'Make screening for osteoporosis compulsory'

Involving women in educating and disseminating information about osteoporosis made perfect sense, as it has shown high prevalence among women.

"The objective of holding the conference is to draw attention towards osteoporosis by involving women leaders in the society. We also want to urge policy makers to make screening of the disease a priority," said Dr Mythri Shankar, nuclear medicine physician and a convener of the programme.

Some of the prominent women who participated in the event were athlete Ashwini Nachappa, theatre personality Arundhati Nag, danseuse Vani Ganapathy, former minister Rani Satish.

Through theatre

Arundhati Nag assured that she would help in the endeavour by mobilising women and helping in spreading the information in Rangashankara.

Ashwini Nachappa felt that bone strength could be increased only if children actively participated in sports.

"Sports is not a priority in India. I am a product of school games. Unfortunately, sports is highly discouraged in schools. We are more into books, computers and TV," the ace sprinter observed.

She suggested that parents should insist that their children play outdoors at least fo one hour a everyday.

Avoid red meat

Sheela Krishnaswamy, National Vice President of Indian Diabetes Association, opined that high red meat diet and carbonated beverages could be harmful for health and may lead to osteoporosis.