Ever notice that “Dr. Now” on “My 600 Pound Life” has a hunchback?
Are thousands of hours hunched over during surgery the cause of Dr. Nowzaradan’s hunched back?
Or is Dr. Now’s perpetual hunching over just bad posture?
• It’s not bad posture.
• It’s not caused by thousands of hours performing surgery.
• If it were caused by all the surgery he’s performed, why aren’t most other surgeons — especially those over 60, afflicted with this condition?
The condition that makes Dr. Younan Nowzaradan “hunch over” is called kyphosis.
I sent the photo of Dr. Now in this post to Justin J. Park, MD, a board certified orthopedic spine surgeon with The Maryland Spine Center at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, MD.
Dr. Park explains, “Although ‘hunching over’ or development of kyphosis is a natural part of aging for both men and women, I think that the man in the photo has a more severe form of kyphosis that is not part of natural aging.
“He may have a condition called Scheuermann’s kyphosis. It often develops in adolescence and can be a cause of back pain.”
Kyphosis is an abnormal curvature of the upper spine and has nothing to do with bad posture.
Shutterstock/Nemanja Cosovic
“Kyphosis is a result of disc degeneration and vertebral body collapse that leads to the deformity,” says Dr. Park.
“Because it is a structural condition, people can’t ‘just straighten out’ from it.”
When they lean over or bend over, the curvature, or the so-called kyphotic curve, becomes more pronounced.
In Dr. Now’s case, we don’t know for sure what the cause is, but he clearly has kyphosis.
Scheuermann’s disease is a malformation of the spine that begins after puberty.
The treatment for Scheuermann’s is a special back brace applied to the young patient who’s still growing; this may arrest progression of the rounding of the upper back.
However, Dr. Park says, “Unfortunately, bracing for kyphosis oftentimes is not effective in preventing further deformity.”
