The Surprising Way Your Hips Affect Your Health

By Krista Elliott

The Columbian singer Shakira had a huge hit with "Hips Don't Lie." Her hips, besides being truthful, were utterly mesmerizing as they shook and twitched in the song's video. 

As for the rest of us? Well, our hips may not be lying, but they don't always show how they're feeling, either. Instead, problems with our hips may only be discovered due to pain in other, less ignored body parts like our knees or lower back. 

Why are our hips so important to our well-being, and how can you keep yours healthy? 

The Tragically Hip

Your body has different types of joints, all of which serve different functions. Instead of a simple hinge joint (like your elbows or knees), your shoulder joint and your hip joint are ball joints. What this means is that these joints have the broadest range of movement. Not only can the hip joint move in all directions, but it can also rotate within its own axis. This is what allows us to do so many things with our legs, like sitting, walking, dancing, kicking, or doing the splits. 

Because the hip joint has such a broad range of motion, it also has a lot of muscles and tendons that allow it to move every which way. The muscles in the hip fall into four categories: gluteal, adductor, illiopsoas, and lateral rotator. Most people have tightness or muscular imbalances in at least one of these muscle groups, subjecting the hip joint to uneven forces. As well, because the hip is a weight-bearing joint, and one that gets a lot of use, it can be subject to an extreme amount of wear and tear. 

The problem is that a lot of hip issues show up in other parts of the body. A subluxation in your hip joint might show up as lower back pain, due to increased strain on the psoas major. Or it may manifest itself as knee pain from your femur not being properly aligned. 

Hip, Hip Hooray for Chiropractic!

So, how do you coax some truth out of your own hips? The first step is to visit The Joint Chiropractic, where our licensed chiropractors will carefully assess your joints, your stance, and your gait to identify how your entire musculoskeletal system is functioning, and how the different parts may be affecting each other. From there, gentle and precise adjustments can treat subluxations and joint restrictions, improving your range of motion and relieving strain on your hip muscles. 

So get hip to chiropractic care, and visit The Joint today! 

To learn more about your health and wellness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic.