Friday, December 18, 2009

Should You Go To A Chiropractor For Scoliosis?

By Philip Vincent

Should you consider taking your child to the chiropractor for scoliosis? Scoliosis is a condition that is very difficult to treat for the medical profession, with most of the treatment being administered by orthopedists. If one day, your child gets sent home with a note from the school nurse saying she has scoliosis, what should you do?

Eight-five percent of these scoliosis cases are referred to as idopathic, which more commonly means "we don't know how you may have got it." If all health care providers are going to diagnose this condition as "idiopathic," how can they hope to treat it effectively?

A lot of the treatment option depend on the severity of the curve and the patient themselves. In the more severe cases, there's not real proof that chiropractic (or any other conservative method for that matter) will do any good for the scoliosis patient. That's when a full brace or surgery options may be explored.

In minor curve situations, chiropractors have their own office experience in improving spinal curves and making changes to their patients' spines. Patients of all ages, shapes, and sizes have seen measureable proof on x-ray that after a course of treatment, their spines have gotten much closer to an optimal state.

Since no double-blind research studies have been able to verify this information (or even been done), it's reasonably difficult for the medical community to give it their stamp of approval. They instead have taken to "observing" minor curves and hoping they don't become major curves that need surgery.

Not all chiropractors are qualified to take on a scoliosis patient, and the hope would be that they would tell you as much. That's the specific question to ask your chiropractic doctor candidate. Some chiropractic office specialize in such treatment and can show you that they are indeed able to help the condition.

The bottom line is that no health care provider (chiropractic, medical, or any other) can absolutely guarantee your child's results when it comes to scoliosis, there's just too much unknown. You can hope that your diagnosis is a spinal misalignment and not true scoliosis, in which case chiropractic will definitely help.

A visit to a chiropractor, a consultation, and perhaps a trial of chiropractic care is reasonable to check out. Your medical doctor may say it won't help, but there's no indication to say that it will make anything worse. If I had a condition that may require surgery, but that the specialists were telling me to just "watch and see." I'd look for someone ready to take action. - 14130

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