[The contribution of nutrition to the pathogenesis of osteoporosis]

Osteoporosis primarily affects women and is a bone disease of great social, medical and economic importance. The pathogenesis is thought to be of multifactorial origin. The current work discusses nutritional aspects relative to osteoporosis. In this aspect, calcium supply seems to have the largest preventional importance. In contrast, food statistics and individual food records show that calcium intake of females is below the DGE's recommendation of 800 mg/daily. Furthermore, in view of skeletal integrity, calcium intake should be increased up to 1,500 mg/daily after menopause, because of endocrinological changes in calcium metabolism. Therefore, calcium intake on the whole is usually found to not be sufficient. The importance of further nutritional aspects for manifestation of osteoporosis are discussed. In some cases, influences on skeletal integrity are quite evident, whereas the literature has only infrequently drawn conclusions about the pathogenesis of osteoporosis.