According to a study by the US Army, approximately one out of ten people have an actual leg length difference. Additionally, about one out of one hundred people have pelvic bones which are smaller on one side than the other side.

According to myofascial (muscle and soft tissue) pain experts Drs. Travell and Simons, a leg length difference of 1/8 inch or more puts you at risk for pain and dysfunction.  Why?  Because your body does things automatically to try to correct or adapt or accommodate that difference such as tilt, twist or rotate.

There are two types of “short legs.”  Both can cause migraines.

One is an actual anatomical difference which could be caused by severe injury or polio or nature and is measurable on x-rays.  It could be either the upper or the lower leg bone.

The other type is a functional leg length difference.  That means the bones are all the same length but muscles in the body cause one hip to lift.  Your hips can move independently of each other so it is possible to have one hip that is higher or more forward than the other.

People with an anatomical leg length difference often have migraines because walking with a tilt puts a lot of strain on the muscles at the base of the skull.   It causes a rotation (slight turning) of the head.  That can affect the nerves and blood vessels which play a part in migraines.  Those people can have other pain, too, such as hip pain on the short leg side or low back pain pain or TMJ dysfunction.

What’s the fix?

Good news!  There is a relatively easy fix so you don’t have to go through life “out of balance” and with migraines.

Anatomical short leg: Lifting your entire foot on the short leg side enough to level your hips will go a long way in helping you feel better, have fewer migraines, and fewer problems with your neck and muscles.

This requires that you only wear certain shoes.  They must have a solid, thick hard rubber sole.  A shoemaker can split a firm rubber sole and add a layer of neoprene rubber to lift the short leg. This doesn’t work with air or gel type shoes.

Also, if you have a really skilled shoemaker or cobbler, he might be able to remove your whole sole and replace it with a new, thicker sole.

It may seem like a lot of work or you might not want to give up your stylish shoes but the benefits to your body are huge.

Functional short leg: A skilled massage therapist can help relax and release the tight out-of-balance muscles that are pulling your bones out of neutral.

How do you know if you have a leg length difference?

Perhaps one pant leg is always longer than the other.  That was the clue for my 91 year old client who had back pain and migraines for over 70 years.  His doctors never looked for or told him he had a leg length difference but he told me, “My tailor always told me I did!”  His anatomical leg length difference was about 2 inches.

Maybe when you look in the mirror you can see that one shoulder is higher than the other or that your head sits off the side instead of dead in the middle of your body.  That’s a clue, too.

Or, as you look in the mirror, does your belt line drop to one side?

How do you know how much lift you need?

A doctor can take x-rays of your legs and hips and measure for you.  Or, you can “guestimate” by placing notebooks or magazines under your short leg and adding or removing pages until you feel level and look level in the mirror.  Many neuromuscular massage therapists are trained in measuring leg length differences also.

When you get rid of an actual leg length difference and stop the tilting and twisting that your body does to try to make corrections, you can have fewer migraines.

What else can I do?

Until I get my own migraine self-help program completed, I will refer you to this program, Jaw Pain Natural Relief.

What is the tie-in between migraines and jaw pain?  Many of the causes come from the same tight muscles and distortions in posture.  TMJ pain–pain in the jaw–also comes from the muscles around the shoulders, back, neck and head just as migraines do.

There can be multiple causes for migraines but the more causes you can get rid of, the less pain you will have.

PLEASE NOTE: Always whenever you do movements for your neck, do them carefully, slowly and thoughtfully.  Pay close attention to what’s going on so you don’t aggravate your touchy neck and cause a migraine.

I really can’t think of anything worse than a really bad migraine. A broken leg may keep you from moving, but a migraine headache keeps you from being!

Migraines come in variations. Some are worse than others and some are merely horrible. They affect every system in your body.

Some people believe that headaches and migraines are closely related. I’m one of those people. For years and years, I never had “just a headache.” Each time I started with a headache, I ended up with a migraine.

The best way to avoid migraines is to have perfect posture. For those of us who are prone to headaches and migraines, any little strain on the muscles around our neck or head can, and will, cause pain.

Keeping a strong back, including the muscles in the back of your neck, helps hugely.

Learning how to have perfect posture will make a big difference in the frequency and severity of your head pain. It’s really important that you have good posture when you sit, when you stand, and you even need your neck and head propped correctly when you sleep.

Avoiding the foods that cause migraine pain for you helps, too. I had a friend who would get instant migraine when she ate an orange. After a while, she started avoiding oranges. Other times, it is not an instant reaction.

A varied and healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables helps for many reasons. One of the reasons is that constipation can create conditions for a migraine. It may be the pressure from the packed intestines on the blood vessels in the abdomen that causes a migraine, because migraines are vascular headaches. That means they are related to what is happening with blood vessels.

“Keeping things moving” through your intestines with a good diet helps prevent migraine. You might consider taking additional fiber from a bottle to avoid constipation. Also, many headache and other medicines cause constipation.

Avoiding a migraine in the first place is a much better strategy than trying to get rid of it after you are already hurting.

But, when a migraine sneaks up, or flat out attacks, despite your best efforts, here are a few tips to help ward off or lessen your pain.

* Ice. Ice the base of your skull. Use a cold pack and put yourself in the most comfortable position you can. Use a thin towel between your skin and the cold pack. You can ice and use the next tip at the same time.

* Cold. Place a cold, almost dripping wet, cloth on your forehead and eyes. You can flip it over as it warms up from your heat. You can keep a pan of ice water next to the bed to re-wet and re-chill the cloth. You can use put a plastic bag under a towel behind your head. That will keep your bed dry.

* Compress. Wrap your head in a long towel so that it is like a turban. Cover your eyes and ears with the turban, too. The idea is to compress your head, to squeeze it. This is comforting, blocking out noise and light, and helps reduce the pain.

* Alka Seltzer. Aspirin does not touch a migraine, but…two tablets of Alka Seltzer, if taken at the beginning of a migraine attack, often knocks out the migraine. I suspect that this happens because it is a large dose of aspirin all at once, rather than gradual.

Check out my web site for help to fix your posture. Good posture will help reduce your headaches.

“Because you deserve to feel better!”