The disease of scoliosis renders many symptoms and side effects which people do not fully understand. The lack of understanding results in people's disregard of the symptoms.
Persons who have scoliosis find that their daily functions are altered, but looked upon as everything is normal.
For example, “Oh, my kid sleeps late in the morning, I can’t get her out of bed, she’s cranky, and won’t eat breakfast.” Typical teenager, right?
Oh no this is not typical of normal healthy teenager.
Do you typically hear this?
“My back pain is becoming greater because I’m getting older. I’m so tired and I have headaches all the time, I’m told that I’m going to have to learn to live with it.”
These are just a few of the complaints that I hear in my practice. The list continues from insomnia, mood swings, chronic fatigue, thyroid problems, ADD, sciatic leg pain, neck and low back pain, stomach pain, asthma and being a night owl.
For full list of scoliosis symptoms visit http://www.scoliosis.com/explore.cfm/treatment/scoliosissymptoms
Have you been told by your doctor or health care provider, “I can give you something for that problem but it’s not your scoliosis, or scoliosis is only a curve in your spine and “it’s all in your head.”
Yes, these symptoms exist, along with many others that intertwine with one’s neurological system, muscular/skeletal, digestive, and hormonal system.
To conquer the complexities of scoliosis, education, persistence, and good knowledge based decisions are of the utmost.
We Take the Fear and Worry Out of Scoliosis
Dr. Art Copes
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July 18, 2007
Scoliosis has a nasty way of making your body move and work differently than other people’s.
“Why is it when I walk hand in hand, I always bump into my partner?
People don’t understand when I walk that I some times run into things, and I don’t mean to. When I dance I just can’t do the moves quite right. I just can’t seem to play ball or computer games well.”
These conditions are due to balancing problems, hand-eye coordination problems, righting reflex. To help other people understand these problems, you must first familiarize yourself with the neurological aspect of the disease. Then let them know why.
“Along with feeling klutzy, I really like staying awake late into the early morning hours. Falling asleep is hard to do and I really don’t feel rested when I get up the next day.”
Parents and spouses may not recognize these as symptoms of scoliosis. Arguing and screaming at them will only increase their hormonal imbalance of the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems.
Certain foods, diet, and proper supplementation can help control the hormonal imbalance. There are many additional hormonal imbalances, which affect the body of scoliosis and should be understood before attempting to help others understand the disease of scoliosis.
There is an abundance of information on our website (www.scoliosis.com) where one can learn about scoliosis to help you understand how the disease of scoliosis affects each individual.
We Take the Fear and Worry Out of Scoliosis
Dr. Art
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July 25, 2007
Have you asked your doctor why one of your hips seem to be higher than the
other?
Have you looked in a full-length mirror and your dress hem seems higher on one
side versus the other, and you know that the dress has equal length?
Have you noticed that your hip hugger jeans are somewhat slanted to one side and
make you feel different?
Ok, lets look into the bones and muscles of the lower torso. Please remember
that one must keep a simple understanding of the structure and not make this too
complex. Picture in your mind that the pelvis is made of three large bones that
connect together and shape somewhat like a large bowl.
These three bones are known collectively as the pelvic girdle. They are called
the left and right Ilium and the sacrum. The Ilium is about the size of your
hand.
Next is the sacrum, again a little smaller than the palm of your hand, but shaped like a “C”, spade. Sitting on the back part of the bowl is the sacrum/spine. The sacrum is the foundation of the spine and moves very little with the other two larger bones.
Moving forward to the sides of the bowl are the
right and left Iliums. Attached to the Iliums are the hip sockets (acetabulum).
As you know, attached into the acetabulum are the “thigh” bones (femur).
Please see the picture at the top of this post.
There is a muscle that attaches from the front
of the lower spine (lumbar) to the inside of the femur and parts of the back of
the Ilium. This muscle is called the psoas and it is considered the lower spine
stabilizer. It also performs other actions, but to keep it simple we will leave
it in this fashion.
In scoliosis, short-leg syndromes arise from the psoas imbalance. This psoas
imbalance is caused by the spinal curve. As the spine curves, the psoas muscle
begins to be pulled by the curving spine.
As the psoas pulls over, the pelvic girdle is pulled by the psoas causing an elevation in the iliac crests of the ilium attached to that muscle.
Since the femoral head attaches within the hip
socket, which is part of the pelvis, when the pelvis is shifted to an uneven
level, so are the legs.
Additional factors may cause short leg syndrome but the above information is
considered the primary cause.
What should one do to counter this scolotic problem and additional causes of
short leg syndrome will be discussed in a future blog post.
We Take the Fear and Worry Out of Scoliosis
Dr. Art Copes
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July 31, 2007
In making a good decision in scoliosis care, one should become comfortable with the verbiage often used to explain scoliosis. An understanding of the terms used may increase communication with your health care provider and ease some of the fear surrounding scoliosis.
We will begin with a small list and continue to increase as time moves on.
If you have any inquires or terms you would like us to define please e-mail Bradc@scoliosis.com or visit www.Scoliosis.com
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Cervical: The neck region of the spine that is located between the head and the chest. Vertebral bodies known as C1-C7.
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Thoracic: This is the chest level region of the spine that is located between the cervical and the lumbar vertebra. Includes vertebral bodies T1-T12. The ribs are attached to these vertebrae.
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Lumbar: The lower part of the spine between the thoracic region and the sacrum. Includes vertebral bodies L1-L5. These vertebral bodies are the largest in width and height of all the spinal vertebra.
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Sacrum: Curved triangular bone at the base of the spine, the rest of the spine sits upon this area. Consisting of five fused vertebrae known as sacral vertebrae. The sacrum moves with the last lumbar vertebra and laterally with the pelvic bones.
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Ilium: The large, wing-like bones of the pelvis, connected by the sacrum. This is what we think of as the hip bones.
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Iliac Crest: Top edge of the hipbone (Ilium).
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Femur: This is what we think of as the thigh bone. It is the longest and thickest bone of the human skeleton; extends from the pelvis to the knee.
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Spinal Vertebral Rotation: This is the rotation of vertebral bodies clockwise and counter clockwise upon the long axis of the spine.
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Thoracolumbar: If a curve is defined as thoracolumbar it is any curvature starting in the thoracic spine and moving through the lumbar spine, such as a T8 through L3, a large “C” curve.
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Apex of the curve: This is known as the center of the curve and may be the greatest distance from the center line of the spinal gravitational line. The gravitational line extends from the center of the skull to the center of the pelvis. For example, a curve starts at T1 and moves to T5, the center would be T2, which is the apex of the curve.
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Lateral View: Side view, looking at the side of the body.
Please do not let the large terms scare you.
We Take the Fear and Worry Out of Scoliosis
Dr. Art Copes
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