Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine. Lots of times the doctor will say it’s “idiopathic.” That word means there is no known cause.

Maybe sometimes there is not a known cause. But more likely the cause is simply not known to the doctor! 🙂

I love doctors and surgeons and don’t ever want to seem critical but most of them just don’t learn about the roles of muscles when they are in med school.

Med school is more about treating symptoms with medical procedures or drugs than getting rid of the cause of a pain, problem or dysfunction like scoliosis naturally.

I took a great deal of my training from a brilliant man named Paul St. John. Below is an article about scoliosis and a link to his website. Paul is a genius in the field of natural pain relief.  He looks at the body in a totally logical way.

And, after all, bodies are logical!

Also, as you will find out at the end of the article, I was also treated by Paul St. John for my own scoliosis.

Here is the article about scoliosis from Neurosomatic Educators:

Neurosomatic Therapy and Scoliosis by Neurosomatic Educators, Inc.

Have you ever noticed when you look in the mirror one shoulder is higher than the other, or one pant leg hits the floor while the other doesn’t? Or your children will not sit up straight, or look odd, but you can’t put your finger on it? What you may be noticing are postural distortions, and most of all scoliosis. Scoliosis is a condition where the spine abnormally bends side to side or rotates, instead of being straight. When scoliosis occurs a patient can experience pain and a lack of mobility in the body.

According to medical research, a small amount of scoliosis cases are congenital, which means an individual is born with a spinal abnormality where the bones of the spine are misshaped and causing the curve of the spine. Neuromuscular issues such as cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy can cause curvature of the spine as well, but the most common diagnosis is idiopathic scoliosis, which means the cause is unknown.

Once the doctor has diagnosed a case of scoliosis, treatment can consist of physical therapy or bracing the spine. If the degree of curve is high enough, surgery is the next option. This surgical procedure will consist of fusion with the spine using rods. The surgeon will drill in a screw in each vertebra that needs straightening, and then attach the rod to those screws. The spine is forced to straighten to line up with the rod.

At the St. John-Clark Pain Treatment Center we have found an effective way to treat scoliosis of the spine. Our experience has shown us that most idiopathic scoliosis is caused by a leg length inequality – a cause that is greatly overlooked. When on leg is shorter than the other, it will make the pelvis tilt, and the body will try to adapt by curving the spine to make the eyes level. To bring the pelvis to balance, a full foot lift can be used to raise the short leg. For example, remember the time you went to a restaurant and the table wobbled. Every time you leaned on the table, your drink would spill a little. After a while you had a puddle on the table. So what do you do? You put couple of sugar packets under the short leg, and voi la, a pleasant dining experience and you didn’t have to move tables. Think of your pelvis being the table, and the legs of the table as your legs. Using a full foot lift is like putting those sugar packets under the shorter leg of the table – you end up with a more functional table.

To determine the effective way to bring the body to balance, our therapists do a postural assessment to see what muscles are pulling the spine, and other parts of the body, into distortion. Then we use massage therapy to lengthen the muscles that are causing that pull. We then recommend exercises for the patient to strengthen the weak muscles to stabilize the improved posture properly. This process can take time, but we have seen scoliosis improve in many patients.

Here’s more from me:

I have been treated by Paul St. John personally many times.  I have gone to Florida to be treated by him.  It was important to me to understand exactly the procedure so I could help others.

And beside that, I had scoliosis and I was tired of having pain!

I still have traces of it and I still do regular stretches and self-therapies to ‘straighten myself out.’   But I don’t have the headaches or shoulder pain that I did when I had a nice, large curve in my spine that didn’t belong there.

It turns out that my leg length difference is caused by one flat foot!  It didn’t have much of an arch so I correct that with firm arch supports.

No one can take care of you as well as you must yourself. 

There are some self-help options but if you can get to a neuromuscular or neurosomatic specialist like those at the St. John Clinic in Florida or who trained with Paul or one of his other skilled therapists there’s a great chance that you can have a lot of relief from your scoliosis–naturally!

 

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