Hardick Chiropractic Centre, London Ontario. Call us at 519.673.1132 | Connect with Hardick Chiropractic Centre:
Scoliosis is tragic. It can cause both physical pain and emotional suffering. This sideways bending of the spine may show up as abnormal posture, and ultimately cause significant deformity. If allowed to advance, its physical malformation can interfere with the function of the heart and lungs, and irritation to the nervous system via the spinal cord and peripheral nerves (housed by the spinal column) can cause dysfunction in many other vital organs. Generally, scoliosis is most common in girls between the ages of 8 and 18. Traditional medical treatments for scoliosis have been limited. Many procedures have been highly invasive, and without a demonstrated long-term benefit to the patient. One of the most extreme treatments has been the insertion of steel rods in the spinal column (an X-ray of which can be seen below-right). This procedure has been performed less and less as more effective interventions have come available, and long-term benefit studies have shown to be poor.
In the beginning, when scoliosis is easiest to correct, there are rarely symptoms. Physical discomfort is often overlooked as "growing pains." An alert parent may notice that a high shoulder or low hip makes clothing fit awkwardly. An imbalance in the shoulder or hip levels of just 1cm in a small child may indicate an underlying spinal curvature.
85% to 90% of cases of scoliosis are considered idiopathic -- "unknown cause." Past research has shown that surprisingly, in all scoliosis sufferers, all parts of the spine (the vertebrae, discs, ligaments, tendons, and muscles) appear to be normal. While these body parts do not show any developmental pathology, one or more of these body parts may develop abnormalities as scoliosis worsens. The greatest mystery in the research today is why some minor curves progress rapidly, while others do not. The newest reserach on scoliosis shows the cause, or perhaps an important contributing factor, to be a disturbance or defect in the area of the nervous system that controls posture, body balance, and positioning. In one study reserachers were able to identify by neurological tests alone nearly 95% of the scoliotics. This new information has great relevance to chiropractic care.
A study conducted by Charles Lantz, DC, PhD, suggests that chiropractic adjustments show a favourable result in reducing abnormal spinal curvatures in adolescents. The three year study, presented to the International Conference on Spinal Manipulation in November, 1998, was the largest-scale piece of research to ever study chiropractic and scoliosis. Children examined in the study were aged 9 to 15, and had mild idiopathic scoliosis of less than 20 degrees.
The results of the study indicated that children under the age of 10 showed on average, nearly 3 times better correction than children over the age of ten. This suggests that the sooner a child with scoliosis begins receiving chiropractic adjustments, the better the chiropractor's ability to make a marked correction.
The medical community does not offer treatment for spinal curvature of less than 20 degrees, and often doesn't even consider slight improvement significant. While many questions remain to be answered about chiropractic and scoliosis, it is evident that chiropractic care appears to offer a distinct advantage in the management and monitoring of early stage spinal curvature.
Spinal subluxation, which can occur as early as birth, is a major causative factor in the development of abnormal spinal curvatures. Early detection and management of abnormal spinal curvature may help prevent or lessen the severity of what can become a devastating structural condition that has severe health implications.
Above is an example of a patient whose scoliosis improved while under chiropractic care (Source: Life University Research, Chiropractic Research Journal vol. 3, no. 3, fall 1996). The degree of improvement can depend on many things, including the patient's age, severity, compliance to care, and exposure to spinal stressors. The action you take today can have a tremendous impact on the lives of your children.
At Hardick Chiropractic Centre, we have hundreds of X-rays in our records which have demonstrated improvement of spinal curvatures during all stages of life. Dr. Cliff Hardick has stated that in over 30 years of practice, he has not seen one child under regular chiropractic care develop scoliosis. At any time (and particularly during our Doctor's Reports on Wednesday nights) we have several "before and after" X-rays available for others to see (these are X-rays of our patients whose curvatures have improved with chiropractic care; these patients have lent us permission to show their X-rays to others). By detecting subluxations at their early onset, and correcting these spinal stressors before they manifest into larger problems, this "ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure."
One of Dr. B.J. Hardick's favourite expressions is that "the greatest miracles in chiropractic will never be known." Meaning, while it is always empowering to see dramatic improvement occur in children receiving chiropractic care, we find it just as exciting to see children grow up healthy, and express good health on a preventive level. This being said, it has always been a policy at Hardick Chiropractic Centre to make chiropractic care accessible and affordable for the entire family.
Scoliosis is developmental, not congenital (you can't be born with it). That is why it is so important for all children to be examined by a doctor of chiropractic, while scoliosis correction is possible.
Related pages:
Hardick Chiropractic Centre 