Shrinking height not osteoporosis issue

Dear Dr. Gott: I enjoy your column very much and thought you could help me with something I wish to do.

Recently, I had occasion to be asked my height and immediately repeated, as I had for years, 5 feet 9 inches. Two people disputed me, and when I was measured, surely enough, they were right: I had shrunk to 5 feet 5 inches. Completely taken aback, I thought something should be done to keep it from happening to others. Surely, if my height had been checked during regular doctor visits, I would have caught it before it became 4 inches less.

My question is, whom can I contact to suggest that all primary-care physicians and gynecologists routinely measure a person’s height when they check their weight? It would seem obvious this information would be invaluable in ascertaining a patient’s health situation. In the case of osteoporosis, treatment could be started much sooner.

We could educate the public to ask for this information, but it would be much more effective if doctors just added it to their checklist.

I am 81 years old. I have always been proud of my height, have never smoked, exercise regularly and eat balanced meals, so any inkling of a drop in height would surely have raise a red flag for me.

Your input would be greatly appreciated.

Dear Reader: First, let me emphasize that all adults, as they grow older, will shrink; this is simply part of the aging process and has no direct relation to osteoporosis. The shrinkage is untreatable.

The loss of height that we all experience sooner or later is due in great part to changes affecting the doughnut-shaped discs that separate our spinal vertebrae. These discs begin to dry up and lose volume; the result is a slight foreshortening of the spine that translates into less height. Of course, the phenomenon is aggravated if the elderly fail to stand in a straight posture, or if several of the vertebral bones tend to collapse, creating so-called “compression fractures,” a consequence of osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis itself is a common and treatable bone disease that is diagnosed by a bone-density examination. Such testing should, in my opinion, be performed regularly in all post-menopausal women.

To give you related information, I am sending you a copy of my Health Report “Osteoporosis.” Other readers who would like a copy should send a long, self-addressed, stamped envelope and $2 to Newsletter, P.O. Box 167, Wickliffe, OH 44092. Be sure to mention the title.