Advantages and Disadvantages of Being Loose Jointed
The medical term for what we all know as being loose jointed is congenital hyperlaxity. The person that can dislocate their shoulder voluntarily or tie themselves up in knots are examples hypeprlax individuals. The rubber band man at the circus and Houdini are good examples of people with congenital hyperlaxity.
First, let’s figure out if you are Loose Jointed. There are five tests that you can do while sitting and reading this. Let’s review:
Can you bend your pinky finger backwards 90 degrees or more?
Can you bend your thumb down and touch your forearm?
Do your elbows hyperextend 10 degrees or more?
Do your knees hyperextend 10 degrees or more?
Finally, when you bend over and touch your toes, can put your palms flat on the ground?
If you answer 3 of these 5 tests with a YES on both right and left sides you are hyperlax. That would give you 6 points out of 9, as there are 2 points for the first 4 tests and only 1 point for number 5, touching your toes.
More of our great athletes seem to be hyperlax than you would expect. In the general population, roughly 10% of our woman would meet the criteria for being loose jointed. However, in many sports, more than 50% of the female athletes are loose jointed leading many to conclude that there is something about being loosed jointed that helps allow these athletes to compete at the highest level. I have spent more than 25 years of my career as the Head Team Physician to the US Women’s Alpine Ski Team, and we typically do pre-season physicals on all of the World Cup, Olympic Level, athletes in the spring. Without sharing too much confidential information, I remember one year that of the 17 female professional athletes that had qualified for the World Cup circuit, 15 of them had met the criteria for being loose jointed! So there is something to this.
Unfortunately, loose jointed females are much more susceptible to ligament injuries. When we see one of our female athletes that are already on their 3rd ACL at the age of 18… you know that they are loose jointed or hyperlax. In fact, athletes in many sports that meet criteria for being loose jointed are more than 4 times more likely to tear their ACL than athletes that are not loose jointed.
Back to some good news…. loose jointed people are much less likely to develop arthritis later in life. So, while these athletes are more likely to tear their ligaments and dislocate their shoulders, they are much less likely to require joint replacements down the line.
Thanks for taking the time to read this little blog. As always, please do not hesitate to give me some feedback!
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