Dr. Emily Savage of Revive Upper Cervical Talks About Scoliosis. Scoliosis is an abnormal lateral curvature of the spine. You can also notice this when there is an unequal level of the shoulders and the pelvis, which then translates down to the legs and feet. Several factors can cause Scoliosis.
According to a 2021 study published by the Journal of Musculoskeletal Disorders and Treatments, a subtle neurological imbalance of the bilateral peripheral muscle tone could be a plausible causative factor for scoliotic deformation initiation.
Spinal growth and imbalance of the paraspinal muscles both result in biomechanical instability, leading to the progression of the scoliotic curve. The craniocervical junction misalignment may induce a neuromuscular imbalance leading to functional leg length discrepancy and is associated with Scoliosis.
Watch the Full Video to find out more – transcript is below
Hey everyone, Dr. Emily Savage here with Revive Upper Cervical Chiropractic in Cranberry Twp. All month long we’ve been having different conversations about men’s health. But one of the topics we like to highlight is scoliosis.
There’s an old adage that says as the twig is bent, so grows the tree. As chiropractors, we often find that a particular sentiment holds a lot of weight on our profession. When I ask if you have any idea as to what scoliosis is, most people have a general understanding of what it is.
If I ask, what causes scoliosis, it’s a little bit of a different question. When we look at the spine from the side, we do want there to be curves in it. You should have a curve in your neck and lower back. You should have a curve in the opposite direction and in the mid back.
These curves are really great! They’re designed for support and adding some flexibility to the spine, but they’re also great for some absorption of kind of allowing a more equal distribution of the forces that we encounter on a day to day basis, like gravity.
When we look at the spine from the front, you actually want it to be more straight up and down. When we start to see side to side deviations and shifts in the spine, that’s when we start to think more about scoliosis.
If you look at the little blue figure, you’ll notice he has some curves in his spine that are going out from side to side or causing a little bit of head tilt. There is an unequal level of the shoulders as well as in the pelvis, which then translates all the way down to the legs and the feet.
So there are several factors that can cause scoliosis.
- Congenital – Disease or physical abnormality presented from birth
- Structural – when part of individual chromosomes are either missing, have extra, switched with other chromosomes, or turned upside down
- Neurological – relating to the neurons of the brain
In a 2021 study published by the Journal of Musculoskeletal Disorders and Treatments, they looked a lot at biochemical concepts that are kind of at play when it comes to initiating and progressing scoliosis.
One of those was named a neurological imbalance. A subtle neurological imbalance of the bilateral peripheral muscle tone could be a plausible cause factor for scoliotic deformation initiation. Basically what that means is that there’s an unequal muscle tone of the muscles running right up and down alongside the spine that can start that leaning shifting of the spine.
Spinal growth and imbalance of the paraspinal muscles both result in biochemical instability, leading to progression of the scoliotic curve. As you continue that kind of imbalance from side to side, one side of those muscles are going to contract and strengthen and kind of grow, almost.
One side grows in strength and then the other side is being a little bit more stretched out so they’re not doing their job as well.
We’ve got postural reflex centers in the brain that are responsible for helping us to stay upright and maintaining every aspect of our posture. They stated that the upper cervical cranio, cervical junction misalignment may induce a neuromuscular imbalance leading to functional leg length discrepancies and is associated with scoliosis.
Basically, it really brings to the surface the importance of getting the spine checked – especially in patients who may already have scoliosis or children that are growing and developing right.
That small upper cervical misalignment can cause alterations in posture and muscle tone and that can have downstream effects all the way down to looking at leg length and equality.
One of the other aspects of scoliosis and its development that the study reviewed was different activities, and how they can be related to that progression and initiation.
Over time, stress may cause compression of the osseous structures and contribute to vertebral wedging, which basically says your bones can become deformed and a little bit unlevel and kind of start to wedge. This is going to lead to a progression of that side to side curve.
They look not just at stress, but how unequal it is. What causes these things oftentimes in kids is carrying a bookbag. Maybe not carrying it with both straps on all the time, but carrying it on one side and allowing all of the stress to be absorbed by one side only.
At Revive UCC in Cranberry Twp, we evaluate the thermal imbalance or the temperature balance on either side of the spine at every visit, but we also look at the posture balance at every visit when we look at leg checks. All of these things have been known to change before and after adjustments.
It’s really important to make sure that your spine is in alignment. When the spine is in alignment, you have proper communication between the brain and the body. Therefore, you won’t have that neurological imbalance that allows for that abnormal contracture of different muscles which may lead to the development of scoliosis.
If you or anyone you know may be looking for different treatment options that aren’t surgery for scoliosis, please share this video with them because we would love to help them either here or give them somebody locally out their way that could help them as well.
If you are in or around the Cranberry Township area and are looking for an opinion regarding a concussion or recovery from an accident. In that case, you can visit Dr. Bulow at the Revive Upper Cervical Chiropractic. Our practice is open Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 9 am to 6 pm; Wednesday from 1 pm to 6 pm. You can also drop by on Fridays between 9 am to 12 noon.
To schedule a consultation with Revive Upper Cervical Chiropractic, call 724-302-3628, or just click the button below.
If you are outside of the local area, you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.
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