Prevention of bone loss with alendronate in postmenopausal women under 60 years of age.

Background Estrogen-replacement therapy prevents osteoporosis in postmenopausal women by inhibiting bone resorption, but the balance between its long-term risks and benefits remains unclear. Whether other antiresorptive therapies can prevent osteoporosis in these women is also not clear. Methods We studied the effect of 2.5 mg or 5 mg of alendronate per day or placebo on bone mineral density in 1174 postmenopausal women under 60 years of age. An additional 435 women who were prepared to receive a combination of estrogen and progestin were randomly assigned to one of the above treatments or open-label estrogen–progestin. The main outcome measure was the change in bone mineral density of the lumbar spine, hip, distal forearm, and total body measured annually for two years by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Results The women who received placebo lost bone mineral density at all measured sites, whereas the women treated with 5 mg of alendronate daily had a mean (±SE) increase in bone mineral density of 3.5±...

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