• Historically, scoliosis treatment is based on the curve measurement
• The curve measurement is not the only thing effecting quality of life issues and pain levels
• Given that, why do anything based on the curve measurement alone?
• At ScoliSMART, we treat patients based upon a “risk assessment”
• Example: Younger children with the same degree curve as older children need to have more aggressive treatment because they have more growth ahead of them
• What we see on an x-ray that we call scoliosis is not really the entire condition, It is the end-stage cascade of things going wrong in scoliosis
• We seek lasting-outcomes and to prevent anything from sabotaging that
• We assess biochemical and genomic risk factors
• Treatments are tailored to the individual

• What is scoliosis bootcamp?
• What does bootcamp entail? 
• The Michigan office has had patients from 11 countries & 32 states
• Bootcamp is for patients with scoliosis, either children or adults
• Bootcamp Day 1 consists of formulating a custom, patient-specific physical therapy routine
• The patient spends the remainder of the week mastering that routine
• Divided between 1/2 prehab/rehab and 1/2 warm down
• 1 - 2 weeks long
• Limited to 4 patients per week 
   

• Scoliosis patients have lower bone density in general than their non-scoliosis peers
• Bone density is related to vitamin D levels
• The average level of vitamin D in patients with idiopathic scoliosis is 24 nanograms
• The labs consider >30 nanograms to be normal, but the healthy range is really >50 nanograms

• Menopause leads to bone density decline
• Menopause is an isolated life-stage where women go through a lot of hormone changes
• Men experience andropause
• Perimenopause is a more accurate term
• The process can take ten years
• There is a difference between what is normal and what is common

• Getting together around the holidays & eating too much can aggravate the back pain of someone with scoliosis
• The chief impact of scoliosis in adults is musculoskeletal pain
• Extra stress & leverage on the spine generates pain
• Back muscles are anti-gravity muscles, which spasm when fatigued and cause pain
• Improving the curve or vertical balance will relieve pain Metabolic aspects can dramatically increase pain via an inflammation response
• Dr. Morningstar lists these metabolic aspects & how to tackle them
• 1lb of body weight = 3 lbs of force on your joints

• People often consider the impacts of hormonal imbalance on reproduction
• The impact on mood & sleep should be front & center
• For scoliosis patients, the accompanying hormone imbalances will influence the behavior of children & adults alike
• Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, & metabolic pathways
• Discusses options for restoring normal physiology

• Scoliosis is a whole condition, not just a curvature
• 40 years of research has evolved our understanding of scoliosis, some as far back as the 1980s
• ScoliSMART has internal research, but a large amount of research is already published externally
• The curvature is the predominate symptom of a much bigger picture
• Serotonin and melatonin levels play a role is scoliosis

Topics include: 

• How ScoliSMART came to be 
• Why it exists now 
• What you can expect from ScoliSMART in the near future

• Scoliosis pain management requires a multi-dimensional approach
• The pain is often chronic
• The curvature balance is more important than the degree of the curve as it relates to pain
• Factors other than the curvature itself also contribute to the pain
• To learn more, visit us at treatingscoliosis.com
• Join our Facebook group "Scoliosis Warriors"

• Hormones are signaling molecules
• Conventional wisdom is that hormone decline is normal with aging
• In fact, we are aging because our hormones are declining
• Hormones affect bone density
• Many adult scoliosis patients get marginalized
• One of the biggest things to help adult scoliosis patients is to test hormones with saliva testing
• To learn more, visit us at treatingscoliosis.com
• Join our Facebook group "Scoliosis Warriors"