Open Question: Does Sally Field take Boniva, and if so, for how many years?10 September 2011, 11:09 amSally Field is a paid spokesperson for Boniva according to a Wikipedia article on Sally Fields (source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Field) which states: "Currently, Field can be seen on television as the compensated spokesperson for Roche Laboratories' postmenopausal osteoporosis treatment medication, Boniva." In a New York Times article dated September 9, 2011 titled "Stronger Cautions Backed on Bone Drugs for Women" (
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/business/fda-panels-back-sterner-language-on-bone-drugs.html) it is suggested that women cannot take bone-building drugs (with Boniva cited in the article) for more than 5 years. I might be wrong but I'm certain Sally Fields has been Boniva's spokesperson for over five years. I vaguely recall seeing her Boniva commercial on satellite television maybe a decade ago. I'm wondering how it's possible for Field to take Boniva beyond the 5 years without the potential terrible consequences stated in the New York Times article. Let me state up front that Sally Field is one of my favorite actresses and she is a good person, I believe. I do not believe she would knowingly advertise a drug with the potentially devastating side-effects described in the New York Times article if it did not work for her. The answer to this question is complex because so little is known about WHY these drugs can only be taken for up to 5 years. What immediately comes to my mind is the possibility that drugs like Boniva do bone-building "repairs" within the first five years, but must be stopped to avoid "over-repairing" the skeletal frame. In other words, what if these drugs -- once taken safely for up to 5 years -- perform the necessary "repairs" caused by osteoporosis for the remainder of a person's lifetime? Then it would make perfect sense for Sally Field to say, in essence, as an example: "I took Boniva for the safe amount of time, stopped taking it, and have not suffered since." In other words, if the drug indeed makes lifetime "repairs" if taken up to five years, but can cause "damage" if taken for a time exceeding this limit, then Sally Field would ethically NOT have to be currently taking the drug to be the drug company's spokesperson -- as she can attest to its present efficacy in her bone health having taken the drug for the specified safe period of time. Now this is an attempt to give Field the benefit of my doubt, to add a dimension to this question so others do not necessarily negatively spin Field's ethics or motives in a manner she doesn't deserve. However, the answer to this question would help me to move a step closer in getting to the bottom of the mystery of drugs like Boniva. If a paid celebrity spokesperson has taken the drug for over 5 years, does this prove for some people it is safe to take indefinitely? Or is the drug's yet to be discovered method of "bone-building" such that it does its job in a yet unknown period of time (where five years is the extreme based on the New York Times article) then provides a lifetime of bone health? Conversely, does it only help for five years but then must be stopped, causing the individual who was taking the drug to resume their decline in bone health from osteoporosis? If that were true, then it would essentially buy a few years in a lifetime but that's it. Have researchers perhaps yet to discover that one can go off drugs like Boniva after 5 years for a period of 6-12 months and then resume the drug for another 5 years? The answers to these questions may be revealed in part by understanding the bone health of the one individual who has promoted Boniva for years (but I know not how many). I also think it is important to know if someone as well known and loved as Sally Field is actually continuing to take the drug or if she was taken off it due to health concerns, or is off it because she no longer needs it? I have a loved one that may take Boniva or a drug like it, and that is why I'm asking this question. I wish Sally Field herself could answer it, but I'll settle with anyone that is more successful at finding this answer than I have been!
Source: Yahoo! Answers: Search for
