Scoliosis

Scoliosis is an abnormal s-shaped curve in the spine. Many cases of degenerative scoliosis are never diagnosed because they often do not cause symptoms. However, degenerative scoliosis can becomes painful and problematic. The symptoms and severity may vary from person to person.

Typical signs and symptoms of degenerative scoliosis include:

• Pain comes on gradually, slowly, and worsens over time. It tends to be associated with activity. The initial pain can begin as a dull ache or stiffness, usually located in the low back or, less commonly, in the mid back.
• The pain is worse in the morning and then it improves after the person gets up and starts moving around for the day. The pain may worsen again toward the end of the day or after vigorous or strenuous activity.
• Sitting feels better than standing or walking. The facet joints generate much of the pain and have more loading (pressure) in the standing position. Sitting takes the stress and weight off of these joints.
• Postural changes. Due to progressing curvature and degeneration of the spine, the shoulders or hips might become uneven, and the person can become shorter.

Sometimes pain might be felt in one leg but not the other. However, the direction of the scoliosis curve does not seem to correlate with which leg might feel pain.

Radicular (affecting or relating to the root of a spinal nerve) symptoms may occur if a nerve root becomes impinged, such as by bone overgrowth or a spur in the foramen (bony hole where the nerve root exits the spine).

These symptoms can include pain, tingling, numbness, and weakness that radiates down the low back and into the buttock, thigh, calf, and foot.

In some cases, radicular pain can feel searing or shock-like. Radicular symptoms are usually felt on only one side of the body.

Neurogenic Claudication – Neurogenic means ‘caused by the nervous system’. Claudication is the name for muscle pain that happens when you’re active and stops when you rest. Neurogenic Claudication results from compression of the spinal nerves in the lumbar (lower) spine.

If the lumbar spinal canal narrows it is called lumbar ‘spinal stenosis’. The compressed nerves could cause the patient to experience leg pain and muscle cramps while walking. Typically, this pain will be in both legs and start after the person has walked a relatively short distance, such as a city block or two.

The pain can be relieved almost immediately by sitting down. Some patients report that flexing or bending the spine forward can also alleviate the pain, which is why some find walking uphill is less painful than walking downhill or on a flat surface.

Frequently, people find leaning forward on a shopping cart, or walker significantly decreases their pain or increases the distance they can tolerate walking. However, severe neurogenic claudication is sometimes felt at rest or when flexing forward.

A scoliosis curve that reaches 90 to 100 degrees or more could cause the patient to hunch forward (also called kyphosis), lean to the side, or both.

Such a drastic change in the spine’s curvature can cause balance problems, and the spine’s abnormal rotation could also start to push the rib cage against the heart, lungs, or other internal organs.

Degenerative scoliosis rarely impinges or irritates the spinal cord enough to cause significant leg weakness or bladder/bowel control problems.

A spine imbalance most likely causes scoliosis due to displacement of the top vertebra, which is called the atlas. Because the spine has been off balance for so long, the discs in the spine on one side start to carry more weight and pressure than the other sides of the discs.

This causes too much stress on the discs. Over time, the tissues of the disc buckle and cause a bulge or herniating of the disc tissues resulting in pressure on the nerves in the spine which result in scoliosis.

EPIC Technique is a specialized Chiropractic treatment that balances the neck over the rest of the spine by adjusting the atlas with a painless sound-wave. The result is a total rebalancing of the body which takes pressure off of the damaged tissue and may reverse scoliosis’ curves.

Once the atlas is put in its proper location and balance is restored, the nerves and tissues can heal, and the symptoms can be relieved.

The Atlas protocol calls for a consultation and examination to determine nervous system derangement due to atlas displacement.

Specialized X-rays studies and spinal engineering software will be used to pinpoint atlas displacement. We then administer a painless sound-wave treatment to put the atlas back to its proper position.

Post-X-ray studies will be taken immediately after the treatment to ensure that the atlas displacement has been corrected.

Anyone with scoliosis should get an Atlas evaluation to relieve symptoms and prevent further curvature and pressure on vital tissues and nerves.

If you or anyone you know suffers from scoliosis, call us today to set up a free consultation. The results may be life-changing!