New here with many questions

[Melanie82]

I'm 23 years old and was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 11. I was supposed to wear a brace but becoming a teenage girl, I thought I knew better and had to dress in skimpy clothing. So the brace came off. At the time I think I had a 21 degree curve or something like that. I know it's S shaped.

At age 16 and on I started really noticing the curves in my body. They were no longer something I had to search for. And just in the last few years the rib hump has gotten to the point where I can shove 4 fingers halfway under it and the hump on my back has become prominent. I look like I'm always leaning on my left hip/leg and I'm extremely short waisted. This has done a number on my self-esteem. Fortunately, I don't experience any pain. Only when I do weight training and my body reminds me that I'm putting pressure on only some unhappy parts of my spine. I can't afford medical treatment and I don't have insurance.

I hate to sound like a cry baby but I get extremely depressed over it sometimes. Some of my questions are:

1. Are there any excercises or stretches you can describe for me?
2. Can a basic chiropractor help me? My mom has a chiropractor that comes to the house sometimes and he has offered to help me if he can.
3. I'm considering buying one of those Victorian style corset things. Will corsetting help?

I hope I don't sound vain or stupid, but it's a big aesthetic thing for me.
I have read as much as I could on this site that I can for the night. Knowing that there is a friendly and informative place like this on the internet is so comforting. Thank you to everyone who shares their stories or shows their support so that others could feel less alone.

[LindaRacine]

Hi Melanie...

I've never seen a single case documented in a peer reviewed journal, of chiropractic helping structural scoliosis curves. There was a study published some years ago that showed that chiropractic does not change curves:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract

A corset will not help either. Here's an explanation as to why:

http://www.scoliosislinks.com/AlternativesDontWork.htm

If you're interested in an exercise program, and do not want to try to find a physical therapist who specializes in the spine, you might want to try http://www.yogaforscoliosis.com.

I'd like to encourage you to get to a scoliosis specialist in your area to see if your curve has actually progressed. You can find a list of specialists here:

http://www.srs.org/directory/directory.asp

Regards,
Linda

[Melanie82]

Thanks for replying

thanks Linda

Another thing. I seem to recall that the scoliosis seemed to get worse when I stopped working out. I used to be in a lot of sports and excercise programs. Do you think that if I would have stayed that way that the progression would have been more slight? Would it slow the curving if I did now?

Thanks for the links. I'm excited to check out the yoga lesson and the list of specialists although I'm not sure how much it will cost without insurance.

[LindaRacine]

Hi Melanie...

There's no definitive research that shows that exercise either helps or hurts structural scoliosis curves.

Regards,
Linda

[summer]

Yoga helped me whether you take a class or two or rent dvd's from the library