Working out as a teenager may help women avoid shrinking in older age, a new study suggests. Some shrinking is a normal part of aging, but women can lose up to two inches of height between the ages of 30 and 70. More importantly, the more someone shrinks, the higher their risks of breaking bones are and that, in turn, is linked to an earlier death. This is particularly worrisome for women, who are more prone than their male counterparts to osteoporosis, or weak bones. Women who worked out hard in their younger years, however, were less likely to shrink or to shrink as much after menopause, a new University of Buffalo study found. No matter how tall we stand, we will all eventually shrink at least a little bit. Over the courses of their lives, men shrink an average of 1.3 inches, and women lose about an inch-and-a-half. Shrinking happens as the vertebrae of the spine get dehydrated and the cartilage between them wears down. More than half of Americans over 50 develop osteoporosis, a degenerative disease that weakens bones over time. This condition coupled with the inevitable effects of gravity and aging push us downward. Women - who have smaller, more delicate bones than men to begin with - are disproportionately affected by both osteoporosis and shrinkage. This vulnerability is due in part to a stage of life that only women pass through: menopause. During menopause, a woman’s period stops and she exits her reproductive years. Women’s estrogen levels decline precipitously during this stage, typically beginning around age 50. Estrogen plays an important role in blocking a process known as bone resorption by which bone cells break down into their composite parts, and the remaining minerals get absorbed by the blood. So once there is less estrogen to defend the bones, their break down speeds up, leading to shrinking and, for some, osteoporosis that greatly raises the risks of bone breaks, falls and even early death. But of course, not everyone shrinks at the same rate, so the University of Buffalo researchers set out to determine what factors might speed up - or slow down - the process. They found that 70 out of the 1,000 senior women involved in their study lost more than an inch of height over a five-year period. The average age of the participants was 66, and - unsurprisingly - the older a woman was, the more likely she was to lose height during the course of the study. A higher baseline body weight and a history of taking corticosteroids - which are known to decrease bone strength - both predicted more height loss, too. But one piece of medical history was linked to better height retention: exercise, dating back to the women’s teenage years. Agencies
