This is the final in a two-part piece looking at the facts about scoliosis surgery.

THE Harrington rods inserted into the spines of people who undergo scoliosis surgery will bend or break loose from the wires, or worse, break completely in two, necessitating further surgical intervention and removal of the rod.

Once the rod is removed, corrosion is found on two out of every three. After the operation, the average patient suffers a severe reduction in their spinal ranges of motion. Non-fused adult scoliosis patients do not have this same impairment. This flatly contradicts the claim that having a steel, stainless steel or titanium rod fused to your spine will not affect your mobility, physical activities, or quality of life greatly.

Parents do not choose scoliosis surgery because it is best for their child, rather, they are misled into believing that it is the only choice despite many studies which suggest that the side effects of the surgery are worse than the side effects of the scoliosis itself.

In my practice, my patients distressed, claiming that a doctor has told them they have a “slipped” disc (misnomer) and that their only option is immediate surgery.  After their first chiropractic adjustment, they all start to improve. And in 15 years I have only lost one or two to surgery.

Why don’t doctors advise natural, safe and effective care early on?

One major reason is that wait, watch, and collect your cash for braces and surgery is much more lucrative for them.  Another is that they simply do not know that natural care is a viable alternative.  And, if they do discover it, they are shunned by their peers and keep that information to themselves and see chiropractors as “competition” and become resistant.

If I ever felt I was competing for comparatively worthless dollars at the expense of the life of a child, I would immediately resign.  My services are not free, but they are certainly not thousands of dollars either. Who has your family’s best interest at heart? The natural chiropractor who averages a few thousand Jamaican dollars a visit or the surgeon who charges hundreds of thousands of dollars and invades the closed system of the wonderfully created human body?

The facts

The human spine reaches spinal maturity between the ages of 16 and 18 years. If curvatures of the spine are detected and addressed naturally, almost every minor to moderate curve can be corrected and we can prevent the horrific traditional models of treatment, so that young person can grow into an adult with a better quality of life.  The actual structural curves such as from hemi-vertebrae may not be straightened completely, but we can still provide non-invasive palliative care for these people as well.

Very few cases of scoliosis are truly clinical structural scoliosis, such as from hemi-vertebrae. In fact, they label almost every case as “idiopathic”, which is another way of saying they do not know the cause. If the cause is not known, how can they “treat” or “cure” it?

What I have repeatedly found is that any postural imbalance resulting in a pulling of the spinal and para-spinal musculature causing an appearance of a curve of any type is too quickly diagnosed medicinally as “scoliosis”. That is as ridiculous as claiming that every older person with spine or joint pain is just getting “old” and has “arthritis”.

Research the origins of modern medicine and you will quickly find ties to Greek “gods” of “healing” dating back to Asclepius.  In fact, they still use his “rod” or later “caduceus”, which is a staff entwined with a snake. They shrink it down too small to notice the details and emblazon it with gold and pin it upon their clean white coats. Then they distract your attention by hanging a 14-inch stethoscope around their necks. It is hidden in plain sight. Many of the very doctors are unaware of these things themselves.

Chiropractic care can and has stopped the progression of and corrected curves of the spine in subjects prior to spinal maturity; and, has eased pain and symptoms and improved the quality of life in patients who have passed spinal maturity.  In fact, I have seen improvement even in the alignment and curvature of mid-aged and even elderly patients that were written off as hopeless and just told to “live with it”.

Bracing

As far as bracing goes, it has been proven to be ineffective and in most cases will cause more harm than good. The spine relies on intrinsic-type I posture muscles to hold its position upright in gravity. The brain senses gravity and body position through receptors in your feet, body, eyes, and inner ear canals. This incoming information is then used to send messages to the spinal muscles which create an upright balanced centre of gravity so that you do not tip over.  By using artificial support to hold your spine more erect, you are using a crutch and I have said many times, what you do not use, you lose.

In the world of musculoskeletal health care it is a known fact that immobilisation of a synovial joint is only recommended for instability and fractures, neither of which are present in scoliosis.  

Studies performed comparing non-braced patients to braced patients have confirmed that spinal bracing does not alter the natural course of scoliosis progression when genetic scores accompanied the brace studies. High progression risk patients still progressed even with the brace and low progression risk patients did not progress without the brace.  The brace makers keep building better braces that demonstrate better correction on X-ray, but fail to realise the amount of correction measured while wearing the brace is irrelevant because the principle of immobilisation is a failed one when dealing with a neurological condition of the spine.

Fortunately, more and more good doctors are becoming aware of natural care, and coordinate a regimen of crisis/emergency/disease medicine with natural “alternative” care. You are placing others above your own desires, and we really dig that.

While most conventional medicine is still entrenched in the debatable practice of bracing and eventual surgery with the inevitable progression of scoliosis allowed by watching and waiting, there are proven natural solutions.

A 2011 study concluded that as a result of chiropractic spinal adjusting and chiropractic spinal manipulation, a thoracolumbar curvature (scoliosis) averaged a 17.2° reduction that was maintained for 24 months, the length of the study. Across all spinal groups, an average 10° reduction persisted for 24 months, again the length of the study. It was also concluded that pain reduced by 60 per cent at 24 months and function improved by 70 per cent, while respiratory capacity increased by seven per cent.

The real issue is that if adolescents have their curvatures reduced by between 10° and 17.2°, then a significant amount of bracing and surgery will no longer be an option because it will not be indicated any more.

As bracing has been deemed questionable in the literature and now the literature reflects chiropractic as a highly effective modality, the standard of care across professions should be chiropractic care for scoliosis as the first-line treatment option, or co-treatment option at the very least.

Considering the overall American national cost of idiopathic scoliosis of $1,132,739,750, excluding imaging studies and the research results on chiropractic care, the conclusion is that as a society our money in Jamaica can be better spent while simultaneously helping our children.

Talk to your doctor of chiropractic to learn more about scoliosis and the conservative treatment options available.

Don’t forget to “Ask Your Chiropractor” every week where your questions may be published and answered in subsequent articles. Address questions to: Dr Chris Davis, the Spinal Mechanic and lead doctor, at movethebone@gmail.com; or, Dr Michael Harvey, director, at dr.michael_harvey@yahoo.com.