Scoliosis Hereditary

[MaVeRiCk7]

Sorry for not posting it has been a long time since I posted as I suffer from a Pilonidal Sinus so been recovering from that.

Anyway back to the topic I heard in watching and waiting that Scoliosis is Hereditary. I do not know of anyone in my generation to have scoliosis so mine might not be genetical.

[LindaRacine]

Hi Maverick...

I have 7 siblings and 2 parents without scoliosis. I'll let the geneticists give you all the details, but I believe it's possible for a child with 2 parents who don't have a disease, to create a child with the disease, simply by mixing their genes. And, it's also possible that some scoliosis is genetic and some caused by some other element.

Regards,
Linda

[Dingo]

Scoliosis and heredity

MaVeRiCk7

Although genes may play a role in Scoliosis susceptability and in how the disease progresses it now seems unlikely that Scoliosis is a "genetic" disease.

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in twins: a population-based survey.
According to this large 2007 study if one identical twin has Scoliosis the other will have it just 13% of the time. This strongly suggests that although genes may make a child susceptible to Scoliosis the largest factors involved are environmental. Nobody knows what those environmental factors are.

What causes Scoliosis?

Melatonin Signaling Dysfunction in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis
Scoliosis is caused by or closely related to a very specific dysfunction in the central nervous system. Once again nobody knows why this happens. On the plus side a blood test is going to be released as early as this year that will allow children to detect this dysfunction even before their curve develops.

It's important to remember that the rate of Scoliosis is not constant. In Jamaica Scoliosis was a very unusual condition until the mid 1960s. After that the rate shot up dramatically. In the early 1980s the rate began to fall again. This wouldn't occur if Scoliosis was a genetic disease.

My personal belief is that Scoliosis is like most diseases. It is the result of genetic susceptability and environmental damage. Like Type 1 Diabetes I believe the environmental component is probably a common, childhood infection.

Recently scientists proved that Narcolepsy was an autoimmune disease.

Dr Mignot said: "Narcolepsy is probably the result of a series of unfortunate events, starting with genetic predisposition, involvement of an environmental trigger such as an infection, then T-cell activation, then effects on many other arms of the immune system."

Don't be surprised if ten years from now scientists determine that Scoliosis works in a similar way.

[LindaRacine]

MaVeRiCk7

Although genes may play a role in Scoliosis susceptability and in how the disease progresses it now seems unlikely that Scoliosis is a "genetic" disease.

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in twins: a population-based survey.
According to this large 2007 study if one identical twin has Scoliosis the other will have it just 13% of the time. This strongly suggests that although genes may make a child susceptible to Scoliosis the largest factors involved are environmental. Nobody knows what those environmental factors are.

What causes Scoliosis?

Melatonin Signaling Dysfunction in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis
Scoliosis is caused by or closely related to a very specific dysfunction in the central nervous system. Once again nobody knows why this happens. On the plus side a blood test is going to be released as early as this year that will allow children to detect this dysfunction even before their curve develops.

It's important to remember that the rate of Scoliosis is not constant. In Jamaica Scoliosis was a very unusual condition until the mid 1960s. After that the rate shot up dramatically. In the early 1980s the rate began to fall again. This wouldn't occur if Scoliosis was a genetic disease.

My personal belief is that Scoliosis is like most diseases. It is the result of genetic susceptability and environmental damage. Like Type 1 Diabetes I believe the environmental component is probably a common, childhood infection.

Recently scientists proved that Narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease.


Don't be surprised if ten years from now scientists determine that Scoliosis works in a similar way.

Note that this is Dingo's theory, which differs from the scientific community.

[Dingo]

scientific community

LindaRacine

My links point to the latest, credible scientific studies on Scoliosis and other diseases. If you have links to better or more recent infomation please post them.

In all likelihood particular genes do create an increased or specific susceptability to Scoliosis. This is true for most, perhaps all disease. But that's a far cry from calling Scoliosis a genetic disease.

Scientists recently discovered a gene that makes people susceptible to Leprosy but that doesn't make it a genetic disease. Leprosy is caused by a chronic bacterial infection that can be easily cured with antibiotics. The genes involved in Leprosy probably create a susceptability to infection or to the disease process itself.

[jrnyc]

It's just my private opinion, but i really think certain habits & ways we live & environmental factors come into play a great deal as far as causes of scoli..i dont believe in disease model for this..but that is just my private theory....

best of luck to all the august surgery guys..thoughts & prayers go with you...

jess

[Dingo]

Autism gene example

Autism gene example

Many people in the general public might assume that when scientists announce they've found the first, common Autism gene they are reading about a gene that causes Autism.

Here is the fine print.

The international team of researchers looked at DNA from more than 12,000 people, some from families affected by autism, and unaffected volunteers.

While this gene variant is common in the general population, we discovered that it occurs about 20 percent more often in children with autism

I think I read in another article that around one third of the population has this gene. In other words a third of the population has an increased susceptability to Autism for reasons that scientists don't yet understand. The vast majority of people with this gene won't have Autism.

Any common gene(s) involved in Scoliosis will likely work in a similar way.

[bas2101]

Dingo-

Interesting that pest management control took off in Jamaica in the late 1950's early 1960's:

http://www.oired.vt.edu/ipmcrsp/meet...M-Jamaica.html

And, that pesticide/herbicide is linked to scoliosis in tadpoles, fish and the embryos of mallards:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7...?dopt=Abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/69318?dopt=Abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...?dopt=Abstract

I assume the above are part of the scientific community.

[Dingo]

pest management

bas2101

Interesting stuff. Our bodies haven't evolved a natural resistance to pesticides. It's easily possible that some people have a genetic susceptability to a particular pesticide or toxin. The same chemical that is harmless to most people may damage the nervous system and cause Scoliosis in others.

Some children have a susceptability to Aspirin. If they take it they get a potentially life threatening condition knowns as Reye's syndrome. Interestingly enough Reye's is very rare in adults and when it occurs it's mild.

Scoliosis could work something like that, but we have no idea what to look for. Hopefully when scientists find and confirm a few susceptability genes it will give them a clue as to what the environmental half of the equation is.