Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2440/63389
Citations
Scopus Web of Science® Altmetric
?
?
Type: Journal article
Title: Evolution of the calcium paradigm: The relation between vitamin D, serum calcium and calcium absorption
Author: Nordin, B.
Citation: Nutrients, 2010; 2(9):997-1004
Publisher: MDPI
Issue Date: 2010
ISSN: 2072-6643
2072-6643
Statement of
Responsibility: 
Borje E. Christopher Nordin
Abstract: Osteoporosis is the index disease for calcium deficiency, just as rickets/osteomalacia is the index disease for vitamin D deficiency, but there is considerable overlap between them. The common explanation for this overlap is that hypovitaminosis D causes malabsorption of calcium which then causes secondary hyperparathyroidism and is effectively the same thing as calcium deficiency. This paradigm is incorrect. Hypovitaminosis D causes secondary hyperparathyroidism at serum calcidiol levels lower than 60 nmol/L long before it causes malabsorption of calcium because serum calcitriol (which controls calcium absorption) is maintained until serum calcidiol falls below 20 nmol/L. This secondary hyperparathyroidism, probably due to loss of a ―calcaemic‖ action of vitamin D on bone first described in 1957, destroys bone and explains why vitamin D insufficiency is a risk factor for osteoporosis. Vitamin D thus plays a central role in the maintenance of the serum (ionised) calcium, which is more important to the organism than the preservation of the skeleton. Bone is sacrificed when absorbed dietary calcium does not match excretion through the skin, kidneys and bowel which is why calcium deficiency causes osteoporosis in experimental animals and, by implication, in humans.
Keywords: calcium
vitamin D
parathyroid hormone
osteoporosis
osteomalacia
Rights: © 2010 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
DOI: 10.3390/nu2090997
Published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu2090997
Appears in Collections:Aurora harvest
Pathology publications

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
hdl_63389.pdfPublished version92.79 kBAdobe PDFView/Open


Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.