#beighton score

[3liza]

apparently the standardized Adverse Childhood Event questionnaire doesnt include things like non-abuse-related physical injury or house fires or natural disasters? this is about as useful as the Beighton score i guess

[detsolkongen]

I read your post about your snapping hip. Are you hypermobile?

No, I am not. I am only a mere 3/9 on the Beighton score (a scale that I took in physio to measure hypermobility) and was never the bendy type even throughout childhood. I currently only have localized hypermobility in my left arm and hand, along with hitchhiker’s thumbs on both. I’ll talk more about this.

I was in physio for wholly different reasons than hypermobility, but I had to go through the test anyways due to suspicion. The test came out, and it turned out that I was not. The main reason I was in physio in the first place was due to dyspraxia, which is a coordination disorder that causes clumsiness and motor delay. The snapping hip that I have comes from the low muscle tone we dyspraxics often have. It’s due to the weakness of my hip abductors, which resulted in extremely tight IT band tendons. The tendon is what makes the hip snap when we flex it. I was a floppy baby. However, I could never do those tricks where kids moved their shoulders in weird ways over their heads, I couldn’t bend my fingers back until they touched the back of my hand, I couldn’t grasp my hands together at the back, I always needed a back scratcher which I borrowed from my dad, I couldn’t do the splits, and I sucked at gymnastics. Snapping my hip was literally the only party trick that I could actually do as a kid that freaked people out.

Speaking about what I wrote previously, I have localized hypermobility in my left arm and hand. I can put my thumb from that hand to my forearm and pinky from that hand backward at a 90º angle. I am also bendy at that elbow. The other hand is so stiff that my knuckles won’t even bend backward if I press on them. The elbow also won’t bend backward there either. I don’t understand why this is, but maybe because one is weaker than the other due to hand dominance.

[fatal-blow]

actually what if i made the Beighton Score poll but I explained it better

If you want to participate, please read closely! I suspect a lot of people are missing certain instructions when they try out the Beighton Score!

1. Each individual joint is 1 point. If BOTH of your elbows bend backwards, then you count TWO points, one for each.

2. If you USED TO be able to do it, but can no longer, THAT POINT STILL COUNTS.

3. If you suspect you are hypermobile, check out THIS POST for some important reading about the nature of hypermobility. Even most doctors don't realize the way hypermobility impacts a person's health.

4. If you are hypermobile, it is worth your time to check out THIS POST about Morton's Foot Syndrome. This syndrome, when paired with hypermobility, can fuck you up for real, causing widespread pain and disability.

Now with that out of the way...

What's your Beighton Score?

0

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9

Unsure/nuance/etc

spaghoobi

Voting ended onAug 11, 2024

[edswellness]

What is the Beighton Score?

What is the Beighton Score?

The Beighton Score is a clinical tool to assess Generalized Joint Hypermobility (GJH). The Beighton Score has been used for many years as an indicator of joint hypermobility syndrome. It can quickly and easily assess generalized joint hypermobility using a 9-point scale. It is used solely as a clinical resource and screening tool. Joints included are the thumb, spine, elbow, knee, and the base of…

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[ironicchillness]

[Description of images: woman performing the Beighton test (i.e. bending some joints so that they’re hyperextended) in a field - see more detail below]

I've been asked a number of times now by medical professionals and other people to demonstrate my hypermobility in various ways. Regular people ask me if I can put my feet behind my head. Medical professionals ask me to take the Beighton test. It's basically a test where you're asked to do some contortions, and if you can do 4 or more of them, then it's a sign of hypermobility/joint laxity/double-jointedness. By itself, it's actually no big deal. Hypermobility can give you a competitive advantage in activities like ballet or gymnastics or even swimming. But if you have hypermobility plus some other symptoms (particularly joint pain), it could indicate Joint Hypermobility Syndrome (JHS) or some sub-types of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS).  This post is to raise awareness of hypermobility, JHS, and EDS.

These pictures of me doing the Beighton test were originally for my own reference. I can't really see how hypermobile I am, nor can I always feel when I'm hyperextending, so it's good to have some images to help me calibrate my internal feelings with reality. I've tossed up whether or not I want to post them online because I feel it's problematic to 'model' hypermobility and to conflate these images with what EDS looks like. People with hypermobility are not put on this Earth to perform party tricks. And also, you can be hypermobile and not be particularly flexible. A lot of people with hypermobile joints have a lot of muscle tension because the muscles have to work much harder in order to keep their skeleton together. Tension makes performing some of the Beighton test items really tricky. In the end, I've decided that I'd post it because lots of people haven't heard of hypermobility, but lots of people have hypermobile joints. Sometimes EDS is called a rare condition, but in reality it's probably more underdiagnosed than rare. Again, this post is made to raise awareness of hypermobility, JHS, and EDS, BUT I also want to caution that manifestations of these conditions might not look the way I look. Just because you see yourself as unflexible, doesn't mean you can necessarily rule out hypermobility. Likewise, being super flexible (or even hypermobile) is not itself any cause of concern.

So here’s what these images are/mean in terms of the Beighton test:

Image One - 1 point for each elbow that extends backwards over 10 degrees.

Image Two - 1 point for each knee that extends backwards over 10 degrees. Now, this can be hard to see. Note that if you look at the back of my legs, my knees don't look like they're hyperextending. That's just because the backs of my legs are super curvy. To see the backwards, hyperextended angle, you have to look to the front of my legs.

Image Three - 1 point if your palms rest flat on the floor with knees extended. I feel like this is a super-problematic way of looking at hypermobility. I've tended to be able to touch my toes through my life, but probably at various times my hamstrings would have been too tight to get anywhere near to palms flat on the ground. Hamstring tightness is very common, and it obviously will affect your ability to do this. So can compression. If you have a bigger belly or thighs, it's harder to touch the ground because they'd get in the way. Sometimes it's better to look at the party tricks you were able to do as a kid. Could you do the splits, for example? I once caused myself a nosebleed by kicking myself in the face. That's not so much a party trick as peak uncoordination, but you get the idea.

Image Four - 1 point for each thumb that can reach your wrist.

Image Five - 1 point for each pinky finger that bends back beyond 90 degrees. This picture is interesting because the finger that's helping my pinky is also bending backwards. Interestingly, I can't do this movement with my left pinky, so my Beighton score is 8 out of 9. It can be much lower in people with hypermobility disorders.

[edswellness]

Research: Validation for the Use of Self-Reported Drawings of Beighton Score for Assessing Joint Hypermobility

‘Development and validation of self-reported line drawings of the modified Beighton score for the assessment of generalised joint hypermobility’ (2018) – Development_and_validation_of_self-reported_line_d (PDF)

“The self-reported instrument provides a valid and reliable assessment of the presence of generalised joint hypermobility and may have practical use in epidemiological studies.”

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[hypermobileyogi]

Beighton Score for Hypermobility

Beighton Score for Hypermobility  The Beighton Score has been used for many years as an indicator of joint hypermobility syndrome. Now, it is used more as a clinical tool to perform a quick assessment for generalized hypermobility; however, there are 2 key points to remember according to Hypermobility Syndromes Association’s website: “i. A high Beighton score by itself does not mean that an…

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[storiesfromazebra]

The Beighton Score

The Beighton score is what Is used to diagnose Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. people without EDS will normally score 1 or 2 points out of 9 but if you score 4 or above it indicates that you have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.

how the beighton score is calculated;

One point if while standing forward bending you can place palms on the ground with legs straight

One point for each elbow that bends backwards

One point for each knee that bends backwards

One point for each thumb that touches the forearm when bent backwards

One point for each little finger that bends backwards beyond 90 degrees