Scoliosis

Mirrored from Aurametrix

According to the National Scoliosis Foundation, scoliosis, a condition that causes an abnormal curvature of the spine, affects approximately 3% of the U.S. population, which roughly equals 6 million people.

Scoliosis impacts infants, adolescents, and adults of all races and socio-economic status. The primary age of onset for scoliosis is 10-15 years old, occurring equally among both genders. However, females are eight times more likely to progress to a curve magnitude that requires treatment.

Scoliosis can impact the quality of life with limited activity, pain, reduced respiratory function, or diminished self-esteem.

The vast majority of people with this condition (if they are still growing and the severity of spinal curvature is less than 25 degrees) are not expected to require treatment. Observation is also the preferred option for moderate curvature (less than 40 to 45 degrees) in people who have finished growing. In some cases, the observed curve is temporary, resulting from inflammation, muscle spasms or having one leg that is longer than the other. Patients who are diagnosed with scoliosis, however, should be examined regularly, about every four to six months, to make sure that the curvature hasn’t worsened.

Exercise can reduce the symptoms. Significant curve reduction due to specialized strength training was reported by a spine clinic in San Diego. A study from the University of Athens on aerobic training for patients with idiopathic scoliosis showed that the ability to perform perform aerobic work increased 48.1% in the training group, while it decreased 9.2% in the control group.

New treatments are also emerging. The SpineCorporation LTD, developer of the SpineCor brace for adolescent Scoliosis, recently released the first Dynamic Flexible Adult Scoliosis Brace (shown on the left).

Scoliosis is closely linked to low bone densities, yet we know that bone densities are influenced by a wide variety of overlapping factors that includes genes, estrogen levels, nutrition, exercise levels and drugs. We still do not know who will get it, why they get it, which will progress, or how far they will progress. In animal studies, scoliosis is known to be caused by a wide variety of conditions including lack of physical activity, pesticide exposure and nutritional deficiencies. Some of these are the same conditions, especially the lack of exercise and nutritional deficiencies, that are known to lower bone densities in humans.

Scoliosis has been induced in a variety of animals through the creation of nutritional deficits and imbalances.

Scoliosis is a multifactorial disorder, which requires multidisciplinary research and treatment.

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