Menopausal and retirement-age ailments

Moving towards retirement or menopause: perfect your movement over time.

Local bone loss, degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis–these ailments need not be the conditions of aging. Exacerbated by postural degradation, bone loss and cartilaginous break-down, our unique approach to massage therapy and exercise instruction limit these tendencies.

Bone loss accelerates with age: 0.75-1.0% loss per year after age 35 for women, (increasing to 2-3% per year post-menopause), and 0.4% per year after age fifty for men. However, bone responds well to weight bearing activity, as is seen where a broken extremity spends several weeks in a cast. The lack of normal stresses to the bone can result in osteoporosis in the area of injury.

When normal stresses are restored to the extremity, the bone stock largely recovers. Bone loss corresponds with postural degradation. Typically, the abdomen protrudes as the thoracic spine loses height, the head and neck fall forward and exert a downward pull on the upper spine, as do forward rolling shoulders. Weakening back and postural muscles fail to contravene.

The body’s fascial system reflects, and eventually perpetuates these postural habits. Fascia provides structure, and organization; surrounding all organs and muscles, it holds them together as a unit, and separates them into parts. Lacking contractile units (as in muscle) fascia adjusts length and shape slowly over time. The fascia slowly adapts to contracted postures. Eventually, when one tries to sit or stand upright, shortened fascia prevents it.

Joints occur between two articulating bones that are perfectly and oppositely shaped to move in relation to each other within a particular range. Poor posture repositions joints about the body’s center of gravity, negatively altering the joint’s range of motion. Reduced motion inhibits circulation in the joint space, which is critical for joint health. As a result cartilage breaks down over time, and osteoarthritis manifests.

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