by Dr. Kevin Lau
The worldwide prevalence of scoliosis has
been rising for the last few years. The figures are very telling. The most recent
statistics reveal that the United States has the highest number of deaths
caused by scoliosis in the world (245) followed by Spain and Germany (both with
44 deaths). Putting each country's current population in the equation means
that Germany has the highest percentage of deaths caused by scoliosis in the
world, followed by Spain and then the United States.
This is because scoliosis is much more than
having an unsightly “C” or “S” curve along the spine or experiencing
excruciating back pain. If severe, scoliosis can have serious health
complications such as respiratory,
cardiovascular, and neurological damage, all of which can shorten life
expectancy among sufferers.
But then again the deaths attributed to
scoliosis could have been caused by wrong treatments. This is what happens when
the proposed solutions aggravate or worsen the very problem they're supposed to
amend. The objective of mainstream scoliosis treatments is to arrest the
progression of the curvature, not for the patient to end up in greater disability.
The latter, however, is what is happening in a lot of cases. Instead of
experiencing relief from pain and discomfort scoliotic patients end up being
handicapped for life, either physically, emotionally, or both. Worse, they can
even end up dead.
An important question to ask is why doctors
wait before treating the curvature when they can do so much during the
observation period to prevent the condition from getting worse. Early treatment
will obviate the “need” for bracing and surgery. Also, your doctor telling you
to wait and see if your curvature is going to progress or not is just as
unsettling as your gynecologist telling you to wait in a few years whether the
mass in your breast will become malignant or not.
It should not matter if the curvature is
below 25 degrees. It still needs to be treated. Trivializing mild scoliosis
with the knowledge of the high ineluctability of it progressing into moderate
scoliosis is a deliberate act of medical neglect. This is the stage when the
curvature in the spine is the easiest to reverse. It doesn't make sense to wait
for the scoliosis to worsen when the standard available treatments for moderate
to severe scoliosis are not just a huge waste of investment of time but money
as well, given the cost, inefficacy, and the serious health risks that bracing
and spinal surgery bring.
The problem is that
bracing and surgery are at their best only marginally effective, but at their
worst are devastatingly regrettable treatment options. Knowing that scoliosis
doesn't respond well to the two mainstream options for managing and treating
advanced scoliosis should prod the medical community to rethink the entire
wait-and-see approach.
Spinal braces are, so
to speak, ill-fitting armors regardless of the type or model the patient
is using. Apart
from being uncomfortable, braces can severely restrict upper body movement, resulting in muscle atrophy and
loss of spinal flexibility. Wearing a spinal brace unfortunately carries a
stigma with it as well, since it is not as socially acceptable as dental braces
due to its conspicuousness. This is why a lot of adolescents who wore braces to
correct their spine end up with emotional trauma, something that they and their
families would have to deal with apart from the frustrating and disappointing
results that bracing often brings.
Bracing is supposed to deter spinal surgery
in people with moderate curvatures. This
is not the case however, as only one third of the 70,000 spinal surgeries
performed annually are due to severe scoliosis. This means that two thirds of
the scoliotic patients who underwent surgery were only suffering from moderate
scoliosis, which should have been managed by bracing if it is truly effective.
Now let's go to surgery. It goes without
saying that all invasive procedures are inherently risky, and that
complications are not limited to the possible adverse reactions to anaesthesia.
The dismaying fact is that the exorbitant cost of spinal surgery does not
guarantee successful long-term results. It isn't botch-proof either. One wrong
poke along the delicate spine and the patient can end up paralyzed, even dead
in a few days or weeks after suffering from neurological complications via
bungled procedures. Death can also take place after a longer period as in the
case of cancer developing 2 or 3 years
after grafting genetically modified protein
into the patient's spine, a required procedure to make certain surgical devices work.
As responsible healthcare providers doctors
should educate their patients about all the possible consequences of
conventional treatment options. The problem is that many times patients
are not given an objective and comprehensive orientation regarding the pros and
cons of bracing and spinal surgery. This keeps them from making a rational and
truly informed decision.
For example, scoliosis
patients should be fully educated about the possible and inevitable negative
consequences of having moderate to severe scoliosis. For one,
moderate scoliosis has been shown to greatly impair mobility and limit the
physical capacity in female sufferers. The under 25-degree curvature should
never be allowed to progress. It gets more bleak for those who are suffering
from severe scoliosis. Spinal surgeries that involve the use of rods completely
mangle the spinal structure, warranting more surgeries if problems occur with
the implanted rods as the spine will not be able to function anymore without
the rods. Elderly scoliotic patients who have undergone spinal surgery are very
susceptible to failed back surgery syndrome, an irreversible condition
characterized by chronic, debilitating lower
back and limb pain and neurological damage.
All these could be
averted if scoliosis is detected and treated in its early stages. The thing is
that the prevailing medical system does not encourage doctors to practice
prevention or early treatment because there isn't much money in either. There
would be no surgeries to perform. Surgeons after all cut people open to
make a living. And no braces or surgical
implants to get bribe or royalties from either. Orthos are getting rich, either
through royalties for inventing new appliances for spinal surgery that are very
expensive but are not guaranteed to be safe, or through the bribe money given
by medical companies for them to endorse or utilize their patented rods. This
is why some doctors aggressively push treatments that make a lot of patients
end up much worse than they originally were prior to either bracing or surgery.
What accounts for the very limited number
of treatment options for scoliosis is the failure to understand biological diversity among
patients. Giving them a standardized,
across-the-board treatment with no regard to their biochemical and genetic
uniqueness is therefore bound to fail.
Treatments should be adapted to the patient, not the other way around.
The good news is that it is possible to
curb the curve without any help from drugs, surgery, or bracing. Yes, scoliosis
can be treated and reversed naturally with cost-effective methods. The keys are
early detection, pro-active prevention, and complementary treatment protocols
that are highly customized to suit patient individuality. While results may
take a few months to be truly noticeable, the benefits can be sustained
indefinitely unlike with bracing and surgery as long as the patient is diligent
with the protocols.
Spinal manipulation through chiropractic
can work wonders on a scoliotic spine not just by managing back pain but in
restoring spinal integrity as well. But not any kind of spinal manipulation
will do. It has to be performed by a chiropractor highly trained in modern, advanced
techniques that involve low force and specialized adjustments as standard
chiropractic manipulations can lead to further instability, causing the spine
to bend further. Typical or traditional chiropractic
adjustments have been proven to be ineffective, and can sometimes even be
harmful to the scoliotic patient due to the unhinging of stable vertebrae.
While this may cause pain relief in the short term, the usual long-term result
is the progression of the Cobb angle or increased severity of the scoliotic
curve. Effective chiropractic techniques are not focused on relieving pain.
This is certainly one of the end results
of correcting scoliosis, but the two bigger goals really are to restore the
structural integrity of a subluxated spine because humans are meant to have
straight, healthy spines, and also to avert life-threatening complications and
secondary health problems associated with having a misaligned spine.
Well-trained and updated practitioners should be committed to achieving
structural changes to the spine that will allow the body to de-rotate and to
correct itself. Such chiropractors would also use specific, reproducible
precision x-rays that are analyzed according to exact guidelines to measure and
quantify the positive changes.
Specially designed back exercises that are
performed religiously by the patient build stronger back muscles, develop
spinal flexibility, and promote proper posture.
Spinal stabilization and coordination are also improved through fitness
conditioning and functional training. Unique stretching and core stabilizing
exercises can work wonders in realigning a subluxated spine. Nutritional therapy and supplementation to
correct deficiencies that compromise spinal health can yield results that are
nothing short of amazing. That's because dietary modifications as determined by
metabolic typing have an added boon. Unintended benefits include the mitigation
or complete healing of other health conditions such as depression, diabetes,
hypertension, and heart disease.
Another great thing about natural
strategies is that they can be empowering for patients. They start to realize
that they can control the outcome of their treatments. This contributes a lot
to their success in reversing their scoliosis. With the proper guidance and
support of their chiropractor they come to accept and delight in the fact that
their health is truly in their hands.
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1 comment:
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