Fosamax and dizziness

I took Fosamax 70 mg once weekly for seven months before getting off due to intolerable side effects beginning after four months. The worst problems were vertigo and dizziness, which came on suddenly. I woke up one morning and when I tried to get out of bed, I felt like I was falling. I had to call my husband to assist me to the bathroom. Although these symptoms became less severe, I never regained my equilibrium while on Fosamax and was unable to exercise on the floor due to vertigo when I lay flat. I also experienced heart palpitations,extreme coldness, and general malaise about two hours after taking my weekly dose. I now wonder if I was having atrial fibrillation, another serious side effect of Fosamax. I am so glad I got off it!

I gave my body a month to clear out the drug and then I began taking strontium citrate 680 mg once daily. I feel well again and began a blog to relate my progress at http://strontiumforbones.blogspot.com/. Please visit and comment.

Bonelady

After taking Fosamax, 70 mg once weekly for four months, I awoke one morning with vertigo. My husband had to assist me from the bed to the bathroom. The dizziness and vertigo lessened to where I could walk unassisted but could not do floor exercises because lying flat caused the room to spin and nausea that continued for hours afterwards. I also got heart palpitations, coldness, and malaise, usually a couple of hours after taking the medication. The vertigo continued for three months until I got off Fosamax. I am now taking strontium citrate, 680 mg daily. I buy it on-line from *******, but it can also be purchased at your local health food store. Strontium, in the form of strontium ranelate, is prescribed in several countries, including some in western Europe. Reports I have read claim strontium in any form will reverse osteoporosis.

I was a very healthy 59 yr old, who, as a result of a leg and ankle fracture and slight decrease in dine density, was placed on Fosamax Plus. I have been taking it for two and a half months and have certainly noticed many of the symptoms mentioned. I continue to experience extreme muscle stiffness- not unlike symptoms of the flu, dizziness, stomach nausea, bloating, loss of sleep (so much so that I was then prescribed sleeping pills!), bruising that won't fade, knee soreness, lower back and hip pain!
I tolerated all the symptoms because I thought many of them were associated with my injury. After the ABC 7.30 Report, I am very concerned and would like to know the long term implications. Thankfully I have only been taking Fosamax a short time but it is now in my system.
The pharmaceutical company has a lot to answer for.

I am 56 and have taken Fosamax for about 6 years. I have recently felt that I have an 80 year old's health, rather than my own age. I have noticed in the last year that I have had increasing leg weakness. Knees hurt, thighs hurt. I feel at times as if they are giving out and it causes me to stumble and fall, on the merest hint of uneven ground, more and more often. This of course means I have more risk of broken bones. The very thing that Fosamax is supposed to be preventing!!

Since taking Fosamax I have develped neck problems, which caused severe dizzyness problems 2 or 3 years ago and I still get dizzy attacks from time to time and neck pain all the time.

Recently (last 5 months) I have had an extensive rash that took two months to clear, extreme fatigue continuously, attacks of diarreha, inability to shake a urniary infection, flu like symptoms on and off for months, worstening of the leg pains to the point of feeling that at times my legs will give out at any time, and stiffness in walking.

I also had an stomach ulcer last year, that was surgically teated. The Dr wants me to cut back on the anti inflamitory drug I take for arthristis. Howvere I took this drug for 6 years with no problems, before I also started tsking Fosamax!

Fosamax at first helped the BMD level (I had osteoporosis that went down to osteopenie level), but now I am heading back to osteoporosis in my spine, as my reading are now borderline for osteoporosis again.

However I have still had plenty of broken bones since taking Fosamax!! At least one a year. So has it really helped?! or has it given me only extra but more fragile bone mass? I think maybe the latter.

The bad quality of life I am now experiencing has led me to believe that the cure may be much, much worst then the illness (osteopenie or osteoporosis). My mother has had nothing but problems with this sort of drug for osteo also.

I did not link all my symptoms to the Fosamax (despite my mother's experience) until last week, when, in desperation from my strange and inceasingly debilitating symptoms I did some research on the internet and found the hundreds of other reports of the same sort of problems with Fosamax, Particularly the leg and muscle pain and weakness.

Now of course I will see what being off it for a couple of months will do.

My 70 year old mother starting taking Fosamax a few weeks ago because her bone density test showed she had osteoporosis. She became quite ill soon afterwards, said she had the worst headache of her life, couldn't eat, had nausea, severe head pain, and dizziness. She was in bed for a week. Her doc said maybe it was a swollen temporal artery (huh?), and put her on strong pain meds, which she said didn't even touch the pain. After reading the other comments on this website, I called her and told her to not take another dose. Merck is being sued over this drug. How many women have to suffer horrific side effects, including loss of their jaws, before they pull this crap off the market?? It's all about maximizing their profits, folks, and those pharmaceutical companies will ruin your health with their poisons to make a buck.

After taking just 2 weekly pills (70mg) I felt so sick. I'm talking about a severe pain in my middle upper chest that felt like something was stuck there plus dizziness. I know the pill was not stuck because it is small. I drank the 8oz of water with it & was sure to wash it down, but this feeling was not going away. My doctor told me to take it for another 2 months & that she may change me over to the Actenol. I was never sick like this in my life. I stopped taking it, a week went by & I still have this pain in my chest, not as severe, but I wish I could put my hand in there and massage it. It worsens every time I eat a meal. Thought I was going to have to go to the ER the other night. The only thing that made it feel better was eating ice cream. I feel this stuff does to your esophagus what Draino would do to a pipe. It probably ate away the sensitive tissue lining. I'm just going to drink soy and take calcium vitamins and walk more. I'd rather have weak bones, than something really awful happen. It's just not for everyone. Easy for the doctors to tell you what to take, they should try a few doses.

Just starting Fozamax two weeks ago - diarrea and occasional dizziness - trouble sleeping - never had these problems before. jr

dizziness