Leg Length

Why Does Leg Length Discrepancy Matter?

Why Does Leg Length Discrepancy Matter?

You may have been told before that one of your legs is shorter than the other, or you may have hip, knee, or ankle pain that has been linked to differing leg lengths. While short leg syndrome is sometimes diagnosed by medical doctors, chiropractors have a different take on leg length—and it could completely change your life.

Why Do Chiropractors Look at Leg Length?

If you’ve visited Dr. Ronnie at Vital Life Chiropractic, you know that he checks your leg length at the start of any adjustment assessment. Science has told us that whenever a person has a misalignment anywhere in their spine, their legs will be different lengths. It may only be a miniscule amount or difference, but principled chiropractors are trained and experienced in noticing even the smallest discrepancy in leg length. So when Dr. Ronnie checks your leg length and then has you turn your head and checks it again, he’s determining where the misalignment is so that he can adjust you appropriately.

Why Does It Matter?

Leg length matters a great deal, especially when it comes to spinal alignment and overall health. We know that the health of your spine is directly related to the overall health of your body. Misalignments of the spine push on the spinal cord and nearby nerves, causing interference in the messages sent from the brain to the rest of the body. This interference results in miscommunication between your brain and your body’s systems, leading to dysfunction and various health concerns.

If your leg length is uneven, you absolutely have a misalignment in your spine. Even if your leg length discrepancy is miniscule, it is still causing an imbalance across your entire skeletal structure, which will eventually lead to more misalignments and your body attempting to […]

Purpose:

To determine if there is an association between a test commonly used by chiropractors as a sign of subluxation/joint dysfunction – supine leg length alignment (LLA) asymmetry – and health-related quality of life as measured by the SF-12 questionnaire, in a non-clinical population.

Design:

Volunteers answered the SF-12 and background questionnaires and were then examined for supine LLA by a chiropractor blinded to their answers.

Setting:

Gatherings of people in the general population.

Participants:

Fifty-five unscreened volunteers.

Examiner:

Chiropractor with approximately 20 years of clinical experience.

Main Outcome Measures:

The association of supine LLA asymmetry with general health based on the two summary scores – physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) – of the SF-12.

Results:

There were 27 volunteers with LLA asymmetry, they had a mean PCS of 49.6 and a mean MCS of 47.9. In the no – LLA asymmetry group (n=23) the mean PCS was 50.8, and mean MCS of 54.0. A multiple regression analysis found that of the variables gender, age, back pain (current/former) and LLA asymmetry, the only factor to approach significance with the SF-12 MCS/PCS was the presence of LLA asymmetry. A t-test found there was a significant difference (p=0.017) in the MCS between the supine LLA asymmetry and no-LLA asymmetry groups.

Conclusion:

This pilot study suggests that in this group of volunteers (n=50) from the non-clinical general population, those who demonstrated a commonly used sign of subluxation/joint dysfunction – supine leg length alignment asymmetry – had a significantly (P=0.017) lower measure of general health as determined by the SF-12 survey than those volunteers without such asymmetry. Further investigation to clarify this relationship and to establish whether there is a connection between the putative entity of chiropractic subluxation and unloaded leg length alignment asymmetry is recommended.

Leg Length Inequality (Short/Long Leg)

The supine leg check as a determinant of physiological/postural leg length inequality: a case study and analysis leg length inequality […]