Alternatives to Surgery

For those who have normal legs, it can be difficult to imagine the desperation caused by having bow legs as an adult. In a child, bowed legs can often be straightened, sometimes with medical braces, but an adult seems doomed to a life of reduced physical activity, and of imminent arthritis.

Arthritis is a serious risk
The bowed shape of the legs can cause an extremely abnormal gait when walking. The very weight of a person’s body puts intense, abnormal pressure on the joints of the knees and ankles when walking, or indeed when engaging in just about any physical activity. The angles of the limbs to the joints of the legs also places a severe strain upon the joints.

It goes without saying that this limits a person’s quality of life. A person cannot engage in many sports, and must respond more or less like a cripple when faced with many physical activities. But the pain and discomfort is only the beginning of a person’s problems. The stress on the joints leads to inflammation, which in turn leads to arthritis, and ultimately, if left untreated, to complete degeneration of the joints.

Is surgery a realistic option?
Not really. Just consider the risks. The surgeon will actually remove or even break some of the bones in your legs. This carries a massive risk of infection, and certainly a risk of damage to your nerves. If the nerves are damaged, you will be left with a permanent disability – a permanent loss of function in one of your legs.

Worse, the surgeon will actually put metal clamps on you, attaching them to your legs to maintain the shape of your legs post surgery. There will be permanent scars that you will have to bear with for the rest of your life. Finally, there’s the recovery period... it might take three or more months to recover, and you’ll have to find a way to take that time out of your life. Not to mention that the recovery will be painful.

What’s the cure?
A special diet will correct the malnutrition that is usually at the core of a bow legs problem. When I say malnutrition, I don’t mean that you aren’t eating enough. Rather, you’re probably missing out on crucial elements and vitamins in your diet, and the lack of these is causing your legs to be bow legged. There’s nothing to worry about – this can very easily be corrected by a course of vitamin and mineral supplementation.

And then there’s exercise. The body’s posture needs to be corrected through yogic exercises. The strong muscles of the thighs need to be properly trained to support the leg. The hamstrings and tendons also need to be strengthened by special exercises. And finally, exercises need to be done that will gradually, over a period of a few months, correct the curvature of the legs. That’s all that it takes to cure bow legs.