CHICAGO — Rush University Medical Center is sponsoring a Nutritional Medicine workshop March 15 to 16, 2012, that features internationally-renowned faculty who are leaders in research in nutritional medicine. The workshop is part of a series that is designed to educate clinicians and anyone interested in nutrition about the newest research as it relates to health and medicine. Participants can earn credits toward a certificate in Nutritional Medicine and nurses can earn CNE credits.

The workshop series and certificate program addresses a critical gap in the training of health care professionals in the United States.

“Diet is arguably the single most important preventive measure for healthy aging because it affects the functioning of every organ in the body and is a factor both in the development of disease and in recovery,” said Martha Clare Morris, ScD, professor of Epidemiology and director of Nutrition and Nutritional Epidemiology at Rush. “With increasing coverage in the media of studies on diet and disease, patients are approaching their doctors for help in interpreting this information. But physicians and other health professionals receive little education in nutrition.”

Each of the distinguished lecturers at the workshop will cover the different systems in the body and a broad range of medical conditions. Among the presenters are:

• Dr. Walter Willett, DPH, is the chair of

the department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health and author of more than 1,200 scientific publications and three best-seller books for the general public on nutrition and health. Willett is the most cited nutritionist internationally, and among the five most cited persons in all fields of clinical science.

• Michelle Williams, ScD, is the chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard and one of 11 scientists honored in 2011 by President Barak Obama.

• Dr. Irwin Rosenberg, will lecture on “Problems in Translating Nutrition into Clinical Practice and Media”. Rosenberg is former director of the Tufts Human and Nutrition Research Center on Aging and founder of the first nutrition research program in a department of medicine at the University of Chicago where he was the chief of Gastroenterology in the 1980s.

Lecture topics of the March workshop include bone health, essential amino acids for brain and muscle, calcium and vitamin D, diabetes, alcohol consumption and gastrointestinal diseases, body composition in critical care outcomes, and eating disorders. Registration is required and includes 10 lectures, lunch and breakfasts for $475 (discounted to $275 for students and fellows). The single day rate for only the March 15 sessions is $300. The half-day rate for only the March 16 sessions is $175. For more information or to register, please visit http://www.rushu.rush.edu/nutrepi.