Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Do Your Exercises!!!


These are my youngest daughter's x-rays. Can you see the difference? In less than one year, the curvature of Hannah's back went from 11 to 15 degrees! While this still isn't too bad, it has the potential to get much worse. As a 10 year old, she'll be going through another growth spurt, soon, which could make things even more dramatic--and traumatic--very quickly.

As you would expect, a young child doesn't always take things seriously enough. (Adults don't always, either!) However, when Hannah saw this, no sooner had we walked through the door, she was on her balance ball, exercising. She did not want her scoliosis to get worse.

Recently, two friends' children went in for surgery to correct this. When I was growing up, another friend's sister showed me the brace she wore under her clothes. It looked awfully uncomfortable, but was worth it, she said. Another friend refused to ever do anything, and is severely deformed.

My sister was fortunate, and her scoliosis never got worse. Perhaps it was that she was athletic and had strengthened and stretched the right muscles.

Scoliosis is treatable, and the earlier it is detected, the better chances for exercises and chiropractic manipulations to correct the problem relatively easily. If you've been given exercises, please do them!!! And if you're at the point where either a brace or surgery is needed, seriously consider it. Your whole body will thank you! --LKR

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