• Part of the cholesterol pathway
• Every hormone in our body is made from cholesterol
• Lowering cholesterol can be taken too far, to the point that a person cannot make hormones, leading to premature aging and neurodegenerative diseases
• Your brain runs on cholesterol
• Pregnenolone is one of the first byproducts of cholesterol metabolism
• Cholesterol rises in the winter months
• Pregnenolone converts into progesterone and DHEA; both important
• Progesterone is implicated in scoliosis
• Females with scoliosis have about half of the available progesterone that those without scoliosis have

- The incident of D3 insufficiency and deficiency is elevated in scoliosis patients

- Met analyses are the gold standard of studies

- It’s mostly people who are ill to begin with who have their vitamin D levels checked, and that influences what’s considered the normal level

- Studies suggest a positive correlation between Vitamin D levels above 70 and being cancer-protective

- Addressing bone density loss is critical in achieving success when addressing scoliosis

- Most women require a vitamin D level of 90 or higher to address bone density issues

- Vitamin D toxicity is difficult to ascertain

- Vitamins D varies with the seasons; best to get a baseline at summer and winter

- Vitamin D and K2 both have half lives which mean you don’t have to take them everyday

#scoliosistreatment #scoliosis

Links to referenced articles:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36892518/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35999823/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19646383/

• Ballet, gymnastics, and volleyball tend to have more children and young adults with progressive curves

#scoliosis #backgenius

• 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