Bones like old men’s

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 15

Bones like old men’s

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) KYOTO (Japan). Former American prisoners of war in Indo-China are suf-i fering from severe deterior-i ation of their bones, according to a United States professor of nutritional science. He compared the condition of the bones of the former prisoners of war, mostly 30 to 40-year-old airmen shot: down over North Vietnam,! with that of 70 to 80-year-old men. Dr Stanley Garn, of the. University of Michigan, said that such deterioration of the “compact (cortical) bone I within the bone envelope”! was commonly a result of' protein-calorie malnutrition, malabsorption of nutrients, acute diarrhoea and even. massive weight loss. Speaking on the final day! of the tenth International Congress of Nutrition, he said! that such bone loss might; have lasting long-term effects, because bone lost in adult-' hood was not easily regained. Victims of bone loss were I highly susceptible to a wide’ variety of bone diseases and easy breakages. He said that even when the rest of the body had fully recovered from the effects of' malnutrition, a victim of such bone loss might literally be described as a “hollow shell.” <