After the FDA recently took rather extreme action by forcing Avandia to boldly mark it’s bottles with warnings that the drug can cause heart attacks, Avandia took another hit.

It seems that some studies had shown an increased incidence of broken bones among women who used Avandia. Newer studies have isolated the reason. “The drug, say scientists, boosts the action of osteoclasts, cells that weaken bones.”

The scientists involved in the study did stress that this was not a reason to discontinue the use of Avandia, that other drugs could be used to offset this downside.

I’m no scientist. Not a doctor either. But it seems to me that Avandia wouldn’t be my drug of choice for treating diabetes. The added risk of a heart attack added to, at the very least, the added nuisance of having to take more drugs to offset side effects would have me questioning my doctor about alternatives.

Bottom line. Controlling your diabetes is essential for long term health and we know it’s the key to lower life insurance rates, but at what cost are we willing to pay for control? That’s two strikes in the last month. One more and I suspect Avandia will be out.