Bone Quality and Nutrition Status of Elite Endurance Athletes

Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) is a devastating condition that affects an athlete’s short and long-term health and performance. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationships between bone density, microarchitecture, and strength with RED-S risk factors including inadequate nutrition, amenorrhea and stress fractures in elite endurance athletes. Athletes will be recruited from the Canadian Sport Institute Calgary from a variety of endurance sports, and their bone quality will be assessed at the Bone Imaging Laboratory, University of Calgary. The Canadian Sport Institute will benefit from participating in this research project as they will receive advanced skeletal imaging on their athletes. By combining detailed bone health assessments with nutrition, health and injury information, athlete integrated support teams may be better able to identify and monitor athletes at risk of RED-S.

Faculty Supervisor:

Steven Boyd;Lauren Burt

Student:

Partner:

Canadian Sport Institute Alberta

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Calgary

Program: