Nutrition and bone health session to open the IOF World Congress on Osteoporosis in Bangkok

4 leading experts to discuss the role of protein, vitamins and minerals in the onset of osteoporosis

The IOF World Congress on Osteoporosis, the largest scientific conference devoted primarily to osteoporosis, will open on December 3rd in Bangkok with a special session focused on four key topics in nutrition and bone health.

Professor Cyrus Cooper, Director of the MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre at the University of Southampton; and Norman Collisson Chair of Musculoskeletal Sciences at the University of Oxford, will speak on the developmental origins of osteoporosis.

He will outline recent studies that show how adverse influences during fetal development or immediately after birth independently affect the later risk of osteoporotic fracture.

The role of bone growth and nutrition will be reviewed by Professor René Rizzoli, Head of the Division of Bone Diseases (WHO Collaborating Center for Osteoporosis Prevention), Faculty of Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals. He will discuss recent studies that show how a combination of optimal nutritional intake and environmental factors (such as exercise) in childhood and adolescence helps individuals optimize their largely genetically determined peak bone mass.

Epidemiological evidence that has shown associations between poor vitamin K nutrition and age-related bone loss in elderly men and women will be outlined by Dr. Sarah Booth, Senior Scientist and Director of the Vitamin K laboratory at the Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston.

Professor Bess Dawson-Hughes, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Metabolic Bone Disease Clinic at Tufts New England Medical Center, Tufts University will review the important role of protein and discuss how its interaction with calcium impacts on bone mineral density and fracture risk.

The Nutrition and Bone Health Session, one of four special focused sessions, will be held during the morning of December 3, 2007 prior to the official opening of the IOF World Congress on Osteoporosis in Bangkok.

To view the complete scientific program and for online registration please visit http://www.iofbonehealth.org/wco/2008/homepage.html