 194 found this review helpful
The title of this book is misleading, because Ms. Sanson does not claim that osteoporosis itself is a myth. Her subject is the variety of myths surrounding the disease of osteoporosis. In Ms. Sanson's view, due to insufficient, inaccurate and contradictory information about osteoporosis, we are filled with fear of inevitable decline and encouraged to make bad choices with respect to prevention. This thorough and well-researched book is easy to read, concise, and convincing. Ms. Sanson cites top-notch scientific sources from around the world that lay to rest the common fallacy that low bone density per se is an accurate predictor of future fractures. She also tackles, with statistics, not theories, the myth that dairy intake prevents osteoporosis, and that the current pharmaceutical options on the market are all you need to prevent fractures and bone loss. But Ms. Sanson does not simply tear down the myths of osteoporosis; she also provides clear and easy-to-follow lifestyle actions that one can take to protect ones bones for the long term. I have recommended this book to every woman I know over the age of 40, and now I am recommending it to you, the Amazon reader.
If you only read one book on osteoporosis, make it this one! March 30, 2006
Kate McMurry (United States)
198 out of 201 found this review helpful
If you are thinking about reading this book, you probably recently got a diagnosis of "osteopenia" or "osteoporosis" via a DEXA scan, and your doctor is urging you to take drugs to "heal" your "disease." If so, this well-written, well-researched and well-annotated book can be invaluable to you in making an informed decision about a medical choice that could affect your health--and your pocketbook--the rest of your life. Some of the most important insights this book offers in that direction are the following:
First, since there is no consistent, world-wide standard for determining what is "normal" bone density for either females or males, it is a crapshoot as to what standard any given maker of a DEXA machine will employ to measure your bones against--and therefore a crapshoot as to what diagnosis you might get, whether "normal" or "diseased." Second, there seems to be no consideration in the prevailing standard of care for creating and interpreting DEXA results of these crucial concepts about bone health: (a) Loss of bone density is a normal aspect of growing older and for the vast majority of people, it will never either cause or contribute to bone disease. (b) Virtually every adult over the age of 30 who succumbs to a doctor's urging to have a DEXA scan will be declared either imminently "diseased" (osteopenia) or outright "diseased" (osteoporosis) for the simple reason that it is not normal for anyone over 30 to have the bones of someone in their 20's. And certainly not to have the bones of young elite athletes--a comparison group too often held as the "norm" by DEXA machine manufacturers. (c) The definition of true osteoporosis is a disease of poor quality bones in which the internal, inter-linked trabecular structure of the bone has eroded to such an extent that the bones are subject to fracture from low-force impact. A case of true osteoporosis is sometimes extreme enough to reveal itself on a regular high-radiation x-ray, but, unfortunately, it will never show up via a low-radiation DEXA scan. This is because the DEXA is incapable of identifying anything other than raw bone mass AKA "bone mineral density" or BMD. It cannot inform the physician about the micro-architecture of bone, its crystal size and shape, the degree of brittleness, the state of the connectivity of the trabecular network, the vitality of the bone cells, the ability to repair micro-cracks, or the structure of the bone proteins--there is currently no medical test that can do that. (d) As the book emphasizes again and again: BMD is only one of multiple symptoms of the disease of osteoporosis--not the disease itself.
If the author's assertion about BMD is true, you might well wonder why the World Health Organization (WHO) in the not-so-distant past altered its official definition of osteoporosis to a low BMD score on a DEXA test. The author wondered, too, and her research uncovered that this change came about due to successful lobbying of WHO by Big Pharma. She also discovered that Big Pharma moved on from that strategic victory to an equally successful lobbying effort to get doctors in the prosperous West to consistently engage in two inter-connected, DEXA-related actions: (1) urge their patients at increasingly younger ages to get an initial "precautionary" DEXA exam, from which the vast majority of them will inevitably receive "abnormal" readings for the reasons cited above, (2) encourage these newly bone-disease-labeled patients to embark on a lifetime regimen of expensive "bone-building" drugs in order to become and stay "cured" of their "disease."
On reading all this, I could not resist doing the math (which the author did not go so far as to include in her fascinating book): As long-lived as people are these days in the prosperous West, the kind of money Big Pharma could potentially make over time off 30-50 years of drug usage per DEXA-scammed patient could run as much as $50-75,000--or even more, if one factors in inflation and the price gouging Big Pharma is notorious for. If one multiples that figure by potentially tens of millions of patients, the profits could amount to not just billions, but trillions of dollars over time. This is what is known in the world of multi-national-corporate wheeler-dealing as a proverbial "cash cow."
The conclusion is as inevitable as the rigged results of the DEXA machines: if you don't want to be milked by Big Pharma's osteoporosis machine, this book will help you in multiple ways. Chief among them are numerous tips on inexpensive, medically documented ways to protect your bones under your own steam and a list of the major predictive factors of fractures in the elderly (the only authentic reason for alarm at a true diagnosis of osteoporosis). This comprehensive list will show you that BMD is only one among many crucial risk factors for osteoporosis, and reassure you that all of them--including BMD--can be controlled without expensive drugs with serious side effects.
Update: See my Comment to this review dated January 15, 2009.
Thank you Gillian Sanson September 6, 2004
Lynn Pauly (Madison, WI)
110 out of 115 found this review helpful
If you have been diagnosed with osteoporosis and given a prescription for fosamax or actonel or any other type of medication, please read this book first.
Your instincts are right. You don't need it. It won't help, and most likely it will cause harm over time.
Menopausal women bring in millions of dollars to the pharmaceutical companies around the world. We are easy prey, because we are being told that aging is a disease and we believe it.
This book is worth every penny. You will be glad you read it.
This is a great book July 26, 2003
45 out of 45 found this review helpful
This is a great book, I found it really interesting and well researched which is important for a book that is challenging what seem to be widely held beliefs (or "myths") about osteoporosis. I know of many women who have felt confused about osteoporosis and who have even taken medication (HRT etc) to prevent it, but in doing so seem to experience serious side-effects. Its a good feeling to read this book and to reaffirm that one can do so much oneself to stay healthy and to gain optimum bone strength and integrity (even while aging). I am a Physical Therapist and I would recommend this book to everyone, it provides information and practical knowledge on how to maintain bone health.
this book is groundbreaking July 28, 2003
48 out of 50 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book. Excellent. Its good to see research being put out there for someone like myself to read so I can understand what I can do for my health and whether I should be worrying about my bones disintegrating if I dont drink gallons of milk each day. I am glad to find that I can relax and eat a healthy balanced diet. I always was suspicious of the drugs offered to help prevent osteoporosis because of the side-effects. Its kind of a relief to know that I can continue to eat well and keep fit and working out, and that this will be beneficial for my bones - help me stay in one piece. I am tired of the fear that is induced by faulty informtion about 'diseases' part of which is fictional and created by drug companies for their own financial purposes.
So I am grateful to a book that provides some clarity about the actual disease of 'osteoporosis' and also gives solid ideas of what to do to keep bones healthy.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 39
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