Sometime along the way, I’ve gone from being tall to being short. When I grew to five-foot-four as a teenager, I felt tall. The women in my life, Mom, Aunt Frannie, my cousins, Doris and Sis, were all five-foot-two or shorter. When something needed to be reached on a high shelf, I did it.
I wasn’t to the point that I couldn’t wear high heels on a dress-up date. Some of my girlfriends stuck to ‘flats’ so they wouldn’t be taller than the fellows they were going out with, a no-no in the 1950s.
When some of my contemporaries who were my equal in height complained about being short, I was amazed.
As the years passed, my grandson, Jacob, recognized my height. I remember the day he proudly said, “Look, Grandma, I’m as tall as you are.” He continued to grow. I look up to the young man he has become.
The first time the nurse at the clinic measured me as part of my annual check-up and stated I was sixty-two inches tall; I was surprised. I don’t know when I lost those other two inches.
I have a problem in my own kitchen. When I want something from a high cupboard, I have to either grab the stool to climb up or ask my husband to reach it.
In grocery stores, I’ve approached strange men to get a product that is on a shelf out of my reach and employees are nowhere in sight.
As we age, we lose height due to a number of changes. After 35, the bone remodeling process alters–the body breaks down bones faster than it rebuilds them; the discs between vertebrae dry out; feet flatten over time; and muscle loss can cause a more stooped posture.
To help prevent bone loss, experts advise us to eat foods rich in calcium, vitamin D and magnesium. Also practice weight-bearing exercises like walking.
Have you lost inches?