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Osteoporosis is a bone disease that increases one's risk of breaking bones due to poor bone development. The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) estimated that by 2020, nearly half of the American elderly over 50 would have low bone density. In order to combat this debilitating bone disease, research has focused on finding new ways of treating the disease more effectively. According to a new clinical trial, researchers discovered that combining two bone drugs could improve and treat osteoporosis more effectively than taking the drugs alone.

"A combination of these two medications increased bone density more than either does on its own, and it is more effective than any currently approved therapy," Dr. Benjamin Leder, study's author stated. Leder is a part of the endocrine unit at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital.

Leder and his colleagues used the combination drug therapy of teriparatide, a bone-building drug and denosumab, a drug used to stop bone loss. The clinical trial lasted an entire year and recruited 94 premenopausal women who were currently being treated for osteoporosis. The group was split into three groups, either receiving one of the two drugs or a combination of both. The researchers discovered that the group that was treated with combination drug therapy had a 9.1 percent increase in lumber spine bone density. The group receiving teriparatide had a 6.2 percent increase and the other group receiving denosumab had a 5.5 percent increase. For hip bone density, the combination drug therapy group reported a 4.9 percent increase, while the denosumab group had a 2.5 percent increase and the teriparatide group had a 0.7 percent increase.

"Whereas teriparatide increases bone formation, it also increases bone resorption. Denosumab completely blocks the ability of teriparadtie to increase bone resorption, but does not block its ability to increase bone formation," Leder explained. Even though a longer drug trial would be ideal before anything can be concluded about the effectiveness of the combination drug therapy, Leder believes that this could soon be a new option for treating osteoporosis. However, he acknowledges the fact that both drugs are very expensive.

The findings were published in The Lancet.