Description and Possible Medical Problems
If you’ve ever visited a public park where a lot of elderly people congregate, you’ve probably noticed that several of the women and a few of the men walk in a stooped manner and have a visible hunchback. It looks as though it must be difficult for them to get around, yet somehow they manage despite their altered posture.
A hunchback, also called a dowager’s hump, is an advanced form of osteoporosis of the spine. The condition is very common in older women and in some elderly men. Since the bones become increasingly porous with age, the vertebrae begin to compress onto one another so that in time there is little or no space left between each two vertebrae. In addition, the bones can become so brittle that over a period of time, they may undergo a series of compression fractures that shrink the vertebrae even more.
You’ll barely be able to notice a compression fracture if it’s a hairline fracture; you might feel a slight twinge of pain when you twist your torso or bend over to pick something up. A more serious fracture will cause an overall backache that will gradually fade away in one or two months.
Treatment
If you’re healthy, get enough exercise, and supplement your diet with calcium-rich foods, your odds of developing a dowager’s hump later in life are virtually nonexistent. But your older relatives who did not care for their health in midlife may not be so lucky. Once osteoporosis of the spine has advanced to the point where it creates a hunchback, there’s not much anyone can do to make it disappear.
Since a weakened spine is one cause of the common problem of hip fractures among older adults, if one of your relatives has a hunchback, you should help him or her to take extra care when walking or going up and down stairs.
*322\167\8*
