Will Visiting a Chiropractor Make You Taller?

Chiropractors can do a lot. For those experiencing debilitating back, neck, or leg pain, chiropractic care can provide much-needed relief to joints and muscles and ease pressure on your nerves.

A big part of chiropractic care is spinal adjustments or manipulations, with many chiropractors practicing different variations on the treatment.

This focus on the spine of clients has led to a long-running question: Will visiting a chiropractor make you taller? The answer is a bit more complex than you would think.

What is Chiropractic Care?

Nearly 22 million people receive chiropractic care each year in America, and many — about 35% — are looking for medical assistance for back pain.

Chiropractic care is generally designed to complement primary medical care, typically following an injury or to address chronic arm, leg, neck, and back pain.

Chiropractors address multiple musculoskeletal and nervous system issues involving muscles, connective tissue, bones, and joints.

Commonly, chiropractors integrate spinal manipulation as part of an overall treatment or wellness plan. During this therapeutic approach, a chiropractor either uses their hands or a small tool to apply levels of force to spinal joints.

The Goal: improve your overall function and spinal motion.

What is Spinal Manipulation?

It’s the range of therapeutic approaches targeting the spine that has led many to ask, “Will visiting a chiropractor make you taller?”

Chiropractors often use basic spinal manipulation techniques on their own or modify them. For example, gentle force is used in network spinal analysis, which targets very specific regions within the nervous system and spine as part of a holistic approach to wellness.

Some chiropractors use greater force during spinal manipulation while others specialize in gentler techniques. There are over 100 different variations of spinal manipulation and mobilization therapies.

Why Do People Connect Chiropractors to Height?

It likely has to do more with the connection of back pain as we grow taller — and how back pain impacts your height as you continue to age.

Commonly, we lose inches from our height because our spine’s discs also age. There are other conditions associated with our spine and height, and many are genetic.

For example, one sign of osteoporosis, a disease that leads to weakened bones, is a rapid loss of height. Degenerative disc disease, scoliosis, and even lack of exercise weaken bones, too, contributing to height loss.

It is sometimes recommended that people with bone or spinal conditions see a chiropractor to address weakened strength and mobility.

Poor posture is also a result of aging and the above conditions, and poor posture over time can impact your height dramatically. Chiropractic care often addresses poor posture as part of an overall wellness plan.

Sure, But Will Visiting a Chiropractor Make You Taller?

That would be a no — and a yes. No operation or exercise or medication can help you increase your height when you’re an adult.

Genetics plays a huge role in height, as does sex (men tend to be taller than women). Exercise, medical conditions, and nutrition also play a part in how tall you are.

Sometimes certain conditions impact how you grow as a child, including cancer, arthritis, and Down Syndrome.

Physical activity in childhood releases growth hormones, usually leading to slightly more height compared to those less physically active.

And then there’s posture. Proper posture doesn’t just make you look taller. Slouching that’s prominent in bad posture can lead to back pain — and eventually a trip to the chiropractor.

So will visiting a chiropractor make you taller? Chiropractic care that targets your posture and spine may restore the height that you have lost over time.

For example, network spinal analysis addresses the mental, physical, and emotional roots of pain along with removing tension and stress on the spine that can often be caused by bad posture.

How Exactly Will Visiting a Chiropractor Make You Taller by Targeting Your Posture?

Degeneration can impact the spine simply because our spine is aging with us. But posture can play a significant role in not just height, but forms of back and neck pain that led millions to chiropractic care.

When we get older, the spine’s discs wear out and thin — and that can be accelerated by chronic bad posture. As the spinal space shrinks because of degeneration, you look shorter.

Good posture should start early because bad posture habits develop slowly over time. Issues with posture lead to spine misalignment but affect ligaments in the spine, muscles, and connective joints.

Chiropractic spinal adjustments alleviate pain and pressure on the parts of your body that change due to bad posture over the years.

Common Posture Mistakes

Will visiting a chiropractor make you taller? It can help especially if you’ve made some of the most common mistakes with your posture. These include:

• Slouching: You may not feel instantly uncomfortable if you have a slouching habit, but over time, slouching strains your soft tissues and muscles.
• Not standing straight: Do you ever catch yourself leaning back or forward when standing up? Stooping forward means you’re developing a flat back, causing upper back and neck pain.
• Hunched back: Next time you are out take notice of how many people are hunched over, usually looking at their phone or texting. This “text neck” can also develop from hunching over while sitting down at a computer.
• Rounding your shoulders: A weakened upper back caused by poor posture leads to visible rounded shoulders.

If you think you may have poor posture that is causing or contributing to back and neck pain, self-evaluate your posture in a mirror and note anything related to your stance that seems out of order.

It’s difficult to catch yourself practicing poor posture habits as they occur, but before you sit down — or stand up — take a moment to plant your feet firmly on the floor, un-round your shoulders and make sure you’re not leaning too forward or backward.

The Bottom Line

If you are wondering if visiting a chiropractor can make you taller click here to learn about what we can help with. Through spinal adjustments and decompression, the strain and pain related to bad posture may be alleviated through chiropractic care, possibly helping you regain some height lost by either poor habits, injury, or medical conditions.