THE MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM:  OUR BODY'S FRAMEWORK FOR LIFE

Audience Q & A

Question:  Can regular exercise slow or prevent spinal arthritis?

Answer:  Regular exercises can help delay arthritis of the spine to some degree.  The best types of exercises are aerobic conditioning (walking, treadmill, stationary bike, etc.).  However, these exercises do not absolutely prevent the arthritis.  Other ways to delay or prevent progressive arthritis are cessation of smoking and weight reduction.

--James D. Kang, M.D..

Question:  What is the weakest (most poorly engineered) part of the human skeletal system?

Answer:  The weakest and most poorly engineered part of the spine appears to be the lower lumbar segment (the fifth vertebrae or L5-S1 region).  This is the most common area where patients develop clinical problems like back pain, disc herniations, and arthritis.  It appears that when humans began to walk upright on two legs, it put a lot more stress on the lower back area than that of creatures that remained on four legs.

--JDK

Question:  What causes scoliosis?

Answer:  Scoliosis is a complex topic.  There are different reasons why someone gets scoliosis.  In teenagers it is "idiopathic," which means that we do not know exactly why it occurs.  It is thought to be due to a muscular imbalance of some type.  In older patients it can be due to spinal arthritis, which degenerates the spine asymmetrically and causes it to "bend."

--JDK