Dr. Sophie Jamal is a scientist in the Osteoporosis Research Program at WCRI, and a clinician with the Multidisciplinary Osteoporosis Care Team. She chairs the Women's College Hospital department of medicine research committee. She is an assistant professor in the department of medicine, division of endocrinology and metabolism and in the department of health policy management and evaluation at the University of Toronto.
Research and Academic Interests:
Osteoporosis (OP) is a common, costly, and debilitating condition. As part of the Osteoporosis Research Program, Dr. Jamal studies novel treatments for osteoporosis as well as how to manage bone disease in patients with complex medical illnesses such as chronic kidney disease.
Dr. Jamal's studies the effects of nitrates on bone. Organic nitrates, such as nitroglycerine, are currently used to treat heart conditions like angina. They are available world wide, are inexpensive and safe for long term use. Dr. Jamal has demonstrated that women who take nitrates for angina have higher bone mineral density compared with nonusers. In addition, she has found that healthy women who take nitrates have a decrease in bone breakdown and an increase in bone formation compared to nonusers. This effect appears due to a reduction in bone loss but also to an increase in bone formation. Currently, Dr. Jamal has a CIHR-funded grant to determine the effects of organic nitrates to prevent bone loss in postmenopausal women.
Dr. Jamal's other research interests include studying the etiology, and management of bone disease in men and women with chronic kidney disease (CKD). She has demonstrated that men and women with kidney disease are at dramatically increased risk of fracture and the increase in fracture risk often occurs before the start of dialysis. She is now undertaking a multicentre study to comprehensively assess risk factors for fracture and potential treatments in these patients.
Publications:
Review a list of Sophie Jamal's peer-reviewed publications as indexed by the National Library of Medicine.
