Fosteum is the newest option for women with osteoporosis. Fosteum is actually a "medical food". It is called a medical food because it comes from soybeans, however, you still need a prescription from a medical doctor to get Fosteum. Soybeans contain something called "genistein" which is a natural plant estrogen. While many researchers had hoped that eating and drinking soy foods like tofu and soy milk would help make bones stronger, you would have to eat much more than you possibly could in a day to get a good bone building effect. So, the makers of Fosteum simply took the genistein out of the bean and put it into tablet form to get the dose needed for bone building. Genistein is on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "generally regarded as safe" (GRAS) list. There is also some vitamin D in Fosteum as well as some zinc helps the Fosteum work better in your body.

Pros:

• Fosteum can increase bone density in the hip and the spine in post-menopausal women with osteopenia and osteoporosis.

• You can take Fosteum with or without food. You do not need to worry about any foods interfering with the absorption of Fosteum.

• Fosteum can lower the number and severity of your hot flashes if you are having hot flashes.

Cons:

• You should not take Fosteum if you have had cancer of the breast or other reproductive organs such as the uterus or ovaries.

• While Fosteum can increase bone density, the research that has been done so far did not look at whether it actually lowers your chances of breaking a bone. So right now, we cannot say that Fosteum lowers fracture risk.

• Researchers have not studied Fosteum and breast cancer. So we do not know how it affects your chances of getting breast cancer. However, researchers did study changes in breast tissue and the lining of uterus in women who took Fosteum and did not see any changes in the thickness of the lining of the uterus or the density of the breast tissue.

• Women who took Fosteum rarely had side effects but those who did experienced stomach upset, vomiting, constipation, and heartburn. If you have any of these side effects after you start taking Fosteum, try taking it with food.

How to take Fosteum: Take one Fosteum tablet twice daily approximately 12 hours apart. Each Fosteum tablet contains 27 mg of genistein, 200 IU's of vitamin D3, and 4 mg of zinc.