This website is about the osteoporosis medication alendronate. Alendronate can increase bone mineral density and counteract the disease osteoporosis. Your doctor might prescribe it for osteoporosis or osteopenia. The chemical name is "alendronate sodium" indicating the drug is formulated as the sodium salt of alendronic acid.

Alendronate comes as a tablet and a solution (liquid) to take by mouth. It is one of the most widely used drugs in modern society. Millions of people have taken it and it continues to be prescribed even though there are many other osteoporosis drugs on the market.

The drug is available on the market as 5 mg, 10 mg, 35 mg, 40 mg, 70 mg pills. The 35 mg and 70 mg pills are the most common ones taken by osteoporosis patients.

Alendronate is classified as a bisphosponate drug. Like other medications in this class, alendronate inhibits bone resorption via actions on osteoclasts or on osteoclast precursors; decreases the rate of bone resorption into the bodily fluids.

A paper in the British Medical Journal this month found that people who take bisphosphonates are more likely to get esophagel cancer. The study was observational and did not claim to show a cause-and-effect relationship. The UK's regulatory agency has said there is no need for patients to stop taking medication based on this report.

 

Its Chemical Abstract Service designation (CAS Number) is 41575-94-4. The broader category of osteoporosis drugs is antiresorptive drugs that slow the "resoption" of minerals out of the bone and into the bloodstream. (Other antiresorptives include SERMs (selective estrogen-receptor modulators) and calcintonin.

For more about treatment of osteoporosis with alendronate, click here.

Osteoporosis is a disorder of the skeletal system defined as a level of bone strength below normal that places a person at-risk for bone fractures. Bone strength is characterized by a combination of two bone properties: (1) density, which reflects grams of bone minerals per cubic centimeter, and (2) quality, which reflects how well a bone can withstand fracture. However, a lone measure of bone density is often used for the clinical determination of a person’s overall bone strength. The exact range of bone density considered to be abnormal has varied over the years, but the World Health Organization currently defines it as 2.5 standard deviations or more below the average level in young, healthy adult women.

There are two types of osteoporosis: primary and secondary. Primary osteoporosis is caused by the reduction in estrogen that occurs in a woman’s body after menopause (type I) or by age-related changes in the rate of bone building that occur in both men and women as they grow older (type II). Secondary osteoporosis is caused by certain medical conditions and treatments, as well as by unhealthy behaviors.

It is also used for treatment of Paget's disease.

The difference between Fosamax® and alendronate.

Side effects.