Please click here to receive a FREE SCOLIOSIS TREATMENT INFORMATION KIT.

Why does idiopathic scoliosis progress during a growth spurt?
Honestly, I don't know, but here is my take on it.

Porter supported the uncoupled neuro-osseous growth concept of idiopathic scoliosis being a physical manifestation of the maladaption of the growing immature spine to the tether created by the short spinal cord. This evidence for this was the finding that the conus medullaris (the end of the spinal cord) position is NOT significantly different from that of a normal spine.

Dr. Chu re-examined the Roth-Porter theory via an MRI study (comparing AIS patients with severe curvatures vs normal subjects) in 2007. They found the vertebral column in the AIS population was significantly longer, yet the there was no detectable change in spinal cord length. They speculated that the initiation and progression of AIS result from vert. column over-growth through a maladapation of the spine to the subclinical tether of a relatively short spinal cord.

Basically, the kids with significant adverse mechanical tension on the CNS/spinal cord in 2 dimensions (side view and front view) are a ticking time bomb for the "coil down" effect when the cord is stretched a 3rd dimension (vertically) during a growth spurt. The coiling down of the spine (which produces the rapid increase in Cobb angle) is the body's effort to reduce the adverse mechanical tension on the CNS/Spinal cord by reducing the overall vertical length of the spine (which is transfered into the coronal plane (front-back view) from the vertical dimesion via the coil down effect)