Are bow legs hereditary? How to identify bow legs?

Bow legs are also commonly known as O-type legs. In medicine, they are called genu varus and genu varus. For patients with bow legs, the knees are turned outward when standing up, so the legs look like an O shape. It is caused by severe calcium deficiency during pregnancy. Whether the bow legs appear in the baby is hereditary or not, it is not contagious. It is caused by bad habits during pregnancy. Try to use some high-calcium foods for nourishment, do a good job of correction, and slowly improve without surgery.

Are bow legs hereditary?

Bow legs are generally not hereditary. They are caused by congenital or postnatal calcium deficiency. For example: severe calcium deficiency in pregnant women during pregnancy can cause the baby to be born with bow legs and pigeon breasts. Beaded breasts, etc.

In fact, babies all seem to have bow legs (O-shaped legs), but in real medicine, O-shaped legs are diagnosed only after the child can stand and walk. If you feel that your child has bow legs, pay more attention to giving him calcium supplements. When supplementing calcium for children, you should pay attention to food supplements as much as possible and eat more foods high in calcium, such as bones, dried shrimps, bone soup, fresh fish, live shrimps, kelp, milk and soy products. Of course, you should also drink some cod liver oil and calcium tablets. Milk calcium is one of the best ways to supplement calcium because it is easy to absorb and has good effects. Pay more attention to sun exposure and supplement vitamin AD.

Symptoms of bow legs

1. Both the thighs and calves have more muscles on the outside of the bones and less muscles on the inside, which causes the outer contour of the lower limbs to move further outward. The hips appear wide and the calves appear particularly bent.

2. Due to the change in the thigh curve, the legs appear short and the upper and lower limbs are out of proportion when viewed from the front.

3. Because too much body weight is concentrated on the inner side of the knee joint, it is difficult to maintain balance when walking, and it is easy to sway, forming a duck step and an ugly gait.

4. Because the lower part of the calf knee joint protrudes outward, the calf appears to be very short.

5. The S-shaped curves on both sides of the body are destroyed. The arc that should have been inward to the knee joint disappears, or becomes an outward-expanding curve, which visually lacks the delicate beauty.

6. Due to uneven muscle distribution, the calves and thighs appear very bent, so the legs lose their straight curves and the whole person looks less upright.

Causes of bow legs

The most common causes of bow legs can be divided into three categories:

1. Developmental factors. During the period of physical development, due to malnutrition or intestinal diseases, calcium and phosphorus deficiency, bone development disorders, bone deformation or joint cartilage dysplasia, knee varus changes occur;

2. Imbalance factors. Long-term bad posture or incorrect force habits can cause an imbalance in the muscle mechanics of the joints. Long-term muscle mechanics imbalance can lead to joint displacement and form knee varus. This type of joint displacement is completely different from the joint dislocation that everyone is familiar with. Joint dislocation is manifested by the relative displacement of the two corresponding joint surfaces and the loss of the normal corresponding relationship. Joint displacement is mainly manifested by the rotation of the joint and the abnormality of the joint space. In the knee joint, it is manifested by the patella rotating inward when standing with the two feet parallel and close together. This is caused by the overall rotation of the knee joint, not patellar subluxation. As long as the joint is corrected, the patella will return to the front. The X-ray anteroposterior film shows that the inner and outer gaps of the knee joint are not equal in width, and the inner gap is obviously narrowed;

3. Bow legs caused by trauma or other diseases . The medial and lateral collateral ligaments of the knee are stable structures of the medial and lateral angles of the knee and can make adaptive adjustments as the joint changes. Under normal circumstances, the medial and lateral collateral ligaments of the knee are not the key factors in the formation of bow legs. However, in some cases, such as trauma causing damage to the lateral collateral ligament, which destroys the stability of the knee joint, it can also lead to bow legs. This is more common in athletes, and treatment generally requires surgery to repair the damaged ligaments.