Fuller Albright. His concept of postmenopausal osteoporosis and what came of it

Fifty years ago Albright contributed the following to understanding osteoporosis: (1) He recognized it as a deficiency of formation, not of mineralization of bone matrix; (2) he observed that 40 of 42 patients with osteoporosis before age 65 were women past menopause or young women postoophorectomy; (3) he concluded that estrogen stimulates osteoblasts (a conclusion later challenged); (4) he demonstrated by metabolic balance studies that estrogen causes a positive calcium balance in postmenopausal osteoporosis; (5) he introduced periodic progesterone to prevent or treat endometrial hyperplasia from prolonged estrogen therapy; and (6) he showed that long-term therapy arrested vertebral damage and height loss in postmenopausal osteoporosis and prevented them if started early. Since Albright's time, more sensitive methods of assessing bone density have replaced conventional roentgenograms. Some large scale trials of estrogen have indicated increased bone density and fewer fractures. Unopposed estrogen increases risk of endometrial cancer and decreases mortality from other cancers, myocardial infarction, stroke, and osteoporosis. Trials of calcitonin, diphosphonates, fluoride, vitamin D, and high calcium intake have not proved more effective than estrogen.