Question:
Hello,
I’m 22 years old and I’m 176-177 tall. I have been working since childhood. I don’t know if it was because of this, but my two legs are not of equal length. One is obviously much shorter than the other. Could this have affected my height? So, could it have prevented me from reaching the potential height of my genetics? Also, does this brevity cause a lot of trouble?
Answer:
If you were not eating well because you were working, then that might have affected your final height, but work itself would generally be good for a person since it is giving you exercise.
The common reasons for one leg being shorter than the other are:
- A genetic problem that you inherited
- A serious fracture that didn’t heal properly
- An infection in your bone
- Cancer in your bone
The second one would be something you remember. The third and fourth possibilities would come with other symptoms (such as pain). Since you didn’t mention any of these, I must assume it was just an inherited problem.
Mismatching leg lengths will affect your posture, throwing your bones out of alignment, and causing the rest of your body to try to compensate. See Limb Length Discrepancy.
The simplest treatment is a shoe lift, where one shoe is taller than the other shoe to compensate for the difference. More expensive treatments involve surgery and would require months of recovery time.