Here in the United States, it is estimated that 25 percent of the 500,000 hip replacement surgeries performed annually are a result of prescriptive corticosteroid use. It usually attacks the weight-bearing joints, such as the hip, but it can also destroy the wrists, shoulders, and ankles. What seems to happen is that near the end of the bone, the blood supply gets cut off, causing it to degenerate and crumble and eventually die. How it does this is still currently a mystery. Topical creams and inhalers that contain cortisone seem to be less of a risk to damaging bones when used.
Antibiotics increase the potency of steroids by slowing their rate of elimination from the body.
According to Paul Watkins, director of the General Clinical Research Center at the University of Michigan, steroids and antibiotics compete for a enzyme that helps metabolize them. The increased exposure increases the risk of adverse effects. The body corrects its blood calcium deficiency by drawing calcium from bones, leaving them fragile Steroids also inhibit the growth of new bone cells. Like everything else alive, bone is not a inert substance. Cells are constantly dying and being replaced by others.