Blog Post
How Chiropractic Care Can Help You Reach Your Wellness Goals
January 20, 2023
Did you know that a trip to outer space can make you 2-3 inches taller? That’s because, 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.
The discs between the vertebrae in your spine act as cushions, so anything that deflates those cushions can detract from your height, including:
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.
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.
If followed correctly, your chiropractic care plan has the potential to make you slightly taller by:
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:
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:
These improvements can help you delay the wear and tear of your joints to keep you standing taller longer.
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.
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.
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.
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