Scoliosis and asthma

[yaf_user681_23350]

Hi my Son has scoliosis because his asthma was not controlled for a very long time. Please ask your doctors to check your childrens spines. We were all so worried about keeping my son alive that we overlooked the obvious. I did keep asking why his rib was sticking out but kept getting fobbed off. We have been seeing a chiropractor for nearly 2 years and the treatment is working but I feel so guilty. There is so much that can be done if it's seen early either by the NHS or privately. I just wanted to make other parents aware as the health care professionals probably wont be checking.

Kate x

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Hi Kate.

So sorry to hear your son is suffering from this. I know when I was at school we had a kid with severe scoliosis that he had surgery to insert 4 13mm stainless steel rods in his back to straighten it, the pressure was so great that he actually bent the first lot, so had to have it redone and a fibreglass body cage for 6 months. Not sure what caused his condition but the procedure worked, but hope the course you're following will yield favourable results.

Chris

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better posture and asthma

Asthmatics tend to have their shoulders forward and people generally have their head down and tilted forward resulting in many complaints and ailments.

I slipped a disc about 2 years ago and found a book on posture which was all about the alexander technique. It was very helpful with my back but also helps with correcting my lifelong asthmatic posture(shoulders forward, slightly hunched being a typical ashtmatic posture).

The theory goes that many people are poorly aligned and much stems from pressure on the top two vertebrae. If you imagine an (invisible!) thread connected at the top of your head pulling you upwards....if you hold your head like this then your shoulders, back, hips, knees and ankles go into their natural alignment. Many hip and knee issues are related to poor alignment/posture.

This can also have a huge benefit for asthmatics as it helps to hold the chest cavity correctly. This means that the alveoli (2/3 of alveoli here) in the lower lungs get a chance to help the breathing process. Many asthmatics with poor posture and breathing tend to use only shallow breathing (shallow depth with varying volumes but tend to be high volumes with faster breathing rate than required) from the upper chest rather than deep breathing (NB not large volume but abdominla or diaphragm breathing).

It also gave tips on correct alignement for sleeping and for 18 months i slept with a pillow between my legs to align me correctly to protect my damaged disc. great tips about sleeping on your back to place a pillow behind your knees and on your side (i only sleep on my side) to have it between your knees. A little disruptive (in spite of intention to design something like a padded knee support i never did it!) to my sleeping but great for my back recovery.

Personally, i found buteyko breathing life changing regarding my asthma. I olny wish i had learned it as a child. It taught me how to control my breathing generally and how using techniques in various situations can keep my breathing under control at all times. It eliminated the panic element (so often present in childhood asthma as it was in my case) and replaced it with a quiet confidence that i could maintain the technique in previously stressful (to my asthma) situations.

To be learned from a trained pratitioner under your asthma teams supervision ideally. From books and DVDs the rate of success is far lower and can lead poor adaption of the techniques (which although simple may need to be tweaked by an expert) and thus it doesnt seem to work.