Despite numerous community education campaigns, public awareness of the prevention and risks of osteoporosis remains distressingly low, according to Associate Professor Maree Donna Simpson from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Biomedical Sciences. Dr Simpson addressed inland pharmacists at CSU’s latest Pharmacy Continuing Education Session on Sunday 25 March, urging them to look for any signs of the debilitating disease amongst their patients. “Look for the symptoms – a broken bone, those who are particularly slim, very low body weight. For example, one of the easiest viewed indicators of osteoporosis in older women is a body mass of less than 70 kilos.” Professor Simpson says osteoporosis is a “disease of the ‘baby boomers’. But they think it is a disease of their ‘mums and dads’. Risk factors include genetics, medications for asthma or Crohn’s Disease, or having had an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia.”