The term “Idiopathic” means “unknown cause” and when applied to scoliosis it can cause sheer terror in the hearts of parents, anxiety in the minds of teenagers, and bewilderment in the thought process of treating doctors.  For literally centuries, the standard of scoliosis treatment has been scoliosis brace treatment and scoliosis surgery, which are only concerned about treating the spinal curvature itself, but not the underlying cause of the idiopathic scoliosis condition.

The most current research and theories on idiopathic scoliosis are focusing the concept of the scoliosis condition being primarily a neurological condition with its primary effects on the spine.  That would mean the crooked spine seen on the x-ray is really a symptom of the underlying neurological condition and not the condition itself.  Metaphorically it could be described as watching the wind through a window.  You can’t actually see the wind, but you can see the effects of the wind (direction, hard it’s blowing, ect) on the trees, grass, flags, ect. and determine a lot of accurate information about what’s going on out there.  The same can be said in regards to the viewing the scoliosis spine on and x-ray and determining a lot of accurate information about the neurological effects of scoliosis.

It’s not surprising that traditional approaches to scoliosis treatment have been skewed to only treat what they can see (since that is human nature) and it is equally not surprising that much of the history of scoliosis treatment (scoliosis brace treatment and scoliosis surgery) is based on this “over-simplified” understanding as well.  Fortunately, the winds are change are once again blowing and new concepts of neurological re-training the automatic postural control centers in the brain as a primary form of scoliosis treatment are starting to emerge. 

While most people take normal spinal posture (automatic neurological orientation to gravity) for granted, this is the core dysfunction the idiopathic scoliosis patient faces.  These automatic postural control centers are located in the hind brain in the same areas many of the other automatic body functions are controlled (heart rate, breathing, digestion, ect) and are not voluntarily controlled.  This means any attempts to stimulate these automatic postural control centers cannot come from voluntary movement patterns that require intentional effort.  The only way to re-train these automatic postural control centers is to create a “re-active” rehabilitation effect that sends correct feed back into the hind brain, which in turn sends out a correct response to the spinal muscles resulting in a 3-D auto-correction of the scoliosis spine.

While this seems rather complicated and difficult to do, it really isn’t all that tough once you understand how the system works.  When the brain automatically orients the spine to gravity it essentially is trying to “line up” the major center masses of the torso (head, torso, pelvic) in 3 dimension space.  This is done through a series of reflexes called “the righting reflexes” which send feedback from the eyes, inner ears, cervical spine, torso, pelvis, and feet.  While it remains unclear exactly which of the feedback mechanisms is not reporting or mis-reporting information to the brain, it clearly is having a dramatic affect on the scoliosis spine position while the patient is vertically relating to gravity (sitting or standing). 

The neuro-muscular re-training system developed specifically for scoliosis by the CLEAR Institute creates the exact stimulus that triggers the auto-correction response from the automatic postural control centers in the brain and will actually “re-train the brain” to “learn” how to hold the scoliosis spine in a new and straighter position if utilized on a daily basis for an extended period of time (4-6 months).  This non-invasive, exercise based approach is the first to target the exact automatic postural control areas through a “re-training” effect and address the underlying root cause of idiopathic scoliosis.

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