Friday, April 8, 2011

Scoliosis Treatment needs to be safe, effective, targeted, and practical for the "everyday" life of today's teenagers

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