| Dowager's hump - 2 things you must do to help it. | | | | centre of each of your vertebrae. |
| What is a dowager's hump and how can you help it? | | | | As soon as you start to slouch, whether it be standing |
| A dowager's hump is a rounding of the upper back, | | | | or sitting you then put your vertebrae into flexed |
| sometimes known as an excessive kyphosis, and is | | | | positions. (They are all tipping forward.) Now the weight |
| strongly associated with osteoporosis or osteopenia. | | | | is no longer evenly throughout your vertebrae, its being |
| There are two things that you must do to help this | | | | pushed through the front portions of your spine. As |
| condition from getting worse. A dowager's hump is | | | | you continue to sit and stand like this your spine starts |
| avoidable. | | | | to wear down, then add to this, osteoporosis or |
| Let's take a quick look at a few facts. Osteopenia is a | | | | osteopenia and you now have weakened vertebrae |
| narrowing of the bones whereas osteoporosis is | | | | and of course they start to collapse where there is |
| where the bones have become porous. Osteoporosis | | | | too much force-the front portions of your vertebrae. |
| is also avoidable and contrary to popular opinion, is not | | | | Then you no longer have nice block shaped vertebrae, |
| due to lack of calcium intake, it's the lack of calcium | | | | you have wedges. As you can see, this is an |
| absorption. Furthermore, milk is not a good source of | | | | avoidable condition through correcting both your diet |
| calcium because it is not absorbed easily by the body. | | | | and posture. |
| When was the last time you saw a gorilla ducking | | | | Think of the tires on your car. If you have them badly |
| down to the shops for a pint of milk? | | | | aligned they will wear down unevenly. One side of the |
| There are much better foods that you can eat that | | | | tire will be good whilst the other side taking all of the |
| are absorbed readily by the body such as certain nuts | | | | weight of the car gets worn down very quickly and if |
| and green leafy vegetables. Another thing, men are at | | | | you left it long enough it would collapse- this is what |
| risk of getting osteoporosis- this is not a 'woman's | | | | happens to your vertebrae! The major difference is |
| disease'. You may have seen people with dowager's | | | | that you can get a new set of tires but not a new set |
| humps. They tend to affect women over 50 and you | | | | of vertebrae. |
| will see a rounding of the upper back, and perhaps a | | | | If you already have a dowagers hump it is imperative |
| fatty hump at the base of the neck. The reason is that | | | | that you also do corrective exercises to retrain your |
| due to poor posture and weak bones due to either | | | | muscles. Prolonged forward head posture creates |
| osteoporosis or osteopenia, the thoracic vertebrae | | | | major muscular imbalances and these MUST be |
| start to collapse and become wedge shaped at the | | | | addressed. |
| front. | | | | When you sit and stand with poor posture, your head |
| I have spoken about poor posture in regards to neck | | | | translates forwards, this alone puts enormous stresses |
| pain and its damaging effects on lower back, rotator | | | | on your neck structures and as I said before, is the |
| cuffs, hips, upper backs and increased risk of | | | | major cause of neck pain. |
| degenerative joint disease and here we see it again. | | | | The Mayo clinic states that the forward head posture |
| Your posture is key! | | | | 'leads to long term muscle strain, disc herniations and |
| If you slouch in your seat you round your whole spine. | | | | pinched nerves'. It also leads to upper back pain, lower |
| This puts your neck in a forward position, your chin juts | | | | back pain and shoulder problems to name but a few, |
| out, and this is known as the forward head posture. | | | | which are also completely avoidable. If you spend |
| This is the major cause of neck pain and also the | | | | hours, weeks, months and years like this your |
| major cause of your dowagers hump! Think about | | | | shoulders become too far forward which tighten the |
| it-osteoporosis doesn't Make your vertebrae wedge | | | | muscles of your chest and the opposing muscles in |
| shaped at the front, your posture does. The | | | | your upper and middle back become too long and |
| osteoporosis just makes your problem worse due to | | | | weak. You must do corrective exercises to fix these. |
| the weakness in your bones. | | | | If you are doing exercises like bringing your knees to |
| When you sit 'tall' in correct posture you align the spine | | | | your chest, pulling your arms across your chest to |
| vertically so that your spinal curves are in correct | | | | stretch the backs of your shoulders and others like this |
| position. The forces on your vertebrae are evenly | | | | you are worsening your problem! You are putting more |
| distributed. The spine is stacked one on top of the | | | | pressure on your weakened vertebrae and stretching |
| other very much like blocks are stacked on top of | | | | your already overstretched muscles. |
| each other. The weight is distributed evenly throughout | | | | If you would like to know more about how to help your |
| your vertebral bodies and discs. So sitting tall and | | | | dowagers hump please have a look at my DVD. It has |
| standing tall you place your spine in good position, the | | | | everything you need to know about correcting your |
| muscles are now working to retain good posture and | | | | posture and the corrective exercises. |
| the force of gravity is pushing down through the | | | | |