为什么人老了会变矮？专家这样说……

On a macro level, you get shorter as you age due to changes in the bones, muscles and joints. "There are a few different things going on here," Dr. Angela Catic, a geriatrician and associate professor in the Huffington Center on Aging at Baylor College of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life. One, she says, is that the discs between the vertebrae in your spine lose fluid as you get older. "They become dehydrated and, with that, they lose height — and you lose a bit of height," she says.

从宏观层面来看，人在衰老时会因为骨骼、肌肉和关节的变化而变矮。美国贝勒医学院赫芬顿衰老研究中心的老年病学专家、副教授安吉拉·卡蒂克博士告诉雅虎生活频道：“有几种不同情况。”一种情况是，年纪大了以后，脊柱椎间盘所含的液体会减少。她指出：“脊柱椎间盘脱水后会变短，从而让你变矮。”

Abdominal muscles also tend to weaken over time, which can create a stooped posture, causing you to appear shorter, Catic says.

卡蒂克说，另一种情况是，腹部肌肉随着时间流逝会衰弱，从而会导致驼背，让你看起来更矮。

In women, menopause can speed up bone loss "due to the loss of the protective effects of estrogen on bones," Dr. Arashdeep Litt, an internal medicine physician with Spectrum Health, tells Yahoo Life. That, too, can cause you to get shorter.

健康机构Spectrum Health的内科医生艾拉什迪普·利特博士告诉雅虎生活频道，女性绝经会加速骨质流失，因为“雌性激素对骨骼的保护作用减弱了”，这也会令其变矮。

But height loss can also be due to osteoporosis, a bone disease that develops when bone mineral density and bone mass decreases, or when the quality or structure of bone changes, Litt says. That can decrease your bone strength and increase your risk of fractures, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

但是利特指出，变矮也可能是由骨质疏松导致的，骨质疏松指的是骨密度和骨量下降，或骨骼质量或结构发生改变。美国国立卫生研究院称，这会降低骨骼强度，增加骨折风险。