The Dowager's hump: an early start?

Abstract

Background: A recent study has shown that biomarkers relating to the variation of muscle strength with age exhibited gender differences.

Objective: To discover whether gender differences in kyphosis and its progression with age might be explained in a related manner.

Methods: Relevant aspects of muscular ageing, and related changes in the Cobb angle (a measure of kyphosis) were examined and linked to data on the gerontology of musculature. A hypothesis regarding embryonic antecedents was advanced.

Results: Kyphosis appears to rest on a multifactorial basis, with age and muscular changes playing potentially important roles.

Conclusions: The role of muscle strength as a cause of kyphosis merits further investigation. Both muscular and kyphotic studies should be repeated on the same subjects, and relevant embryonic antecedents be examined. A study of the relation between gonadal and antenatal muscular development might yield conclusive results.