Can a Chiropractor Make You Taller?

Can a chiropractic adjustment make you taller the way a trip to outer space can make you 2-3 inches taller? Not exactly, but both height increases have to do with spinal disc compression.

Here on earth, gravity pulls your spine downward, and the discs between your vertebra get compressed. In outer space, where gravity is weaker, your discs can hold more spinal fluid — which makes them expand, slightly stretching out your spine. 

When you’re sleeping in supine position, there is also no gravity pushing on your spine, vertebrae, and discs — so in the morning you may be slightly taller than you are after sitting and standing upright all day. Can’t afford to lie down all day or book a Space X flight? Consider a more sustainable option. 

Can a chiropractic adjustment make you taller? If it decompresses the discs between your vertebrae even slightly, then yes, it can. By enabling your spine to expand into its full length, chiropractic adjustments can improve your posture and enhance your overall wellness. Read on to discover how. 

Why We Can Become Shorter Over Time

Can a spinal adjustment make you taller by decompressing your spine as you age? Yes. The discs between the vertebrae in your spine act as cushions, so anything that deflates those cushions can detract from your height, including: 

• Poor Posture  
  Your stature and height are influenced by the way you sit, stand and walk. After years of compressing your discs and altering your natural spinal curvature you can become susceptible to debilitating conditions like tech neck, Dowager’s hump and scoliosis. 
• Misalignment 
  Even if your posture is perfect, repetitive joint use, improper bending or lifting, falls, sports injuries, or car accidents can misalign your spine. This can lead to misalignment in your hips, knees, ankles, muscles, and ligaments. All these factors can cause a visible reduction in height and a disruptive increase in pain. 
• Spinal Aging 
  Many people get shorter with age — sometimes losing an inch or more in height over decades. That’s because the intervertebral discs in our spines that act as shock absorbers and add to our height wear down and thin out with age. If that wear and tear is also accompanied by poor posture, sedentary lifestyle and muscle atrophy, our spines can shrink, further compressing our discs and vertebrae. 

How Can a Spinal Adjustment Make You Taller?

Although biologists have determined that around 80% of our height is determined by genetics, lifestyle choices around nutrition, exercise, and posture significantly contribute to our final height. Although they cannot re-open your growth plates or stimulate bone growth, chiropractic adjustments have been proven to straighten and stretch the spine into alignment, increasing height by anywhere from ¼ to 2 inches. 
 
The National Library of Medicine published a randomized controlled trial that demonstrated how high velocity and low amplitude (HVLA) adjustments delivered to the lower spine led to increased height. 

Another study published in Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science Journal found that patients who received flexion-distraction spinal adjustments increased their inter-vertebral height by about a quarter of an inch. 

How does a Doctor of Chiropractic promote this height enhancing alignment?  By using either hands or instruments to deliver controlled, highly targeted force to vertebrae that have abnormal movement patterns or suboptimal function. By minimizing these misalignments and abnormal biomechanical motions within the spine, adjustments delivered by DCs can improve poor posture, function, mobility, and overall wellness. 

Can a chiropractic adjustment make you taller? Yes, when disc compression causes loss of height

But they can’t do it alone. The effects of chiropractic adjustments must be supported and maintained with active exercises which your DC will prescribe and supervise in-clinic. 

3 Height Enhancing Functions of Chiropractic Adjustments 

If followed correctly, your chiropractic care plan has the potential to make you slightly taller by: 

Increasing Your Vertebral Disc Height

Your intervertebral disc height decreases when your compressed spine causes the fluid inside a disc to leak — shifting its center (nucleus pulposus) to the outer regions of your spine. 

By decompressing your intervertebral discs, chiropractic adjustments: 

• Reduce pressure on your discs, allowing them to relax to a more normal state 
• Improve the integrity of the disc, which can allow the nucleus pulposus to return to its normal position 
• Increase disc height and therefore your height

Improving Your Posture

Over time, slumping and slouching can shift your body’s natural curves, stunting or masking your natural height. Poor posture – caused by a misaligned pelvis, stooped shoulders, weak vertebrae, and forward bending – can make you look shorter because you’re not standing at your full natural height. 

Chiropractic treatment of your neck, shoulders, arms, legs, knees and feet can potentially correct these posture issues to: 

• Reclaim lost height 
• Stabilize joints 
• Strengthen muscles 
• Boost circulation 

These improvements can help you delay the wear and tear of your joints to keep you standing taller longer. 

Correcting Scoliosis

Scoliosis is an x-ray confirmed spine curvature that has shifted more than 10 degrees from its natural position. Osteoporosis, arthritis, muscle disease, spinal cord abnormality, surgery, or genetics can lead to scoliosis. To some extent, chiropractic treatment may be able to correct abnormal curvature to improve posture and increase height.  

This ongoing condition needs to be managed. After spinal joints are repositioned, muscles need to be relaxed and the brain needs to be retrained to use muscles and spinal joints differently. Your Doctor of Chiropractic will need to assess the signs and symptoms of scoliosis in detail before crafting a personalized care plan. 

Can a Chiropractic Adjustment Make You Taller and More Flexible Simultaneously?

One of the key advantages of chiropractic care is that its effects do not stop at spinal alignment. Along with improved posture, reduced compression, and decreased pain, chiropractic care has been shown to help improve flexibility and range of motion — a major lifestyle enhancement. 
 
Research published in the Journal of Chiropractic & Manual Therapies showed that chiropractic adjustments measurably improved neck flexibility and mobility for people who’d lost their normal range of motion.  

When you can move freely and painlessly, you’re more likely to stand up straight and stretch out your spine. Regular chiropractic care can help you to increase and maintain flexibility and range of motion so you can enjoy more of the activities you love any time and at your natural born height. 

Have friends who are still wondering: Can a chiropractic adjustment make you taller?  Refer them to Chiro One and we’ll send you a thank you gift.  

Check in with your nearest Chiro One doc at one of our welcoming open-plan clinics across the country. They’ll perform a thorough exam to investigate the root cause of your pain, then personalize your care plan — a combination of gentle chiropractic adjustments and active therapies so you can feel better faster. 

Find a Chiro One doctor near you