Excerpt from book:
 Frequently Asked Questions
What causes scoliosis?
There are a few suggested causes. It can be hereditary, or caused by an injury. Some people believe uncorrected spinal damage from the birth process may be involved, while others suggest that encouraging children to walk too early, skipping the natural crawling stage, may be the culprit. The truth is that for the most part the cause is unknown.
My mother says that if I take calcium everyday I will have strong bones. Is that all I have to do?
Calcium is important in your diet but there are other factors to considered, like genetics, weight-bearing exercise, hormonal balance, diet and the availability of bone building nutrients that help make calcium more absorbable, such as Vitamin D, magnesium, phosphorous and zinc.
(Check vitamin and nutrition pages)
I was looking on the Internet and came across a few web sites on scoliosis mentioning that exercises and stretching are only good for general health, and there is no proof that diet can cause or cure scoliosis. They said to be aware of certain myths like; carrying a backpack will not cause scoliosis. Is this true?
Diet and exercises can have a detrimental input not only in your health but most of all to bones therefore to your spine. Wearing a backpack will not cause scoliosis. But can aggravate it. If you are not wearing it over both shoulders try this experience in front of the mirror, to see what happens. Carry it over your lower shoulder for a few minutes; watch how hard it is to balance yourself, because the backpack keeps sliding off the lower shoulder. Now put the backpack over the high shoulder and notice how much more comfortable you are bending along with the curve. Do you really want to bend that way? This is the way most people with scoliosis carry it because it’s more comfortable, even though it’s reinforcing the spine to maintain the wrong curve. Some students carry backpacks with up to 40% of their body weight or more; imagine what that does to the spine not to mention the backache.
How important is posture?
Dr. Roger Sperry, 1998 Nobel Peace Prize winner for brain research, said, “With poor posture, only 10% of the brain’s energy output is used for thinking, metabolism and healing the body from illness.”
Can bad posture cause scoliosis?
No, it doesn’t cause scoliosis but doesn’t benefit us either. Sitting in a slouch position or walking with our heads drooping forward it can only add insult to injury, if you know what I mean. So let’s think about that for a moment. If we spend the day curved forward hour after hour, day after day, year after year can that influence our health and aggravate the curvature of the spine? Yes and the end result is called kyphosis. (A forward curvature of the spine.)
Erin is the perfect example of a history case involving a kyphotic spine, which was corrected by postural awareness.
I was visiting my sister-in-law Vicki, during a school break from Chiropractic College West, and she asked me what could be done to help her daughter Erin. She was concerned with Erin’s severe forward curvature of the spine. I told her I would definitely adjust Erin that day, to help with some of the backache, but I believed there wasn’t much more that could be done. Erin was twenty years old and as such, she had reached full skeletal maturity. I couldn’t even imagine anything that could help her spine to go straight.
Erin had a petite frame and over the years had gotten used to maintaining her shoulders forward as if to hide her endowments. I was in my second year of practice when I heard that upon finishing college, Erin had gone to Japan to teach English to young children. One year later she decided to remain one more year teaching in Japan. Two years went by, and I got a chance to see Erin again when she decided to return to the USA to make her home in Portland, Oregon.
My first question upon seeing her was, “Erin your back is straight! Did you have back surgery?” Her answer got me by surprise. “In Japan posture is very important. I had to sit and stand straight in front of my class, if I was going to receive their respect. In the beginning it was very painful and definitely not easy to bring my shoulders back, and maintain an erect posture, but I did it day after day, until it became a habit.” The results were impressive. She had proven to me that posture was very important and with perseverance nothing is impossible. Erin did it for the love of teaching.
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