i got the spinecor

[carolbills]

Spinecore website

Check out www.scoliosissystems.com. Changed my life. I am 60 and had a 60+ S curve. Was having lots of hip and neck pain and started to have spasms. I started wearing the brace and within two weeks my pain was gone, never had another spasm and my energy increased substantially. My curve has slowly reversed (10 months). I have spoken to a number of women in their 40-60 age range who have all had the same experience.

Good luck

[carolbills]

Hi Ivan...

The reduction is almost certainly only temporary, for as long as the brace is worn. In adults with structural scoliosis curves, as braceguy implies above, just about any brace will temporarily reduce scoliosis curves. However, if/when the brace is discontinued, the curves will return. Here's a simple explanation of why that happens:

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

Regards,
Linda

Linda,
I think you do a great disservice by discouraging people from trying an alternative bracing system. It may be permanent and it may not. However, the change it makes while wearing it makes a huge difference. This is not an "off the rack" brace. It is fitted very specifically to each person and can only be beneficial. The fact that it can make the changes it does (relieving pain and spasms and increasing energy) indicates that it is a viable alternative. Scoliosis is traumatic to the system and any time a brace can make that much of a difference it is giving the body relief from that trauma.

People in the 40 and over age group need alternatives. What is the worst that can happen? We wear a brace a few hours a day and live pain free with more energy? Children avoid surgery for longer and don't have to wear the Boston brace that atrophies their muscles? My back is so much stronger without the brace. I have better balance in ballet and can do more things in pilates, all without the brace on.

Not all of us are ready to go under the knife and some of us are not candidates for surgery for many reasons. I believe as a moderator you have should be more impartial.

[MATJESNIC]

Carol,

where do you get your spinecor brace? Does Dr. Rivard know about your success? If not, you need to let him know.

[structural75]

Carol,

I think you're approach and outlook is fantastic and encouraging to others who refuse to resign themselves to the last resort. The brace is one of a few effective ways to resists the relentless force of gravity that contributes greatly to the progression of curves. It makes perfect sense to be utilizing the brace, the alternative is obvious... allow gravity to continue worsening the curvature and .... .! Besides, the so-called 'permanent' approach involving surgery often comes with consequences of it's own... so it doesn't seem as though it's the be all, end all for everyone. Why would you not want to do something that improves the quality of your life before taking more drastic measures???

On bony deformation... it is NOT the case that bone remains permanently in the shape of the curvature. Bony deformation can occur at any time in life, for better or worse. It simply happens much slower than it does during adolescents when endplate growth is active and fast. Our bones are constantly deforming/reforming according to the forces placed upon them... Osteoclasts are cells that breakdown bone where it is not needed according to these forces and osteoblasts replace them with new bone. This is what takes place to form bone spurs/osteophytes. You see this happening in the elderly population most dramatically as they often go from an easy upright posture in adulthood to a slumped kyphotic posture (humped back) as they age and become overcome by gravity's influence. You certainly can't make their spines remain upright at that point in time because of bony deformation, but it wasn't the case for them 10, 20, or 30 years prior. If it can change at that later stage in life then there is no valid reason why it couldn't (in some cases) change for the better when given the proper facilitation.

Be careful of overly simplistic explanations and assumptions... Keep up your efforts and at the very least, enjoy your more comfortable body!

Kindly,
structural

[carolbills]

Carol,

where do you get your spinecor brace? Does Dr. Rivard know about your success? If not, you need to let him know.

I get my brace through Dr. Deutchmann & Lamantia (www.scoliosissystems.com) in the U.S. They were treating a lot of adult scoliosis patients in their practice and were the first ones to see the value of the spinecor brace for adults.

Throughout the years every doctor told me how severe my curves were and that there was nothing that could be done because I was an adult. It is really a disgrace to the medical profession. I have talked to so many other women looking into the spinecor brace who had the same experiences. Doctors just dismiss us and say 1) can't do anything 2) our curves don't get worse after we stop growing. Hard to believe they still think that way. That is why I am so passionate in getting the word out that there is something that can be done.

Carol

[MATJESNIC]

Carol,

I am very happy for you. Have you spoken to Dr. Rivard yet? I know someone had come on here who was 18 and was told she couldn't be helped because she was at maturity.

[dsal]

SpineCor questions: long

Hello. I only post occasionally, as my Scoliosis curves are minor. I have a 19 degree thoracic curve, and my cervical curve is greater--but I don't remember what the degree is. (Kind of dumb, I know--but my chiro measured out the 19 degree one and wrote that on the Xray film.) Quite often I can ignore the Scoliosis since it's not very severe--that is until I get a flare-up of some sort. I wasn't dx'ed with Scoliosis until I was in my late 30's/early forties. (I'm 47.)

Most recently, my left shoulder has been acting up again, and I was feeling a pull from my neck across the top of my shoulder. In addition, I was feeling an occasional tingle in my hand. I regularly see a massage therapist (once every 3 weeks), even when things aren't acting up, and she worked on my muscles in the shoulder & upper back area. That definitely helped. I've been seeing my chiropractor 3x a week to work on this for the last few weeks. In addition, even though I'm not a major fan of exercise, I'm working on being more disciplined about it now. I'm back to doing Elise Miller's Yoga for Scoliosis (dvd) exercises. The good news is that the pulling feeling across my shoulder is gone now(!), however, the hand tingle thing is still going on. The chiro took Xrays and this is what he found:

He said that I have advanced-for-my-age (47) arthritis in the upper part of my spine, and at least one bone spur where two discs have fused themselves together.

The chiro thinks that something is pinching my median nerve. That's why I get the tingling in my fingers. (Thumb, index and a little in the middle finger.)

Anyways, I always feel like my body posture needs self-adjusting. It feels like I should bring my right shoulder forwards a bit and my left shoulder pushed back a bit. And I do feel that my upper verterbrae are crowded. If I turn my head towards the left, looking over my shoulder, I have an awful pain from the base of my skull to the shoulder. (It feels the way your finger feels if you try to push your finger up and back towards the upper part of your wrist; it's like you know it isn't meant to go into that position!)

I'm wondering if you think the SpineCor brace might help with this? Would it help to remind me to correct my posture? Do you think it might help to keep my median nerve from being entrapped? Is the SpineCor "overkill" for someone whose thoracic curve is only 19 degrees?

I know the SpineCor will not give me a perfect spine, and I'm not expecting that. However, I'm pretty sure that my cervical arthritis is not going to magically disappear, and I'm wondering if the brace would help me align more correctly, thereby allowing less unnecessary stress on the arthritic verterbrae?

Thank you for reading this lengthy post, and I will definitely appreciate any and all thoughts on this!

dsal

[mamamax]

I also got the spinecor brace (4/8/09 same providers as some here) and am experiencing excellent results.

Good to see your success Carolbills!!

And how are things today?