With no known treatment, acupuncture is the key to health maintenance.                                             It alleviates Scoliosis symptoms and keeps surgery at bay.

Scoliosis is a sideways curvature of the spine, often developed around puberty. It affects over three million Americans per year. Symptoms include uneven posture (back, hips, legs, or shoulders), and/or back pain. In severe cases, back curvature may prevent the lungs or the heart from working optimally, cause severe pain and misaligned posture.

Scoliosis symptoms range from mild to dangerous and can be deadly (if left untreated). There are many potential causes such as spine injury, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, genetic disorders, tumors, inflammation, and postural asymmetry. Typically, females are more prone to developing Scoliosis.

While there is no known cure, treatments exist to help manage the condition. Diet is of utmost importance. Foods rich in calcium, vitamin D, and E, are considered beneficial. Fried foods, alcohol, salt, and preservatives are highly discouraged. Regular exercise and social support are highly encouraged. To treat Scoliosis, patients typically visit a neurologist and an orthopedist. A neurologist examines any muscle weaknesses/imbalances/numbness as well as reflexes and may prescribe medication. The patient typically undergoes x-ray tests (to check the extent of the spine curvature) and MRIs/CT scans (to check for potential causes). In extreme cases, patients undergo spinal fusions, which bind or fuse the spinal bones (with metal rods) to keep them in place.

Given the graphic and painful nature of such surgeries, it is no wonder that patients seek alternative treatment. While no preventative medicine exists, acupuncture may be able to keep the most severe symptoms at bay. Acupuncture alleviates symptoms and prevents/slows further degeneration caused by Scoliosis or any related condition such as Lordosis (inward, lower-back curvature), Kyphosis (abnormal spine curvature), Spina Bifida (malformed spinal vertebrae), Stenosis (compressed spine), or any disease affecting the central nervous system (such as Multiple Sclerosis or Neurofibromatosis). In 2008 Katherina Schroth performed a study (in collaboration with the Spinal Deformities Rehabilitation Center in Germany) observing female patients, ages fourteen to sixteen. The sub-group of patients receiving acupuncture noted a marked improvement in spine curvature (sixteen to thirty-four degrees) over the group that did not. The alternative treatment proved to be successful in both children and adults. There are documented cases of adults seeking medical treatment and only experiencing pain relief with continued acupuncture.

In combination with a thorough medical regimen, diet, exercise, yoga, and physical therapy, acupuncture can truly work wonders and improve treatment results.

I often tell my patients who come into the office with their back and neck hunched forward, to straighten up or they will end up looking like a giant cocktail shrimp. While this does elicit a chuckle between us, I then remind them of why being hunched forward can lead to many other health disorders besides having a pain in the neck or in the back. I use the shrimp as an example because it is something that everyone can visualize how it looks once it is cooked: curled forward like a ball. When this position occurs in the human body, it can affect many different systems of the body negatively. This posture can be seen commonly on the neck. In this article I will discuss how the neck/ head juts forward, why this position can cause several problems to the different systems of the body, and what types of acute or chronic issues it can cause to the body.

Forward head posture, also called ‘tech neck’, ‘scholar’s neck’ or ‘reader’s neck’, is a very common postural problem, affecting between 66% and 90% of the population. For simple purposes, we will refer to this phenomenon as ‘Shrimp’s Neck’. Not only does this posture look unattractive, it can cause problems within the musculoskeletal, neurological, and respiratory problems. When the skull leans more than an inch forward over the 1st vertebrae over the neck (atlas), this signifies that you have a forward head posture.

According to the Journal of Physical Therapy Science, forward head posture can affect the body by:

Shrimp’s Neck also impacts the body’s alignment to center of gravity. This imbalance affects the torso and every joint in your body as well. It tries to adapt to different positional changes being altered by balancing several control mechanisms within the body. It leads to decreasing your natural ability to balance when it is engaging in different activities along with overusing different muscles of the body that is not typically engaged, often increasing the risk of injury to the body.

How do you know if you have a Shrimp’s Neck? Try this simple test to see...

• Stand with your back along with the heels positioned shoulder width apart against a wall.
• Press your buttocks against the wall while the shoulder blades are touching the wall. If you are able, you can squeeze the shoulder blades together to help it get aligned to the wall and into a more neutral position.
• If the back of your head naturally touches the wall, then you are fine. However, if you are having difficulty doing so, you have a Shrimp’s Neck and you need to get it corrected.

Not treating a Shrimp’s Neck can lead to many health issues within the body such as:

Having a chronic neck and/ or back issues? Have you been diagnosed by your doctor to have arthritis of the neck or lower back? The bad news is that you are most likely to suffer from spinal stenosis. The good news? The treatment techniques incorporated from Fast Relief Acupuncture can help relieve many of the symptoms in a safe, natural, and effective method. But first, let’s take a look at what spinal stenosis is.

Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the spaces of the spine, where it can put pressure on the nerves that comes out of the spine commonly seen in the lower back and the neck. Some people with may not have symptoms while others may experience pain, tingling, numbness and muscle weakness and can worsen over time. Typically, people who display ‘forward flexed’ or ‘hunched forward’ postures of the neck and the torso are the ones who most likely suffer from stenosis. A surefire way to diagnosis someone with this condition is to ask if they feel pain relief when the person leans or bends forward on the lower back or the neck. You can see this at a supermarket when people, usually the elderly, lean forward on their shopping carts while they are moving.

The most common cause of stenosis is wear-and-tear changes in the spine column related to osteoarthritis. If the spinal stenosis is severe, surgery is recommended to create additional space for the spinal cord or the accompanying nerves.

The two main types of spinal stenosis are:

• Cervical stenosis: The narrowing occurs in the part of the spine in your neck.
• Lumbar stenosis: The narrowing occurs in the part of the spine in your lower back where it is the most common.

Fast Relief Acupuncture has a developed a unique treatment system where spinal stenosis can be treated with long lasting effects! With a specialized combination of precise diagnostic techniques, decompression of the mind, modern treatment modalities such as electro- acupuncture, and manual therapy targeting specific causes of the problem, Fast Relief Acupuncture can make your chronic pain be a problem of your past! Call today to get the relief you deserve!