Drug Holiday, or Medication Vacation?

Have you ever been on a jam-packed vacation, multiple flights, multiple destinations and packed itinerary for each day? Do you remember halfway through feeling exhausted and thinking to yourself “Whew, I need a vacation from my vacation!”

Well, that’s what your body sometimes needs when it comes to long term Denosumab therapy. We call this a medication holiday.

Sometimes the body will want a short term break from a long term therapy like denosumab. Unfortunately, studies have shown that discontinuing denosumab after long term therapy has the tendency to reverse the bone preserving progress made by the medication, as well as revert the bone density to a level similar to before starting bone health treatments. This means that if we suddenly stop taking our denosumab due to unexpected circumstances we wipe out all the progress that we made since starting it.

What do we do to prevent this? After a few years of denosumab therapy, your specialist will reevaluate your bone health needs. One option is to substitute a short stint of Zoledronic acid after a cycle of denosumab therapy. This is the medication holiday.
Zoledronic Acid is an antiresorptive medication that preserves existing bones. It “holds down the fort” for a yearlong medication holiday so that your body can take a rest from the long term denosumab therapy.