A Miami woman began taking Boniva to help strengthen her bones. She was once an active woman, but now she suffers debilitating pain and needs help with the slightest of movements. When she told her doctors of the complications she was experiencing and asked if her incapacitation was due to her Boniva use, all the doctors said no. A few weeks later the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to doctors alerting them that Boniva and other bisphosphonates could cause the type of bone pain she was experiencing. The manufacturer of Boniva, Roche, stated, “The risk factors for and incidence of this effect is unknown; such reports have been infrequent.” According to Doctor Phuli Cohan, “There is actually bone death occurring,” backing up her statement with the X-rays of another woman whose hip shattered after years on Fosamax, another brand of bisphosphonate. Merck, the maker of Fosamax, maintains no such link has ever been proven between the use of their drug and the debilitating pain and fractures occurring. Apparently, some doctors are encouraging their patients to stop taking the drug for a time to allow bone cells to rejuvenate. Dr. Cohan notes that this drug has only been on the market for about a decade, and the long term side effects are not known. She says she had feared seeing spontaneous fractures in patients and that “my worst fears have been realized.”