Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Scoliosis Physical Therapy

Scoliosis physical therapy refers to the part of physical therapy that deals with scoliosis. First, you should know what scoliosis is, who suffers from it and how it is acquired. Then you will find out about the ways to treat it and, especially about scoliosis physical therapy. Scoliosis is a condition of the spine in which the spine, seen from the back, has a side-to-side curve.

Normally, the spine should look straight from a back view, although from a side view it is normal for the three slight curves (one in the neck, one in the upper back, and one in the lower back) to be seen. There are three possible situations: when the curve is very small it is called mild; when it is bigger, it is called moderate, and when it is sharp, then the condition is severe.

Unfortunately the causes for scoliosis are still a mystery. It is not a disease that can be caught from someone else and it cannot be prevented. What is known about it is that it is not bad posture or carrying heavy objects for a long time that cause it. This condition is not specific to one gender or another. It occurs in both boys and girls, the difference is that moderate and severe scoliosis is more frequent in girls than in boys. The good thing about scoliosis is that only a few cases of mild scoliosis become moderate or severe and those can get improved through scoliosis physical therapy.

It develops more in certain families, in people with certain conditions such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular distrophy or polio and it usually develops between 9 and 14 years of age, when bones grow faster than ever. Since it is not a painful condition, you should have regular checks in order to, if it is the case, discover it in an early stage. Thus you can treat it more easily and prevent other possible complications.

Through regular health checks by your physician, your physical training teacher�s observations, or the school nurse�s periodical checks, the condition can be discovered and the child can be led towards a specialist, who will treat him/her. After you are x-rayed and it is clear that you have this problem, it takes a team to deal with it. There are different ways of improving this condition depending on the type and degree of severity of the condition. Scoliosis physical therapy is used in mild scoliosis; your health care worker/provider will teach you and assist you in doing certain exercises to which will help you improve the flexibility and strengthen the muscular support for your spine.

In moderate curves, scoliosis physical therapy in itself is not sufficient. Sometimes it must be supported by back braces or a scoliosis jacket. Besides these, electrical stimulation can also be used successfully in some types of scoliosis, though it is still being researched. In severe scoliosis surgery may be needed if the condition was not discovered in due time. Therefore detecting the condition in an early stage leads to effective treatment through scoliosis physical therapy and surgery can be avoided.

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