The Nutritionist's Role

Developmental orthopaedic disease (DOD) relates to a cluster of growth-related conditions that includes both flexural limb deformities (FLD) and angular limb deformities (ALD) (Jeffcott 2005). There are very few direct mechanistic or intervention studies that have investigated the role of suboptimal nutrition in FLD and there are no studies to date that directly implicate nutrition in ALD. However, aberrant nutrition is an established risk factor for the abnormal conversion of cartilage to bone, that underlies other significant forms of DOD, such as osteochodrosis (McIlWraith 2001). Whilst nutrition may have an impact on FLD and ALD, it is unlikely to be a simple causative relationship, but may be mediated via its effect on growth rate and on endochondrial ossification. That said, other factors such as inheritance, gene expression, endocrinology and biomechanical stress or trauma are equally likely to be driving factors. […]