copes brace?

[krazytyler]

Hello everyone this is my first time posting on this site but i got a question..
im a guy, 18, about 150 lbs. 5'7" and pretty muscular with 54 degree thoratic and 35 degree lumbar curvatures.
everytime i do my 6 month check up at shriners in california they always tell me they'v never seen someone so athletic and muscular (im a wrestler) for having scoliosis.
well iv been seeing one of my friends who is a chiropractor and he is helping me out free of charge and he recommended the dr. dynamic air brace with stretching and other things of course, but what my question comes down to is:

is it too late to at least get my curve reduced about 50 %?
my spine is really loose and moves freely so the only thing really keeping it from straightening is my muscle imabalance... can any1 relate to me? and ill never result to surgery...

[Jinseeker]

I'm your height but weigh little less, and i pretty much have the same degree of curve as yours(mine is s shaped). With a 54 degree thoracic curve you must have a pretty noticeable rib hump, do you? Still, i can't believe they let you wrestle, i never even got the chance to participate in army training classes in college. But as of your question, i personally don't think any brace will do much to change a curve that high and since you are pretty much done growing at 18. i don't think your curve will ever be able to be reduced by 50 percent unless you went through surgery. There are many deceiving chiropractic programs and whatnot out there claiming to reduce curves, but remember all this haven't been proven and heavily evaluated in peer to peer journals. I also heard a lot of bad contradictive things about the Copes program. My only suggestion to you is to seek advice from an orthopedic specialist in regards to what's best for you to do with your scoliosis. Mine is idiopathic and isn't progressing that much or none at all, i choose to just wait and see what to do for now.

Good luck.

[CurvySAT05]

This was posted on one of the earlier posts here on the board. You can search for it by clicking on the bar above under search and typing in Copes arrested or something to that affect. You can search many other topics of interest (or anything on the site) this way.




Copes treatment closed

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Here is a recent excerpt from Quackwatch:Proprietor of dubious scoliosis clinic charged with insurance fraud.


Arthur L. Copes, who has owned and operated the Scoliosis Treatment Recovery System Clinic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for many years, has been arrested on 117 counts of insurance fraud for his alleged involvement in a medical billing insurance scam and for practicing medicine without a license. Copes has developed a back brace and treatment system that he claims is successful in the treatment of scoliosis. Attorney General Special Agents who investigated Copes's activities have alleged:

Even though Copes performed all of the treatment, he submitted numerous bills to insurance companies using the names and signatures of licensed chiropractors, without their knowledge and in many cases long after they had left the clinic.

Patients were charged a large sum of money, up to $10,000 in one case, and advised that their insurance company would cover a certain percentage of the cost of the treatment. The insurance companies were fraudulently billed more than $138,000 [1].

The clinic is now closed. If convicted, Copes faces a possible sentence of five years and/or a $5,000 fine per count on the charges of insurance fraud. The possible sentence for practicing medicine without a license includes a fine not more than $3,000 or prison for not more than three months, or both, and each day a violation continues is considered a separate offense. The Louisiana Attorney General has invited people with relevant information to contact his office at 1-800-256-4506. [Owner of Scoliosis Treatment Recovery System in Baton Rouge surrenders to Attorney General Special Agents. Louisiana Attorney General news release, Feb 23, 2006] http://www.ag.state.la.us/ViewPressRel.aspx?RelID=449 Copes, who refers to himself as "Dr. Copes," has a Ph.D. in orthotics from nonaccredited Columbia Pacific University, which was closed by court order in 2001. Barrett S. Court orders Columbia Pacific University to cease operating illegally in California. Quackwatch, revised, Feb 26, 2006] http://www.quackwatch.org/04Consume...n/News/cpu.html Copes's Scoliosis Treatment Advanced Recovery System ("STARS") is less effective and far more expensive than standard methods of scoliosis treatment. [Barrett S. "Dr." Arthur Copes arrested for insurance fraud. Quackwatch, Feb 27, 2006] http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/copes.html

[LindaRacine]

Krazy...

Any curve reduction from a brace would be temporary. Your curves should return to their original degrees when the brace treatment is discontinued. The benefit of a brace is in holding curves so they don't increase.

Regards,
Linda