title: Prevention and therapy of osteoporosis: the roles of plain vitamin D and alfacalcidol.
abstract: Severe vitamin D deficiency was identified only in the first decades of the last century as the most common aetiology of rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. It was later shown that vitamin D is not, as had been supposed, the biologically active principle for healing bone disease but must be hydroxylated in the liver and then finally in the kidney to become 1alpha,25-dihydroxy-cholecalciferol, a biologically highly active renal hormone. This study reviews the various principles, mechanisms, and approaches to the treatment of different forms of osteoporosis using vitamin D, alfacalcidol, and calcitriol therapy regimens.
authors.affiliation: Rheumatologie/Osteologie, Medizinisches Klinik 4, Klinikum Leverkusen, Akademisches Lehrkrankenhaus der Universität zu Köln, 51375, Leverkusen, Germany. ringe@klinikum-lev.de
authors.forename: Johann D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Ringe
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schacht
mesh_terms: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002117:Calcitriol / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002120:Calcium Channel Agonists / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D006887:Hydroxycholecalciferols / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D002120:Calcium Channel Agonists; D006887:Hydroxycholecalciferols; D002117:Calcitriol; C008088:alfacalcidol