JEDDAH: More than 400 doctors, experts and specialist besides 20 international and national speakers are participating in the international conference on osteoporosis, which opened here on Saturday.

Among the topics taken up for discussions at the three-day conference are the latest discoveries, treatment and prevention of the illness, which is generally associated to old age.

The conference has been organized by Beta for Training and Education College.

Osteoporosis is a medical condition in which the bones become brittle and fragile from loss of tissue, typically as a result of hormonal changes, or due to deficiency of calcium or vitamin D.

Leading orthopedic and spine specialist, Dr. Khalid Abdul Jalil Batterjee, who is the chairman of the scientific committee of the conference, said that the conference addresses the most important developments in spinal diseases, especially during old age, and their causes.

He said that the latest studies say that humans are programmed to transfer genes from one generation to another, and every man over the age of 60 may develop osteoporosis.

Batterjee expressed the hope that the conference would achieve results and objectives in reducing spine diseases by sharing experience of international and national experts, through new surgical techniques to fix fractures of the vertebrae and dealing with inflammatory bones and tumors in the cervical spine.

A study has shown that 34 percent of healthy Saudi women, and 30.7 percent of men, aged 50-79 years, suffer from osteoporosis. With an increase in life expectancy in Saudi from 45-67 years in 1960 to 75.7 years in 2013, the prevalence of osteoporosis is expected to increase further.

Lifestyle plays a significant role in the high prevalence of this disease, with low calcium intake, lack of physical activity and vitamin D deficiency.

Approximately 8,768 femoral fractures are reported each year in the Kingdom, costing billions.