Blog & Columns
Useful information about health and Korean medicine.
Total 24 posts
I have bow legs. Why are you looking at my pelvis instead of my legs?
A good part of the bow legs you see in the mirror comes from how your pelvis is positioned. Here's why a tilted pelvis makes the legs look more curved, and the order we follow: correct the pelvis first, then build muscle.
My inner knee aches. Is it because of my bow legs?
When the legs curve outward, body weight lands more on the inside of the knee. The load on the inner knee is close to "how curved × how heavy." You may not be able to change the angle, but you can change your weight and your muscles. Here are the three common sources of inner knee pain, the warning signs to check first, and three things to write down today.
Bow leg correction exercises: will they really straighten your legs?
There's no solid research showing that exercise can change bone angles in fully grown adults. But the hip joints, muscles and habits can change, so the goal of bow leg exercises is to reduce the load that shifts onto the inside of the knee. We've laid out four things: the muscles at the side of the hips, knee direction when standing up, splitting your weight, and how you sit.
My child's legs are bowed like an O. Is that okay?
Bow legs in toddlers are mostly part of growing up. Children's legs grow from an O shape to straight, to an X shape, and then straight again. But if the bowing gets worse after age 2–3, affects only one leg, your child is clearly short for their age, or complains of pain, get it checked first. While you watch, record it with a front-view photo every 3 months.
Three questions to ask before getting a knee injection
There's no such thing as "a knee injection." Depending on the name, the evidence, the schedule and the precautions all differ. This isn't a post telling you not to get injections. It gives you three questions to ask at any clinic: what it's called, how many times and until when, and whether exercise goes along with it.
Why your knee hurts only when going down stairs, not up
When you climb stairs, your thighs are the engine; when you go down, they're the brakes. Holding your body weight as you lower yourself is harder work, and the pressure on the knee is much greater. If it only hurts going down, it's a sign your braking strength is falling short. We sort the paths by where it hurts, and share tips you can use on the stairs today.
My knee hurts. Is it okay to walk?
If you walk less to spare your knee, the thigh muscles that support it weaken first. That's why instead of "don't do this," we give you "do it like this": walk on flat ground in shorter bouts, take stairs one step at a time holding the railing, practice getting up from a chair, and switch activities on painful days.
They say my knee cartilage is worn. Is it okay to walk?
When you're diagnosed with knee arthritis, you're usually told to go easy on it. Yet the treatment that every major international guideline recommends first is exercise. Cutting back on activity weakens your thigh muscles, the knee's shock absorbers. We lay out the real size of exercise's effect, and the mixed evidence for acupuncture, as it is.
If you've started hiding your legs in front of the mirror
There's something you should know first when you look into bow leg correction. There's no evidence that bone angles in adults can be changed without surgery, and we don't promise angles. But much of how curved your legs look comes from muscles and habits, and those can be worked on. That's why we measure before any correction.
Bow Legs Aren't Just About Leg Shape. They're About Your Knees
Bow legs are usually seen as a matter of how the legs look. But in a large study, bow legs raised the risk of developing knee arthritis by 1.5 times and the risk of existing arthritis getting worse by 3.6 times. How bowed the legs look depends on both bone angle and posture, muscles and walking habits, and you can only know how much each contributes by measuring.
Does worn knee cartilage grow back?
Worn cartilage doesn't grow back to how it was. But how much it hurts and how far you can walk can change. It's honest to talk about these two separately. We won't use the phrase "we'll regenerate your cartilage." Instead, we'll tell you what can change. They don't go hand in hand. Some people do well even though their images show a lot of wear,
How are knock knees different from bow legs?
It's a shape where the knees touch but there's a gap between the ankles. It's the opposite of bow legs, and so is the reason people come in — usually not because of how it looks, but because it hurts. People who come in for bow legs usually say first, "people keep commenting on the shape of my legs." Knock knees are different. Most people come in saying "the inside of my knee hurts" or "I keep spraining my ankle and falling," and the leg shape is found while examining them.