"Leg length discrepancy”; that’s a fancy term for having one shorter leg compared to the other. Often times, prospective patients come and cite they have been told by a doctor or physiotherapist that there is a short leg which results in their hip pain, back pain, and/or poor posture. With concern in their eyes, the followup question being: Is that treatable? YES! It absolutely is! (read on)
When someone presents with a short leg, its usually not because of an actual short leg, but from the nervous system. All muscles and organs are controlled by nerve signals. In a misaligned spine, nerves that over react lead to spastic (tight) muscles throughout parts of the body; pulling said side of the body up to give the illusion of a short leg. This commonly also lead to back and hip pain. So the solution to a leg length inequality is to clear the nerve miscommunication from the source in order for the proper transmission to corresponding muscles.
BUT…
Where is this misalignment coming from? What is the source? Believe it or not, the source is not the low back or pelvis. The nerve control comes from the brainstem which is in a very delicate area of the upper neck involving the Atlas (Cervical bone #1 aka C1 for short). The atlas cradles the head and support the weight of the head on its condyles. When our first vertebra is misaligned, the weight of the head is no longer evenly distributed over the neck and the rest of the body. The many postural muscles that are constantly contracting and relaxing in response to normal body movements to prevent us from falling over and keeping us in an upright posture now have to respond to this imbalance by contracting different postural muscles in an attempt to maintain an upright posture. It is the reflexive contractions of the postural muscles that result in the contracted/ shortened leg.
A leg length difference can be an indication of imbalance tone in your body’s musculature and therefore is one of our objective measures to determine whether or not you are in need of an adjustment. After an adjustment we will often check leg-length again and find that legs to be of balanced length.
Want to see and visualise if you may be out of alignment? Stand in front of a mirror. Close your eyes and shake the body up as a reset. Don’t move a muscle. Open your eyes…what do you see? Is your head tilting to one side? Is one shoulder higher? Is your torso rotated? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, there’s a high likelihood you may be out of alignment. If you’re still unsure. Contact A Balanced Atlas for a free consultation. & for more information check out: www.mymisalignment.com/abalancedatlas/