Idiopathic scoliosis is not just a spinal condition. In fact, it's not even primarily a spinal condition. Scolisis of spine is primarily a neurological condition with its primary effects on the spine itself. Essentially, the spinal curvature is really as symptom of the condition. In fact, viewing the scolosis spine on x-ray is similar to watching the wind out the window. While you can't actually see the wind, you can assert your understanding of how hard it is blowing and in what direction by watching the affects it has on the trees, grass, leaves, etc. That is why we feel scoliosis exercises are the best way to treat scoliosis.
The understanding that scoliosis of spine is really a neurological condition may seem like a rather minor detail, but when it comes to scoliosis treatment it makes a world of difference.
Current and conventional scoliosis treatment (scoliosis brace treatment and scoliosis surgery) solely focus on treating the spine itself, while completely ignoring the primarily neurological underdevelopments undoubtedly present in the brain stem. This leads to only a temporary scoliosis treatment effect in scoliosis brace treatment and a poor long-term outcome of chronic pain in scoliosis surgery. Why? Because the brain is still sending the wrong messages to the muscles despite the efforts of scoliosis brace treatment and scoliosis surgery.
Change the brain to change the spine.
Your spine has little to no idea where it is in 3 dimensional space at any given time. Almost all of that information is by the eyes, cervical spine, and inner ears which feed it into the brain stem which in turn directs the spinal muscles to orient the spine to gravity correctly (or not, as in the case of idiopathic scoliosis. Therefore, the most accurate and effective way to permanently influence (and improve) spinal position is through active rehabilitation of the involuntary postural control centers in the brain stem, not artificial forced correction with scoliosis brace treatment or scoliosis surgery.
Believe it or not, it isn't hard, doesn't take too long, or even all that complicated. One simply needs to provide a new "stimulus" for the body to orient to neurologically. For example, virtually every idiopathic scoliosis patient has forward head posture which now places the center mass of the patient's head over their shoes and out of alignment with the pelvic. Obviously this creates an unstable and unbalanced bio-mechanical situation that isn't good for idiopathic scoliosis. The solution? Simply make the head artificially heavier on the front (that's right the front) of the head with a weighted hat. Seems like it should make it worse right, but it doesn't. What to know why; Because our bodies are constantly reacting to the environment around us and when you make the head artificially heavier with the weighted hat, the body sense the head is out of alignment and REACTS in over compensation and actually pulls the head back! No kidding. I works 100% of the time. This same thinking can be use for hip rotation, torso translation, whatever, and the body just naturally learns to hold the scoliosis spine straighter automatically. It is actually the simple. Cool huh?
So why isn't this technology being deployed across the world to the masses of early stage scoliosis patients, well, new ideas aren't always readily accepted, not even when they are good one's; and change is slow, if it moves forward at all.
None-the-less, the future of scoliosis treatment lies in the neurological rehabilitation of the involuntary postural control centers of the brain stem, not in scoliosis brace treatment or scoliosis surgery.
