Media are invited to attend a free symposium, "Vitamin D and Bone Health: An Update from Earth and Outer Space," that will address the importance of Vitamin D throughout our lives as well as its importance for maintaining bone health during spaceflight.

The program, which will cover data on bone health gathered from research occurring both in space and in ground-based laboratories, will be held from 7:30 a.m. until noon CST Dec. 7 at Trevisio Restaurant on the sixth floor of the John P. McGovern Texas Medical Center Commons, 6550 Bertner Ave.

Presentations, designed to provide an understanding of why Vitamin D is important for all ages, will address:

- Vitamin D Deficiency
- Renal Cell Production of Vitamin D from Suspension Culture to Spaceflight
- Bone and Calcium Metabolism in Spaceflight
- Vitamin D and Bone Health in the Elderly
- Calcium and Vitamin D in Childhood and Adolescence
- Bone Loss During Spaceflight

The discussion on bone loss in space will feature an astronaut panel composed of Shannon Lucid, Ph.D., who worked aboard the Russian space station Mir for 188 days and flew four Space Shuttle flights, and David Hilmers, M.D., a former astronaut who flew four Shuttle missions and logged more than 493 hours in space. Hilmers is on the Baylor College of Medicine faculty.

The symposium is sponsored by NASA, Baylor College of Medicine, The Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute at BCM.

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