Safe and Effective Scoliosis Treatment in 30 Minutes a Day

Throughout the course of human history scoliosis treatment has been relatively ineffective, questionable in terms of patient safety, and quite frankly, inconvenient. For the past 436 years, scoliosis brace treatment has focused solely on attempts to “push” the scoliosis spine straight with little to no success and even to this day, most orthopedic scoliosis specialists recommend wearing a plastic scoliosis brace 23 hours a day (the 1 hour a day out of the scoliosis brace is presumably for bathing and possibly even taking a deep and full breath!). A significant percentage of scoliosis patients elect to undergo scoliosis surgery each year. (I believe the number ranges between 20,000 to 38,000 when including adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients only and combined with adult scoliosis patients respectively.) Scoliosis surgery is primarily indicated for cosmetic improvement of spinal deformity, not medical necessity, and the patient is left with a metal rod in their spine limiting activities of daily living for the rest of their life. Needless to say, there is a desperate(and long over-due) need for a safe and effective scoliosis treatment that can be achieved through a specific rehabilitation program that targets the root cause of the scoliosis spine condition and still allows for a idiopathic scoliosis patients to have a life in the meantime.

Scoliosis brace treatment and scoliosis surgery neither safe or effective treatment options for idiopathic scoliosis treatment. The first metal scoliosis brace was developed in 1575 by Ambrose Pare and the face of scoliosis treatment has taken on the image of young girls being stuffed into bulky, uncomfortable corset looking type devices with blank stares on their faces ever since. While there are often sacrifices and trade-offs in life that have to be made, scoliosis brace treatment shouldn’t be one of them. A genetic risk controlled (comparing patients with similar genetic pre-dispositions) study comparing scoliosis brace and un-treated scoliosis patients found that scoliosis brace patient’s actually slightly worse results than the un-treated group proving that scoliosis brace treatment has no effect on the curvature. In addition, a 2007 review of over 15 scoliosis brace studies, using various scoliosis braces, found that scoliosis brace treatment had no effect on reducing the “need” for scoliosis surgery, which has its own set of failures and complications. The first scoliosis surgery was performed the year of 1865 in France and actually spurred on the first ever orthopedic medical malpractice lawsuit (not a good sign). While the scoliosis surgery procedure has been greatly improved since that time it is still fraught with a high level of complications (one study found that 68% of all scoliosis surgery procedures was associated with at least one or more medical complication) and poor long-term results. A 2002 study found that 40% of post scoliosis surgery patients were legally defined as “severely handicapped” only 16.9 years after the scoliosis surgery. The scoliosis surgery treated patients whom don’t suffer from severe chronic pain have to be concerned with hardware failure (which is virtually 100% over a 50 year post operative life-span) and corrosion of the metal rods (a recent study found corrosion on 66.2% of all scoliosis surgery hardware removed from failed scoliosis surgery patients).

This is said that good “results” are a reflection of combining good “thought process” with good “application” (Process + Application = Results). It is clear that scoliosis brace treatment and scoliosis surgery aren’t yielding good results despite many, many, many different application attempts, so perhaps the scoliosis treatment failures of the past are the result of poor process. When examining the

“thought process” behind scoliosis brace treatment and scoliosis surgery it is clear these approaches fail simply, because they treat scoliosis solely as a “spine” problem, rather than a neurological problem. I know a lot of you are re-reading that sentence right now; because you probably think idiopathic scoliosis is solely a “spine” problem as well, so let me explain in a little more detail.

Idiopathic scoliosis is primarily a neurological problem that has its primary effects on the spine; which is to say, the spinal curve is a symptom of the disease, not the disease it’s self. For hundreds (if not thousands) of years researchers and health care professionals have struggled to understand the root cause of idiopathic scoliosis without much success. The examined the bones, discs, muscles, ligaments, tendons, hormones, ect in thousands of early stage scoliosis cases and found that everything is pretty much normal. There really doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with these kids scoliosis spines other than the fact that the spine is bending and twisting for no apparent reason when they start rapid growth through the adolescent years. However, a consensus of scoliosis researchers agree the root cause of the spinal curvature is most likely neurological under-development of the postural control centers in the brain stem and progression is most likely the result of genetic pre-disposition and environmental influences (bio-mechanical, bio-chemical, and activity level). Adulthood scoliosis spine progression is further increased by chronic mal-adaption of the bone and disc causing a wedging deformity.

Scoliosis treatment needs to be re-invented. Genetic testing for idiopathic scoliosis (Scoliscore) is a dramatic breakthrough in prognostic testing for idiopathic scoliosis and can now accurately identify the children with scoliosis whom are most genetically pre-disposed to developing a severe scoliosis spine. This is spell the end to “observation only” type protocols which simply “watch and wait” until the scoliosis spine gets “bad enough” to provide ineffective and intolerable scoliosis brace treatment. In fact, this would be the most optimal time to introduce an early stage scoliosis intervention program that focuses solely on the reduction and elimination of the environmental influences that actually drive the scoliosis spine, rather than only treating the curvature itself, and specifically targets the re-training of the (presumably) under-developed automatic postural control centers in the brain stem. This can actually targeted, postural center re-training rehabilitation approach can be accomplished quickly, conveniently, and in only 30 minutes a day (two 15 minute sessions to be exact).

The body has a certain “set point” for normal posture called the “body schema”. This is neurological imprint your body uses as a “normal” template to constantly re-adjust your spinal alignment to in relation to gravity. It primarily accomplishes this by “lining up” the various major center masses of the body (head, torso, pelvis) to achieve maximum balance and stability. It is possible to influence where the brain “perceives” the center mass of a given body part (let’s say the head for this example) by simply making it artificially heavier in a strategically placed area and letting the body neurologically “react” to the artificially created “new” center mass of the head. The postural control centers in the brain automatically react in an attempt to re-adjust the “body schema” to the old normal and in doing so over-compensates in a predictable manner that shifts the head’s center of mass to the desired position. This reaction becomes “engrained” in the body schema over time and the brain slow begins to adopt it as the “new normal”. The FITT (Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type) principle requires at least 15 minutes of training per session twice a day over the course of 90-120 days for the neuro-muscular adaption to become a “permanent” connection and then only one full 15 min training session one time per week to

maintain the neuro-muscular training effect. Safe and effective scoliosis treatment in only 30 minutes a day.

About the Author:

Treating Scoliosis.com offers alternatives to scoliosis surgery when treating scoliosis of the spine in adults and children. Visit our site http://www.treatingscoliosis.com for more information on our non-invasive scoliosis treatment plans.