The discovery will mostly help women, elderly
women, who are common victims of the disease.
Spinal osteoporosis eats away at their bone tissue.
They start shrinking, their back curves.
They're more susceptible to fractures of the spine.
But now researchers at the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical School think they've
come up with a way to stop the disease in its tracks.
We have a new treatment program designed to
augment bone mass and restore lost bone
in patients with spinal osteoporosis in an
apparently safe way.
That new treatment is an old substance, sodium
fluoride, used by dentists for years to strengthen
It's been used to treat osteoporosis before,
but the side effects proved too severe.
Now Dr. Pak believes they've found a way around that.
The use of slow-release sodium fluoride with
calcium citrate in patients with spinal osteoporosis
provides reasonable safety of usage, restores
lost bone in the spine, and appears to inhibit
further fractures.