Diabetes drug can raise the risk of brittle-bone disease

Avandia, taken daily by 240,000 to treat diabetes, has already been linked to heart attacks and heart failure.

Now research suggests it may also thin the bones, causing osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis affects three million Britons, most of them women, and is blamed for more than 230,000 broken bones a year.

Avandia is used to treat type 2 diabetes - the form of the disease which is linked to obesity and tends to occur in middle age.

U.S. researchers showed the drug boosted the action of cells that break down bone structure.

This process is known as resorption and leads to thinning of the bones. It was already known that

the drug, which is also known as rosiglitazone, interferes with the work of other cells responsible for building new bone.

The researchers, from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, said: "These findings have potential clinical applications, as they suggest that longterm rosiglitazone usage in the treatment of type 2 diabetes may cause osteoporosis, owing to a combination of decreased bone formation and increased bone resorption."

The study on mice, reported in the journal Nature Medicine, follows other research linking the drug to heart problems.

Avandia has been shown to raise the risk of a heart attack by more than 40 per cent and double the risk of heart failure.

One study showed that the drug was linked to heart failure even in those with no history of heart problems. Heart failure, in which the damaged organ gradually loses the ability to pump blood around the body, typically kills 40 per cent of sufferers within a year of its onset.

In July, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advised that Avandia should be pulled from chemists' shelves, saying the increased risk of heart attack outweighed any benefits.

Professor Andrew Hattersley, an expert on diabetes, advised patients to try alternative drugs.

He also urged anyone currently using Avandia to consult their GP if they started developing symptoms of heart failure.

These include breathlessness, tiredness and fluid retention, leading to swollen legs.

Avandia's manufacturer, the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, acknowledges there is a risk of heart failure. But it says this only occurs in patients who have already suffered heart problems.

A spokesman for the firm said its own research had flagged up an increased risk of breaks of the foot, hand and arm among Avandia patients. He added that the raised risk did not appear to be linked to osteoporosis and was detailed on the drug's packaging.

A spokesman for the drug safety watchdog the European Medicines Agency said a recent review of Avandia and a related drug called Actos had concluded their benefits outweighed their risks.

It recommended that the safety of the drugs be researched further and advised patients with any concerns to speak to their doctor or pharmacist.

MISMATCHED

SCOTT: This is a great look. After a solid night of sweet loving, the girl is so befuddled by your rampant passion that she's put on mismatching underwear. Either that, or she's making the statement which says: 'Yes, I'm hot enough not to conform to your fashion rules, my friend.'

This works equally well for bikinis, too, showing a playful disregard for traditional beach styling. Any way up, you'd have to be clinically dead to not be appreciate this selection. SIMON: There's a certain kind of selfconsciously slobby, Marlboro Lights-smoking, trust-funded, minor aristo chick who tends to live in Notting Hill and often has a career with some tenuous link to the fashion industry.

This type of girl doesn't really buy clothes, she just seems to acquire them osmotically; stuff pilfered from photoshoots, bits left in their flats or borrowed/nicked off their mates.

She'll never do 'capsule' or over-coordinated - that would be unforgivably uncool and uptight.

But underneath all the chic, sartorial disorganisation, there is a kind of studied meticulousness at play. This get-up - androgynous boy shorts clashing with a tarty red bra (two thumbs up from this judge, by the way) - might look as it was thrown on but has probably been very carefully contrived.

Kate Moss likes to work this look. Or so I've heard, anyway. ALEX: Apparently, this is the look popularised by Britney Spears. But she's also recently been spotted in a pink wig so is not necessarily to be trusted on matters of style.

The honest truth is that when it comes to colour, most men just don't care. It's your body we're looking at and your flesh we're admiring, so the fact that you've daringly teamed white pants with a red bra and black shoes is really of minimal interest. We respond to shape, not shade.

That said, the shape here is pretty flattering, even if the pants are a little large.