Your Child and Self Diagnosis for Scoliosis

It is understandable that a parent may feel a little distressed if they believe that their child has scoliosis, however it is vitally important that you know the difference between a self diagnosis and that carried out by a physician.

Scoliosis is a condition of the spine that can cause great discomfort and stress to the sufferer. The curving of the spine is something that can affect young people from a relatively early age, and cause great self conscious embarrassment and anxiety. This is the reason why so many people opt to have a screening for it as early as possible. This article looks at ways in which scoliosis is screened for, and how you can even make some attempt to carry out a self screening process, one that may even do as good a job as that which the medical professional will do. It must be stated that if you do opt for any kind of self screening process, it is important that you also gain the advice of a medical professional. This kind of advice can never be substituted for your own assessment, so it is vital that you follow up any self screening with a visit to your local physician if you are concerned about scoliosis.

Scoliosis Surgery - Is It Worth the Cost?

Sometimes the remedy can be worse than the disease

It is about a ten-hour surgery in which they open you up on your side and on your back. In my particular surgery they would put three rods in my back and hold them together with five screws. In order to help my bone grow they took out one of my ribs and six of my discs, and they also took a bone graft from my lower hip (right on my butt). They took this bone and filled three cages that hold the bone which are in between the vertebra.....

- Culled from Scoliosis Surgery: Corey McConnell's Experience

If it sounds, gruesome, remember this is just the beginning. Corrective spinal surgery for scoliosis can be quite a distressing experience for adolescent patients and their parents. Spinal surgery often involves an extensive amount of tissue and bone trauma that can result in excreting pain that the patient simply has to live with.

Worse, there is no guarantee that despite the steep cost of spinal surgery, the results would be as expected. In many cases, the remedy can be worse than the disease.

Then why do so many scoliosis patients continue to opt for spinal surgery?

Top 10 Tips and Advice for Easing Pregnancy for Scoliosis Sufferers

Back pain during pregnancy is not a new concept, but for people who suffer from scoliosis require a second thought to be given before, they plan to go through the process of pregnancy. Scoliosis is the disease of the spine in which the posture of the spine is deviated to form S or C shaped curvature, which can turn to be quite painful during pregnancy. However, this is not a reason that why you should postpone your pregnancy, as you can still go through pregnancy by using proper pain management techniques.

Back pain during pregnancy is a normal phenomenon that requires no fear. All the discomforts that you will be facing during pregnancy are because of the pressure that your little one inside your tummy is going to cause. Moreover, if you are a scoliosis patient then the chances of increased back pain is higher than what you would normally expect leaving you with a question of whether the back pain is owing to scoliosis or pregnancy. On the other hand, you will find pregnancy stabilizes scoliosis because of the transition that your body will be going through as a result of the hormonal fluctuations. If only you can follow these top ten tips to manage your back pain during pregnancy, and care should be taken with your scoliosis prescription, which may occasionally cause birth defects.

However, the discussion on back pain management tips will help to alleviate the problem of scoliosis. But before that there are three types of back pain – acute if the back pain does not last longer than three months, recurrent if the back pain occurs repeatedly and chronic back pain, which lasts longer than three months.

New Genetic Testing Shows Scoliosis Bracing Is Not Effective

Scoliosis is known by the curvature of a person’s spine. Scoliosis can be discovered at birth, while in the womb the bones of the spine fail to form properly or the ribs fuse together leading to congenital scoliosis. The condition poses minimal risk to infants and young children of both genders.

Neuromuscular scoliosis refers to muscle problems such as poor muscle control, muscle weaknesses and muscle paralysis caused by certain diseases (spina bifida, muscular dystrophy and polio). Idiopathic scoliosis has no cause and is frequently observed in adolescents, the majority being young girls. The spinal curves worsen as adolescents grow. The braces are less helpful to overweight patients afflicted with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Treatment varies according to the cause of the scoliosis, the size and location on the spine and the growth rate of the patient. For curves between 24 to 40 degrees in adolescents, body braces are one of the advised methods used by doctors to stop the advancement of spine curving. Boston Brace, Milwaukee Brace, Wilmington Brace and Charleston Brace are the different types of braces. Each brace has an individual function and the patients’ health care provider has to choose the most suitable one for the patient.

Medical reports say the scoliosis brace applies pressure at certain points to straighten the spine. The importance of the brace is that it is adjustable as the patient matures.

Can Inflammation in this Organ be at the Root of Your Depression?

By Dr. Mercola | September 20 2011

Recent studies have shown that inflammation may be involved in the pathogenesis of depression. In fact, some research has demonstrated that depression is frequently associated with gastrointestinal inflammations and autoimmune diseases as well as with other ailments in which chronic low-grade inflammation is a significant contributing factor.

It is possible that depression could be a neuropsychiatric manifestation of a chronic inflammatory syndrome. And the primary cause of inflammation may be the dysfunction of the "gut-brain axis".

According to a study reprinted on the website Green Med InfoL

“... [A]n increasing number of clinical studies have shown that treating gastrointestinal inflammations with probiotics, vitamin B, D and omega 3 fatty acids, through attenuating proinflammatory stimuli to brain, may also improve depression symptoms and quality of life. All these findings justify an assumption that treating gastrointestinal inflammations may improve the efficacy of the currently used treatment modalities of depression and related diseases.”

Orvosi hetilap September 8, 2011; 152(37): 1477-1485 

Stress and aggressive breast cancer go together, study finds

By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times/For the Booster Shots blog

September 19, 2011, 1:47 p.m.

Could stress play a role in the development of breast cancer?

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicagowondered about this. After all, the components of what experts call “psychosocial stress” – including fear, anxietyand isolation – could take a toll on the autonomic nervous system, which helps regulate heart rate, respiration and other important bodily functions.

So they found 989 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the previous three months and asked them a lot of questions to assess their level of stress. It turned out that there was an association between stress and the disease – the women who scored highest for stress were more likely to have a more aggressive form of breast cancer.

More specifically, the researchers found that stressed women were 38% more likely to have cancers that were estrogen receptor-negative. These tumors do not respond to therapies aimed at cutting off estrogen, which means that drugs likeTamoxifen, raloxifene (Evista), Arimidex and others will not help. After taking into account things like the women’s age and the stage of their cancer when it was diagnosed, the women who were more stressed were still 22% more likely to have cancers that were estrogen receptor-negative.

Kids who drink raw milk have less asthma, allergies

By Frederik Joelving

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who drink raw milk are less likely to develop asthma and allergies than those who stick to the safer pasteurized version, according to a large European study.

Although the study isn't ironclad proof that the effects can be chalked up to raw milk itself, researchers believe certain milk proteins that are destroyed by heat could be helpful to children's developing immune systems.

They warn, however, that parents shouldn't start giving their kids raw milk.

"The consumption of raw milk is a double-edged sword," Georg Loss, a researcher with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel who worked on the study, told Reuters Health by email.

"On the one side it is protective for the development of asthma and allergies but on the other side it may imply serious health risks due to harmful microorganisms."

Raw milk proponents claim the drink has several health benefits -- among them reducing asthma symptoms -- that aren't found in the pasteurized milk sold in most grocery stores.

Do Drugs for Diabetes Actually Cause Pancreatic Cancer?

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 | BY ALARIC DEARMENT

LOS ANGELES — Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles said they have found a possible link between two newer drugs for Type 2 diabetes and cancers of the pancreas and thyroid, according to a new study published in the journalGastroenterology.

The researchers, at UCLA's Larry L. Hillblom Islet Research Center, examined incidents reported in the Food and Drug Administration's adverse event database between 2004 and 2009 among patients using Byetta (exenatide), made by Eli Lilly and Amylin Pharmaceuticals, and Merck's Januvia (sitagliptin).

"We undertook these studies because several studies in animal models by several investigators had suggested that this form of therapy may have unintended actions to promote growth of the ducts in the pancreatic gland that convey digestive juices from the pancreas to the gut," study co-author and Hillblom Center director Peter Butler said. "This is a concern if it happens in humans since it might be expected to increase the risk for pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. While the FDA database has limitations, it does have advantages in being very large, openly accessible and independent from companies that market the drugs."

5 Foods That Can Trigger a Stroke

By Melanie Haiken, Caring.com

Tue, Sep 06, 2011

Few things feel more terrifying and random than a stroke, which can strike without warning. And fear of stroke -- when a blood vessel in or leading to the brain bursts or is blocked by a blood clot, starving brain cells of oxygen and nutrients -- is well founded. After all, stroke is the number-three killer in the U.S., affecting more than 700,000 people each year. Here are five foods that cause the damage that leads to stroke.

1. Crackers, chips, and store-bought pastries and baked goods

Muffins, doughnuts, chips, crackers, and many other baked goods are high in trans fats, which are hydrogenated oils popular with commercial bakeries because they stay solid at room temperature, so the products don't require refrigeration. Also listed on labels as "partially hydrogenated" or hydrogenated oils, trans fats are found in all kinds of snack foods, frozen foods, and baked goods, including salad dressings, microwave popcorn, stuffing mixes, frozen tater tots and French fries, cake mixes, and whipped toppings. They're also what makes margarine stay in a solid cube. The worst offenders are fried fast foods such as onion rings, French fries, and fried chicken.

Why it's bad

For years scientists have known trans fats are dangerous artery-blockers, upping the concentrations of lipids and bad cholesterol in the blood and loweringgood cholesterol. Now we can add stroke to the list of dangers. This year researchers at the University of North Carolina found that women who ate 7 grams of trans fat each day -- about the amount in two doughnuts or half a serving of French fries -- had 30 percent more strokes (the ischemic type, caused by blocked blood flow to the brain) than women who ate just 1 gram a day. Another recent study, also in women, found that trans fats promoted inflammation and higher levels of C-reactive protein, which have been linked to an increased risk ofdiabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

The key to successful scoliosis treatment management lies with avoiding status quo thinking and gaining a current understanding of what scoliosis statistical analysis using genetic predisposition is all about and those environmental factors that are most influential on the progressive nature of the scoliosis condition. Following medical doctors orders when it comes to scoliosis treatment recommendations will most often lead to frustration, anxiety, and poor outcomes.