Over the years, the medical community has expanded to embrace a number of alternative treatment options. As a condition with no known cause or cure, treating patients with scoliosis can be as complex as the condition itself. That being said, my alternative treatment approach for scoliosis uses natural means to control the condition’s progression.
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Scoliosis is a progressive condition; what that means is that it’s the nature of the condition to worsen over time. When a condition is defined as progressive, in the majority of cases, there is no known cure. If there was an effective treatment option that could stop the condition from progressing or reverse its effects permanently, that would be akin to curing it.
When it comes to treating progressive conditions like scoliosis, the focus then becomes how to manage living with the condition. Here at the Scoliosis Reduction Center, my treatment approach is about helping my patients live their best lives while working towards slowing or stopping the progression of the spinal curvature.
As there is still so much mystery surrounding the rate of progression and how much it varies from patient to patient, we customize every treatment plan to address the variables that affect each patient’s condition.
The harder my patients are willing to work, the better results they get. I’ve had the privilege of seeing many people’s hard work rewarded with a curvature reduction, improved overall function and mobility, and relief from pain and discomfort.
The challenge of treating any progressive condition is how to implement a treatment plan that stays ahead of the condition’s progression. As it’s the natural tendency of scoliosis to worsen, every effort has to be made to counteract that tendency.
No abnormal spinal curvature is going to correct itself, but the rates of progression can range from slow and barely noticeable to rapid and severe.
While there are some types of scoliosis with known causes, these cases are rare, and 80 percent of diagnosed cases are classed as ‘idiopathic’.
An idiopathic condition has no known single cause. Being diagnosed with an idiopathic condition can be hard for people to accept as they equate knowing a condition’s cause with control and effective treatment options.
While I can’t say it wouldn’t be beneficial to fully understand the condition’s root causes, I can say that even with that understanding, the treatment options wouldn’t necessarily change.
Scoliosis is best understood as a symptom of another cause or combination of causes. Just as a person gets a fever for a variety of reasons, scoliosis can develop due to a wide range of variables. While there’s no shortage of theories as to why scoliosis develops, right down to getting braces too early, there is no one proven theory accepted by experts as the dominant cause of the condition.
While idiopathic means no known ‘single’ cause, that doesn’t mean the condition has no known cause at all, or that it can’t have several causes; it means there isn’t one single causative source that can be isolated.
When it comes to scoliosis, the general consensus is that the condition likely develops due to a combination of variables that differ from patient to patient. Scoliosis is a complex condition that affects people in different ways that are challenging to predict.
While X-ray measurements can reveal how much a person is growing, how much their spine is growing, and how much they have yet to grow, there is no guarantee regarding a patient’s rate of progression. While we know growth is the number-one risk factor for progression, it can still vary greatly from patient to patient.
Some of the variables considered as possible causative sources for developing scoliosis include environmental factors and genetic predispositions. Even still, while those factors might increase a person’s chances of developing scoliosis, there are no guarantees; a person with scoliosis in the family might not develop the condition, while someone with no family history can develop it.
There is quite simply no reliable way to predict who will develop the condition and who won’t.
In my book, Scoliosis Hope, I spend a lot of time demystifying the condition. When a condition has as much mystery surrounding its causation as scoliosis does, a lot of misconceptions can develop.
The misconception I devote the most time to clearing up is that the only way to ‘cure’ scoliosis is through spinal-fusion surgery. As I’ve explained, there is no cure for scoliosis. Even surgery doesn’t cure scoliosis. It might straighten a crooked spine through invasive means, but that is just fixing the symptom, not the underlying cause of the condition.
When people ask if there’s a ‘natural’ way to cure a condition, they most often mean a treatment plan that doesn’t include medications or invasive procedures. Here at the Scoliosis Reduction Center, our goal is to treat our patients through a chiropractic-centered approach that strives to simultaneously improve function and reduce the risk of progression. In terms of a natural non-invasive treatment option, my approach fits the bill.
The traditional treatment path advises patients to watch and wait to see if their condition progresses. If it progresses to a certain point, they are told surgery is the best option. The problem I have with that approach is that while the patient was watching and waiting, their spinal curvature could have progressed unimpeded; that time could have been better spent implementing an effective treatment plan with the potential of achieving a reduction and making surgery unnecessary.
Patients who find success with our treatment method don’t get to that point of no return.
I really feel that spinal-fusion surgery is a life-changing decision that can bring life-long consequences, many of which people don’t expect.
So what exactly do we do here at the Scoliosis Reduction Center? One of the biggest benefits to patients who come see us is having access to multiple forms of treatment in one location. This is a huge advantage. Patients who work with us can experience the benefits that multiple disciplines have to offer.
We work closely with each and every patient to achieve a curvature reduction and slow or stop the condition’s progression. Using adjustments, exercise, rehabilitation and corrective bracing, the chiropractic approach works on improving function and building strength.
The scoliosis-specific chiropractic approach doesn’t just address the symptoms of scoliosis; it addresses how the spine functions and improves that functionality by strengthening the spine’s surrounding muscles. This not only provides better support for the spine, it can also ease pain and discomfort associated with the condition by keeping the spine’s surrounding muscles loose.
Strengthening the back, and the body, in general, better enables the body to handle the rigors of the condition and increases responsiveness to treatment.
Note, abnormal spinal curvature is going to correct itself, but the rates of progression can range from slow and barely noticeable to rapid and severe.
I think it’s great that patients and caregivers are looking for alternative treatment options. Over the years, the medical community has expanded to include more natural forms of and approaches to treatment. The body is a pretty wonderful functioning system, and if we can help it stay on track without the use of side-effect heavy medications or invasive and costly surgeries, why wouldn't we?
With any incurable progressive condition, treatment goals shift from curing to managing. The big goal of any treatment plan is to help patients learn to live with their condition as positively as possible.
Can you cure scoliosis naturally? The quick answer to that question is no because you can’t cure scoliosis by any means, natural or otherwise. Can you live with the condition, slow its progression, and achieve a reduction naturally? With my proactive and dynamic approach: yes.
Here at the Scoliosis Reduction Center, we look at spinal-fusion surgery as a last resort. When a patient commits to working with us at the center, I can guarantee that every effort will be made to keep them off the operating table.
My treatment approach combines a number of areas such as rehabilitation, chiropractic adjustments, exercise, diet, and corrective bracing; none of these could be described as unnatural or particularly invasive.
If you’re looking for a natural approach to treating scoliosis, a visit to the Scoliosis Reduction Center could set you on the right path to effective treatment and successfully living with the condition.
