If someone had told you decades ago that THIS and THAT could happen to your body if you didn’t take preventative measures, would you have listened? Would you have taken those preventative measures?
Maybe; maybe not. Teenagers are notoriously oblivious to anything that isn’t directly impacting them, as in right now!. Why worry about the future and what could happen in 40 or 50 years? Just get me to the weekend. That’s as far-sighted as teenagers typically are, and we older people were the same when we were their age.
As a body ages, undesirable things take place, including the development of a dowager’s hump, which is often the result of poor posture and/or osteoporosis, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Look at yourself sideways in the mirror. Do you see a hump at the base of your neck? Is your head jutting forward? Is your back rounded?
This condition is medically referred to as kyphosis, an extreme curve in the spine, and it occurs from continuous leaning forward, which is how many of us spend our days — leaning over a desk and a keyboard.
Some of us are guilty of bad posture, at least part of the time. We get sloppy with our posture. We need to become consciously aware of how we stand, walk, and sit to avoid further damage to our aging bodies.
In addition to weak back and neck muscles that occur over time, many older people suffer from osteoporosis. This disease weakens bones, making them more likely to fracture than dense, strong bones that can absorb impacts. When a person sustains a compression fracture, this increases the forward curvature in the upper back, requiring you to lift your neck into greater extension to see in front of you. These factors create the upper back bump.
Unfortunately, our bones don’t regenerate quickly, if at all, when we’re older. Women are more apt to develop a Dowager’s hump because the hormonal changes that occur during menopause increase the risk of osteoporosis, which leads to brittle bones.
If your back and neck muscles are weak, this leads to the forward-leaning humped position. Strengthening our back and neck muscles through exercise helps prevent the dowager’s hump. There are yoga postures that, if practiced regularly, can help avoid a dowager’s hump, including using a yoga stick. https://amzn.to/48ErYKc
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