Drs. Lou and Laurie Briegel, with over 40 years of expertise in working with patients as Doctors of Chiropractic, have chosen to have an open forum with our community to answer questions concerning their field of Chiropractic and what people would like to know about it. If you have a question for the doctors, please contact them via email, wcc@myHealthLink.net. They will do their best to answer all questions either directly or your question may be chosen for publication in a future issue.
My daughter was told she had curvature in her back. Is that scoliosis? What does this mean for her? J. D.
Thank you for this very important question. Please understand that this column is not to give medical advice and without an actual examination, you cannot have a diagnosis of scoliosis. But let’s talk about curves in the spine, because some are normal and necessary to have.
When a baby is still in utero, the natural posture is the fetal position. The baby is curled up like a big letter C. After the baby is born and grows stronger in the neck, holding his head up, the normal neck curves begin to develop, allowing for the head to be held up and not fall forward. This curve is known as the cervical (neck) lordotic curve. The next curve which develops starts when the baby does tummy time and pushes his upper body up and the lower spine (lumbar) begins to form its lordotic curve. This contour greatly increases as the baby goes into crawling mode. Tummy time is the best natural way to grow a healthy spine with healthy curves. These developmental curves are vital to a healthy, spine, nervous system and our posture as we grow into toddlers and little walking people.
When you look at a picture of or a model of the spine from the side view the lordotic curves are obvious. They curve toward the front of the body (convex). The mid part of the spine or thoracic region rounds back or concave. Sometimes, these curves, even though they are the natural normal curves, they can be greater or lesser than they should be. Let’s take a common reason why a neck curve could be too straight. Ever heard of “text neck”? The bad habit that most people in our present-day society have been looking down at their cell phone and devices. This keeps our neck muscles in a flexed posture and pulls the curve straight, which now puts stress on the nerve system due to improper alignment of the vertebrae. Nerve stress can then result in muscle tension, headaches, disc problems etc.
Scoliosis, on the other hand, is an abnormal leaning or bending of the spine when you look at the spine from the back. This bending or leaning could be a sign that the spine is developing curves where the spine should be straight. If someone is standing up straight and you were to look at them from the back, it could appear that one shoulder is higher than the other or a shoulder blade that sticks out farther than the other one. It can also look like one hip is lower with the opposite higher. This can best be diagnosed with x-rays of the spine to determine what may be considered a degree of abnormal curvature.
If the degree of curvature is beyond a certain degree (25-40 degrees), it can be considered a medical condition of scoliosis. The curvature of this degree can cause chronic backpain, breathing difficulties, heart problems, nerve issues, digestive problems, mobility issues that can lead to hip, knee or hip pain. Of course, none of these symptoms are exclusive to scoliosis.
Scoliosis can be caused by many things. A “true” scoliosis is usually caused by a vertebra, or bone, in the spine that didn’t form properly and causes a tilt in the spine and hence the curve. This is quite rare. The most common cause is a vertebra in the spine, or the pelvis that is misaligned. Chiropractors have always had great success in helping to reduce these abnormal curves in the spine.
It is our opinion after years of seeing thousands of children in our practice that everyone should have a chiropractic evaluation to determine if the spine is in proper alignment and the curves are developing as they should. Let’s get your child scheduled today!
