The University of Windsor is working with a Canadian sport association on a study of bone health in female athletes.
The school has teamed up with Field Hockey Canada to study the effects of intense training on spinal bone mineral density in women's field hockey players.
"This partnership allows us to provide applied research that will have an immediate impact on athletes and enhance how our practitioners can monitor Canadian female athletes," said U of W Kinesiology Professor Dr. Andrew Perrotta, who is leading the study.
Perrotta said the study will help identify ways to ensure field hockey athletes are preparing their bodies as they get older.
"With women, it’s really important that they prep their body physically for later in life when they go through menopause and bone mineral density goes down due to changes in estrogen," said Perrotta. "It’s really important for female athletes and women in general to develop as much bone mineral density as possible early in life, during adolescence, so that it prepares them for later when they go through that change."
Perrotta previously worked as Team Canada's lead physiologist during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
"I am very happy to collaborate with Field Hockey Canada once again, and I am thankful to Susan Ahrens, CEO of Field Hockey Canada, for her support," said Perrotta.
