Why do people develop bone spurs as they age?

When people get old, many diseases will follow, including bone spurs, which trouble many middle-aged and elderly people. If you want to prevent bone spurs in old age, you need to understand the causes of bone spurs and prevent them as much as possible to avoid being troubled and hurt by bone spurs in old age. So, why do people get bone spurs when they get old? Next, experts will analyze the reasons.

Bone spurs are medically known as bone hyperplasia, and they often occur in areas of activity and wear such as the lumbar spine, cervical spine, knee joints, and calcaneus. Most people may not experience any symptoms after bone spurs occur, but if they compress surrounding tissues, such as nerves, spinal cord, tendons, and muscles, symptoms such as local soreness, limited joint movement, limb pain, numbness, and weakness often occur. Some patients experience symptoms such as headache, dizziness, stiff neck, blurred vision, and abnormal urination and defecation. This disease mostly occurs in the elderly. According to statistics, the incidence rate is 74% in people aged 45-60 and 90% in people over 80 years old. It can be seen that the older the age, the higher the incidence rate.

Why are people more likely to develop bone spurs as they age?

This is because when the human body moves, it tends to excessively stretch the ligaments attached to the edges of the vertebral bones and the joint capsules on the facet joints. Due to the constant stretching and repeated stimulation of the periosteum there, it will cause bone hyperplasia at the edges of the vertebral bodies and facet joints. This growth is a protrusion formed where the vertebrae are attached to the ligaments and joint capsules, and its appearance appears sharp on X-rays. Moreover, the shape of this bone spur is a bit like a protruding lip, which is larger than the original vertebral body, so it is also called lip hyperplasia or spinal hypertrophy.

When bone spurs grow on the cervical vertebrae and compress nearby nerves, spinal cord or vertebral arteries and other tissues, causing various symptoms in the neck, upper limbs and even the whole body, we call it cervical spondylosis. A bone spur that grows on the heel bone is called a heel spur.