These mostly happen when a woman is between fifty and seventy, averaging about sixty years of age. Normal adult vertebrae are roughly rectangular, separated by intervertebral discs. The vertebrae of the spine are usually the first bones to show signs of osteoporosis, as they become porous and weakened and then deformed, with varying degrees of compression and wedging. With the weight of your body to support, the bones of the spine can callapse, causing ‘crush fractures’, and when several vertebrae collapse, eventually the rib cage tilts down to rest on your hipbones. In this way, the upper spine curves outward (kyphosis), the lower spine inward (lordosis), producing the hunchback deformity known as ‘dowager’s hump’. When the ribs tilt down, they force the internal organs outward, causing severe pain in many cases, and the loss of several inches in height, in the upper part of the body (since the length of the arm- and leg-bones does not change).
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