Scoliosis
SCOLIOSIS
Scoliosis is a side-to-side curve of your spine. This differs from your body’s natural front-to-back curve. It’s usually mild and doesn’t cause symptoms, but it can lead to back pain and abnormal posture. A healthcare provider most often diagnoses this condition during adolescence. Treatment includes physical therapy, braces and surgery.
While scoliosis is not a disease, in rare cases it can be caused by a disease.


Types of SCOLIOSIS:
Structural scoliosis involves spinal rotation in addition to the side-to-side curvature of the spine.
This type of scoliosis affects the spine’s structure and is considered permanent unless the spine receives treatment.
Structural scoliosis is typically considered more serious because it does not straighten out on its own and can potentially result in more spinal deformity.
Structural scoliosis usually develops from an unknown cause during adolescence or from spinal degeneration during adulthood.

Types:
Treatment
Structural scoliosis cannot be ‘fixed’ in the curative sense, but rather ‘managed’ to control progression and achieve a curvature reduction, which would lessen/eliminate additional scoliosis-related symptoms.
It is important to acknowledge that chiropractic care may not provide significant benefits for certain types of scoliosis.
However, it is reassuring to know that chiropractic treatment can be advantageous for the most common form, which is known as idiopathic scoliosis.
Chiropractic adjustments, exercises, and complementary therapies can help improve spinal alignment, alleviate pain, enhance posture, and promote overall spinal health.
By seeking early intervention and actively participating in a personalized treatment plan, individuals with scoliosis can take proactive steps toward managing their condition and improving their quality of life.
When a person has functional scoliosis, they might present with an abnormal sideways curvature of the spine, but will have no spinal rotation, and the spine’s structure will still be normal.
Functional scoliosis is caused by a temporary cause, such as chronic bad posture, or another irregularity in the body such as leg-length discrepancy.
If a person with a functional scoliosis were to bend forward or lay down, the scoliosis curve would likely go away while held in that position.
This is by far the most common type of scoliosis, and the easiest to treat.
There is no evidence that a functional scoliosis can change to a structural scoliosis.
Common Causes of Functional Scoliosis
• Muscle spasms.
If a major muscle in the back starts to spasm, the spine could be pulled in one direction and a sideways curve may result


• Difference in leg lengths.
When one leg is significantly longer than the other, a scoliosis curve may be present while standing.
• Pelvic imbalance.
If there are structural issues with the muscles or joints of the foot, knee or hip it can cause the alignment of the pelvis can be influenced, causing a functional scoliosis.

• Inflammation.
If an area of the spine becomes very inflamed and swollen, a scoliosis curve can result, as the person will lean away from the area to relieve their pain.

Symptoms
Symptoms may include migraines, occasional vertigo, back pain, muscle spasms, different leg lengths.
Treatment
The good news is that functional scoliosis can be responsive to chiropractic’s non-invasive, conservative treatment with a real potential to straighten. It will also help prevent the curvature from getting worse and help manage your symptoms to improve your quality of life.
Once the underlying cause of a functional scoliosis is treated, the scoliosis will also go away.
Chiropractic Treatment
The primary goal of spinal manipulation is to free the injures area to move correctly again. This is an effective method of increasing the range of motion, which is usually restricted in people with scoliosis.
But scoliosis pain isn’t limited to your spinal column; your muscles and tendons are affected as well. Picture a metal spring connected to a network of rubber bands. By pulling the spring in one direction, the rubber bands on one side are stretched, while those on the other side contract.
This unnatural position leads to chronic back pain, muscle spasms, and trigger points that may even refer pain to other areas of the body.
If left untreated, spinal curvatures can get worse as the discs and vertebrae degenerate and gravity pulls the spine down further. In more severe cases, spinal deformity can even put pressure on the lungs or digestive system.
Once you understand why scoliosis is so painful, it’s easy to see how chiropractic care can help manage your symptoms.
Chiropractic care, on the other hand, offers a pro-active way to treat and correct scoliosis. Once the lateral curvature is less than 10º it is no longer considered scoliosis.