Patients with Severe Scoliosis are the most common patients Dr. Tony Nalda sees in his office. 

The reason why is that these patients, unfortunately, follow the exact prescription their traditional doctors gave them and then they end up in a position where they would normally be recommended Scoliosis surgery.

What are the three categories of Scoliosis?

Dr. Tony Nalda has a fourth category called Very Severe Scoliosis.

In this episode, you will learn about symptoms of Severe Scoliosis such as:

And a lot more. 

Initially, when patients start to move into the adult stage, they can become hyperkyphotic.

Dr. Tony Nalda also mentioned when the patient’s lung capacity is already affected if you have Scoliosis.

Check out Dr. Tony Nalda’s recommendation for these symptoms by listening to the podcast below.

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Amber was diagnosed with Scoliosis during her elementary days.

Every six months, she went to the doctor but the curvature didn’t get over 11 degrees which was pretty mild.

By the time she finished high school (adolescent idiopathic scoliosis), she was down to 7 degrees.

Amber was informed that she won't need to treat scoliosis or check it anymore since she was through puberty and she will be fine.

But at the end of high school, she was in a very bad car accident and she broke her lower back.

Since that moment, she experienced these:

Sadly, nor physical therapy nor a lot of that medication has worked.

While Amber was focused on these, her Scoliosis started creeping in because of the instability at the bottom. 

Fact check: Many adult scoliosis patients come in seeking care after an injury, like a car accident or a fall and sometimes they would discover they have Scoliosis.

In Amber’s case, she actually knew she had Mild Scoliosis even before and there was one theory of causation that can be because of: 

Did you know that during the adult stage, trauma can worsen Scoliosis because it’s an injury? Anytime you had an injury on an asymmetrical spine, it will cause so much pain and discomfort.

Check out the podcast for more of Amber’s story and how Dr. Tony Nalda was able to help her with customized and individually designed non surgical scoliosis treatment and traditional physical therapy designed to try to reduce the curve and scoliosis symptoms and its costs before spinal fusion surgery becomes a need for each scoliosis patient and its also possible to have scoliosis treatment without surgery for adults and good treatment results.

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Can certain exercises affect your Scoliosis?

Exercise is important for all types of patients and especially important for patients who have Scoliosis.

Did you know that there is an assumption that if you have Scoliosis, you shouldn’t remain active? Another thing would be you're too fragile and if you’re doing some type of exercise or some type of activity, you can hurt yourself.

There is a possibility of that being true in very small cases but the majority of Scoliosis patients can participate in activities and in exercise and they can participate in things they want to do.

The big question is how can exercise affect treatment outcomes.

Movement is important.

It is important for muscles, joints, and for spine health. The spine, especially after you’re done growing, only gets its nutrients through motion. Movement allows the discs, ligaments, tissues, and spinal fluid to circulate. The more you move your spine, the more nutrients circulate properly throughout the spinal tissues, that's why movement is really important.

What exercises can actually help treat Scoliosis?

General exercises really don’t have an effect on the curve type or the curve size. If you’re strengthening your abs or your back or you’re doing yoga or Pilates, these general exercises may be good for general health and muscles and tissues but in terms of affecting your Scoliosis or curve size, they have very little effect.

A corrective exercise or something that we call Scoliosis-Specific Exercise is an exercise that is prescribed for a specific curve type. You perform exercises that are designed to reduce your curve type based on what type of Scoliosis you have.

What can Scoliosis specific exercises do for Scoliosis patients:

The most important thing is they can help affect the structure and curvature

And when combined with other types of therapies and bracing, they can be very effective.

For more details about Scoliosis-Specific Exercises, please check out Dr. Tony Nalda’s podcast below.

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One of the most common questions we get asked is, “Can you correct my Adult Scoliosis?”

What does that really mean when patients ask that question and when doctors say we’re correcting Scoliosis?

Correction means Curing.

If you’re going to correct something then that means you’re curing it and you’re never dealing with it ever again and that is impossible when it comes to Scoliosis.

Why?

Scoliosis is a progressive problem and it’s incurable because we don’t know what’s actually causing it. Scoliosis can’t be cured, not even surgeries can cure Scoliosis. There is no treatment out there that can actually cure Scoliosis but it can definitely be treated. It can be treated conservatively without invasive surgery if things are done properly.

Dr. Tony Nalda’s clinic is called Scoliosis Reduction Center mainly because the goal is to reduce curves. The first thing we need to do is stop the progression. We do not only stop it with what we do in our clinic, we also reduce curves.

The goal is to try to get zero curvature at all.

And to stop the effect of gravity over time causing curves to progress. Since we can’t eliminate the cause which is gravity which causes adult progression in Scoliosis, we can’t say that we’re permanently changing anything.

This is true even with surgery. When you do Scoliosis surgeries, it’s not permanently reducing these curves because we know that curves even progress post-surgery.

No matter what, you’re going to have to manage your Scoliosis throughout your entire life because we can’t eliminate the cause.

We reduce curves and make them smaller and that means gravity has less effect on smaller curves, so we can get long-lasting changes.

These can have a great effect on the body, on the way the body heals and total improvement of well-being.

For more details on how to stop Scoliosis progression, please check Dr. Tony Nalda’s podcast.

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When there’s a diagnosis of Scoliosis, it’s typically done within the area of the spine in which it’s affected.

Let’s identify the three main sections of the spine.

When we deal with spinal anatomy in the way that it’s supposed to look, the spine should be completely straight from the front, and from the side’s spine should have smooth flowing curves from your neck to your midback to your low back.

What is Scoliosis?

Scoliosis is when the spine shifts out of its normal alignment, it means an abnormal sideways curvature of the spine from the front of 10 degrees or more that also includes a twist or some rotation. In every case of Scoliosis, in order for it to be Scoliosis needs to have a twist or rotation involved in it.

So what is Lumbar Scoliosis?

Lumbar Scoliosis is Scoliosis of the low back.

Lumbar Scoliosis is affecting the lumbar spine but it’s only a certain section of the lumbar spine. By definition, Scoliosis is categorized by the apex of the curvature. The apex of the curvature is where the spine and the curve are where the bones are most horizontal.

You can imagine vertebrae and the curves that are tilting, the one that’s most horizontal would be considered the apex.

The lumbar spine is consist of five lumbar vertebrae which are numbered 1 through 5, so that's L1, L2, L3, L4, and L5.

Lumbar Scoliosis is when the apex is at L2 L3 or L4. It is only when the apex is in that certain section of the spine that it will be called Lumbar Scoliosis.

Lumbar Scoliosis is the most common type of adult-onset cases, which means that people do not have Scoliosis as a child, but now have Scoliosis as an adult or develop it as an adult.

For more information about Lumbar Scoliosis, please listen to Dr. Tony Nalda’s podcast below.

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Do you think you have Scoliosis?

Scoliosis is a very complex problem when associated with the spine and the body. The first thing you want to understand when we look at Scoliosis is what is it. 

Scoliosis is defined as a lateral curvature spine of 10 degrees or more with rotation. 

It is also defined into specific severities such as:

Dr. Nalda also has a fourth category which he calls Very Severe Scoliosis and this is where Cobb angle measurements can be of 80 degrees or greater.

A Cobb Angle is the measurement that you use to measure Scoliosis on an X-ray.

Let’s talk about two main types of Scoliosis, Scoliosis in children and Scoliosis in adults. What are the signs and symptoms that are associated with both of these types?

The most common signs when it comes to Scoliosis are:

For Adolescent Scoliosis patients, it’s uncommon for them to actually experience pain but adult patients tend to feel pain more frequently.

When an adolescent has Scoliosis, what’s causing their curve to worsen is the fact that they’re growing. This growth that causes the curve to worsen is elongating the body, it’s making the body longer so it’s causing no compression to the spine. 

What makes an adult case progress overtime, it’s gravity compressing down on their body which is increasing their curve. This compression leads to compression of the nerves, the tissues that exit the spine, which almost always will lead to pain at some point.

And this is the reason why adults usually feel pain and children do not.

There’s no relationship between the size of the curve and how much pain somebody feels, it’s how much the curve progresses as an adult which is most likely what’s going to cause their pain.

The common thing that people are worried about, they think that one of the symptoms of Scoliosis is that the spine will start pressing on the heart or lungs which will lead to lung or heart failure. 

This is actually the reason why they started Scoliosis surgery, 56 years ago, they thought that if the curve got to a certain size, they were going to press on a heart or a lung and cause death but that’s actually very rare.

For more information about the symptoms of Scoliosis for both adolescent and adult patients, please check out Dr. Nalda’s podcast below.

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These are the common questions we get from Scoliosis patients or people who know someone with Scoliosis:

Scoliosis doesn’t necessarily mean that it can limit your ability to be an athlete.

Actually, many athletes right now, have Scoliosis.

Take Usain Bolt, for example, he is the fastest-living human being on the planet but he has lumbar Scoliosis.

Most athletes use functional approaches to try to maintain their Scoliosis and keep it under control.

For Scoliosis patients, it can be challenging if the Scoliosis has progressed to a certain level and hasn’t been managed.

In this podcast, Dr. Tony Nalda talks about the sports and types of exercises you can do if you have Scoliosis and which ones are more appropriate.

He also talks about sports that you have to do with caution.

One thing that he wants to make clear is that there was never a general exercise or even sports that would be considered a treatment for the actual cause of Scoliosis or the progressive nature of Scoliosis.

Another misconception about Scoliosis, some think that they can use Yoga or Pilates to treat it.

Though these are important for patients for general fitness, these are not replacements for therapy or treatment to reduce your Scoliosis in a specific manner.

If you want exercises to deal with your Scoliosis specifically, it needs to be a specific exercise prescribed for your curve type.

What does that mean? 

Somebody with another curve type may not benefit from the same exercise that you do.

So these types of exercises can only be prescribed by a doctor who understands your Scoliosis and has evaluated you properly to make sure that you get the best result by performing the exercise that’s designed to actually reduce the curve.

Please check Dr. Tony Nalda Podcast for more information.

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The biggest percentage of Scoliosis cases is something called Idiopathic Scoliosis which means the cause is completely unknown.

There are many theories on what causes Scoliosis such as:

Scoliosis is a multifactorial problem and there are many reasons why a patient can develop this. There will always be another factor involved, not just solely based on hormonal or toxic or even familiar factors.

But when it comes to the spinal cord, which really talks about one of the main influences, we do believe the neurological system is being stressed physically at length.

What causing this is debatable.

If we think of it as a neurological symptom or response to an underlying factor, then the body is doing it in a way to protect itself.

The thing is whatever caused Scoliosis, once the curve starts, the cause may resolve itself but the curve will stay.

There are cases of Scoliosis we know what the cause is such as:

A syndrome has many symptoms associated with one category and therefore each department reaches a category of symptoms as normally treated individually by their specialists.

But when it comes to Scoliosis, understanding the cause may not influence your treatment at all because by the time we diagnose it, the curve is already structural.

For more information, please check Dr. Tony Nalda’s podcast below.

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Scoliosis is not just a misalignment of the spine.

It is a progressive, uncurable condition.

No matter what method you’re using, whether it be surgical, conservative treatment, whatever it is, there’s no fixing it.

However, it can be managed and treated proactively with conservative treatment and Chiropractic can be a modality within that program that you’re using to help manage a Scoliosis patient.

Does chiropractic care help scoliosis? Can a chiropractor correct scoliosis? How can Chiropractic help? Can scoliosis be fixed?

A lot of patients with Scoliosis will have symptoms such as:

These can draw a patient in a Chiropractic direction and they will start getting some Chiropractic adjustments. Depending on the type of scoliosis if idiopathic scoliosis,

Since they’re feeling better now, the patients will think they are treating scoliosis and that the curve is actually reducing but what’s really happening is the treatment that was provided is helping reduce the pain and some of the symptoms that they were feeling.

It’s very different than actually doing a program that’s going to reduce the curve more than what they’re feeling. You can visit a family-based chiropractic practice or a famous chiropractor the goal is to receive corrective chiropractic care.

While a chiropractor can provide supportive care for scoliosis, especially in managing symptoms, fully correcting scoliosis typically requires a more comprehensive approach, including targeted scoliosis treatment tailored to the individual's age, and may involve exercises designed to naturally improve spinal alignment.

Treating the symptoms and treating the curvature are two different things.

Although getting this type of Chiropractic care is a step in the right direction for scoliosis patients keep in mind, it is not a Scoliosis treatment.

Scoliosis-Specific Chiropractic Care is multi-modal and includes much more than just Chiropractic Adjustments for scoliosis pain so make sure that the Chiropractor you’re going to is trained specifically to help reduce and manage Scoliosis and has been doing this for years.

In this podcast, Dr. Tony Nalda also discussed:

Want to learn more? Check out Dr. Tony Nalda’s podcast below or head over to our YouTube channels and watch our YouTube videos.

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Scoliosis is measured in several categories: 

What constitutes Mild Scoliosis?

Mild Scoliosis is a curvature less than 25 degrees but greater than 10.

If you went to the doctor and you were diagnosed with Mild Scoliosis, either as a child, adolescent, or an adult, and you asked them what should you do, they will tell you to do nothing.

Which makes no sense.

One thing that we do know is small curves eventually become big curves. What every big curve has in common is that it was once small.

Nobody can tell you how fast your curve will progress and nobody knows how big your curve is going to become.

But why risk it?

The idea with mild curvature, you would want to reduce or manage them now so they don’t become anything that you don’t want them to be, later on.

One reason that people don’t treat Mild Scoliosis is that they don’t feel any pain, especially in adolescent cases, so they don’t worry about it.

Unfortunately, the opposite is true in adult cases, they almost always feel pain and it has no relationship to the size of the curve. 

When dealing with adult cases, people that are in their 40s to 60s who have severe cases, one thing that they will always say to Dr. Nalda is, “I wish somebody would have told me this will worsen, I would have done something more about it.”

The problem is most patients are told not to worry about it which is completely the wrong approach.

The good thing about Mild Scoliosis though, they respond well to treatments.

Patients have lots of options like therapy, rehab, and even bracing.

The treatment results are fantastic for mild cases but when you don't seek the proper treatment, this tends to progress overtime.

Want to know more? Check out Dr. Nalda’s podcast for more information.

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