It can lead to serious long-term complications, such as the brittle bone disease osteoporosis, infertility and cancer of the small intestine.

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The 26 year-old was found to have abused her son, then aged two, by violently twisting him and causing him multiple fractures, but she says her family history of brittle bone disease was wrongly ruled out.

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The goal: a drug against osteoporosis, the brittle-bone disease that afflicts 25 million older Americans, mostly women.

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Aside from its well-known purgative qualities, Mrs Oldroyd Hulme says that rhubarb is high in fibre, potassium, natural oestrogen (which helps prevent brittle-bone disease in women) and low in calories.

ECONOMIST: Rhubarb, newbarb