More than half of Irish people who get treatment for osteoporosis miss doses or give up taking their prescribed medication even though taking it can reduce the risk of fracture by up to 65 per cent, according to a HSE West public health consultant.
In an effort to help people with the brittle bone disease stay on their medicine, Dr Declan McKeown has written a leaflet entitled Helping the medicine go down.
Osteoporosis affects up to one-third of all postmenopausal women and one in five men in Ireland, according to the Irish Osteoporosis Society.
If not treated, it can make bones so brittle that they break without much force.
"The bad news is that while more than a quarter of a million Irish men and women may have osteoporosis, only 10 per cent of these are diagnosed, and only half of that number receive appropriate treatment," said Dr McKeown.
One of the problems is that people with osteoporosis do not feel unwell so there is no great incentive for them to take medicine, he said.
"Also, one of the most commonly used effective treatments - bisphosphonates - must be taken according to strict instructions or you can suffer stomach upsets, so it is easy to see how people give up taking it," he said.
Although these medicines have been shown to increase bone mass quickly and to reduce risk of fracture, the drugs must be taken long-term to be effective.
They must be taken a half hour before food with water and patients must sit upright for a period afterwards to allow the tablet to be absorbed as quickly as possible without causing irritation.
However, according to Dr McKeown, one of the advances in the treatment of osteoporosis has been medicines that can be taken less frequently and there is now a monthly bisphosphonate.
You are at a greater risk of osteoporosis if either parent has broken a bone; if you have broken a leg after a minor fall; if you have lost more than 3cm in height; if you drink heavily regularly and smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day; if your periods have stopped for more than a year (women); or if you are suffering from impotence (men).
The Helping the medicine go down leaflet will be available in clinics and doctors' surgeries around the country.
