title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, London, UK. robert.weale@kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Weale
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weale
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D015519:Bone Density / Q000502:physiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007738:Kyphosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000502:physiology; D018908:Muscle Weakness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011379:Prognosis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult