The Nation - News from May 11, 1987

A newly discovered drug regimen appears to increase the bone mass of older women with osteoporosis by up to 36% and could be the first treatment for the bone-thinning disease, according to a preliminary study. Doctors have found ways to slow the disintegration of bones in older women, but the new treatment may be the first that actually increases bone mass, according to a report from the National Osteoporosis Foundation. In a preliminary trial at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, 17 women aged 52 to 77 took the drugs, and tests showed bone mass in all of the women had increased by the end of the year, some by as much as 36%.