Melatonin may have helped my son's Scoliosis

[Dingo]

I posted this in the research forum but I thought it might help someone else who is watching and waiting.

Background

On my son's 4th birthday his pediatrician noticed a small rib hump. He did not take an x-ray and he told us to watch and wait. On Scott's 5th birthday the rib hump had increased and his pediatrician sent us to a scoliosis specialist. My son was diagnosed with a 12 degree thorocolumbar curve.

How fast had his curve been progressing?
From old movies we can tell that his curve started sometime between the age of 2 and 3.5. This means that his curve had been progressing at a rate between 4 and 8 degrees per year.
Start age 2 = 4 degrees per year
Start age 3 = 6 degrees per year
Start age 3.5 = 8 degrees per year

What we did
Around 2 months after Scott's official diagnosis we blacked out his room to increase his natural prodution of Melatonin. His sleep and mood in the morning improved immediately. At around 5 months we started giving my son pharmeceutical grade fish oil supplements with his breakfast in the hope that it might increase Melatonin production and reduce any inflammation associated with Scoliosis.

Recheck
A week ago Scott visitied the doctor for his first recheck. It had been 7.5 months and his curve measured 11 degrees. The doctor called it stable.

What might this mean?
A) The doctor measured his curve incorrectly
B) The curve stopped progressing on it's own
C) Scott's curve stopped progressing because we increased his natural production of Melatonin. This is consistent with the findings of the Japanese study mentioned at the beginning of this thread on Melatonin and Scoliosis.

[concerned dad]

Great post Dingo!

[Ballet Mom]

Okay, it's worth a shot. My daughter has the double-jointed joint structure which apparently must give her a tendency towards scoliosis. As I said in another post, the hyper-extended joints or double-jointedness seems to go hand in hand with scoliosis in the ballet world, although it usually results in mild cases.

So what was causing my daughter's rapid progression prior to bracing? My daughter did used to get night terrors when she was a toddler and so we used to keep the light on for her at night. She had a terrible nightmare when she was a little older of all her Barbies in her room attacking her and then was scared to fall asleep without the lights on (even though we removed the Barbies). She still refuses to fall asleep without the light on when she goes to bed. I have to admit that sometimes I fall asleep and don't get up to turn the light out and certainly the light is on for a few hours each night while she's sleeping prior to my turning it out.

Thanks for having posted about this, I was thinking the trigger might have been the infectious disease organisms you were also pointing out, but I suppose maybe this could be a factor.

So, I guess I will find something to block out the streetlight outside, move her alarm clock and make sure the light is turned off immediately after she falls asleep. Specifically, what do you mean when you talk about "pharmeceutical grade fish oil supplements"? Can you name some brands so I can get some with the correct omega-X fatty acids? It certainly doesn't sound like any of this could hurt her, so it's worth a try.

Thanks.

[mamandcrm]

Hey Dingo,

I think it's great that you are trying to be proactive with your child. There certainly is nothing harmful about blacking out the lights and fish oil. I have been doing both for my kids for years, for no reason that has anything to do with scoliosis. I read years ago that kids who use nightlights are more likely to need glasses down the road; and that fish oil may help ADD/ADHD kids (or borderline kids) and generally promotes brain health. I find it a bonus now that maybe those measures may help my daughter.

[Dingo]

Thanks you guys

Thanks you guys, you are all too nice. I hope this helps someone and like mamandcrm said it certainly won't hurt.

Ballet Mom
Scoliosis appears to be caused by a combination of genes and environment. I believe that like Type 1 Diabetes the environmental component for the type of Scoliosis found in this study is infectious disease. As soon as this year we'll have a blood test that will tell us if our children have this type of Scoliosis.

However even if your/my child has this kind of Scoliosis that doesn't mean that Melatonin won't help. Lack of Melatonin might not cause Scoliosis but maximizing Melatonin might be an effective treatment or at least helpful. The Japanese researchers think it helps quite a bit, so does a spine surgeon I talked to the other day.

In addition, physical therapy might be able to overcome Scoliosis no matter the cause. This study (and 2 others just like it) suggest that just 30 minutes of Torso rotation exercise per week can stop and even reverse curve progression. I heard through the grapevine that a 4th Torso Rotation study may be starting up in Texas very soon.

God Bless the Internet. I wouldn't have been able to find out any of this just 20 years ago.

[hope404]

exercise???

Dingo... where can I find or see this torso rotation exercise. Curious as to what it is???

[Dingo]

Torso Rotation study

hope404

Just click this link. The study starts on the 2nd page of the PDF.

I believe this is the machine they used but any torso rotation machine should work. Any good gym should have one of these. The point is to create equal muscle strength on both sides of the spine. It appears that all children with Scoliosis have muscle asymmetry.

This gym offers a program based on Dr. Mooney's work.

[Ballet Mom]

God Bless the Internet. I wouldn't have been able to find out any of this just 20 years ago.

I totally agree. Used with great caution, the internet is an amazing tool.

[Writer]

There have been previous discussions of Dr Mooney's Medx experiments here. Search on "medx". I've worked with the machine myself; it's inconclusive whether it helped the curves. I can testify, though, that before starting there was a very large discrepancy in the weight I could push to my concave side vs the convex. It evened out in about two months of a few minutes' work 2-3x/week. The system works very fast, and it's easy.

Problem is that it is not so easy to determine exactly which muscles are being exercised, and it's not apparent to me that the researchers even attempted to determine this fully. They mention a few muscle groups, but not all that are likely involved in a scoliosis. My scoliosis is not configured like your daughter's scoliosis, or her best friend's, so of course we are likely to get different results.

Also, the machine focuses on rotation -- one plane, two dimensions. But scoliosis is a three-dimensional problem. The spine needs to be elongated as well, an aspect which this machine does not address. There are significant out-of-balance muscle groups that it does not target. So it can never be the only answer. They do mention lumbar extensor training, but that's not part of the rotational study.

However, I think that the rotation machine deserves very serious consideration as part of a rehab program. Before putting my child on it, though, I'd consult with a physical therapist who really understood the muscular dynamics of scoliosis in general and the child's individual scoliotic configuration, as well as the function of the machine. You'd want to understand which muscle groups would be likely to improve on the machine, and be reassured that no already overly strong muscles would be strengthened further and thus perhaps increase the curve.

Mooney is a very smart and imaginative spine doctor. Good for him for inaugurating this research. Too bad he's abandoned the project, but others have picked it up and will surely continue.

[Dingo]

Scoloisis 3-dimensions

Writer

Also, the machine focuses on rotation -- one plane, two dimensions. But scoliosis is a three-dimensional problem.

You are correct. This line of research gets scant attention and torso strengthening is one of many possible strength training exercises that could be beneficial. I talked to one of the scientists involved and he mentioned that other strength training exercises may help. I didn't press him on the specifics because my general sense is that strength training is beneficial because it promotes symmetry. It's well documented that child atheletes have high rates of Scoliosis probably because they favor one side and develop muscle asymmetry.

PubMed - Scoliosis in swimmers.

The high-repetition nature of competitive swimming causes imbalances of musculature in the adolescent athlete. Scoliosis as a musculoskeletal condition of the adolescent can be detected in high incidence among swimmers owing to the training phenomenon.

If Asymmetry is the problem some of the exercises on this page may help. I am not a scientist so I can't say this with conviction.

Bodybuilding.com middle back exercises

Bodybuilding.com lower back exercises

I should note that when I was a kid in the 1970s and 1980s everyone knew that strength training was harmful for growing children. Whoops, I guess we were wrong.

WebMD - American Academy of Pediatrics on Strength Training for children

[Dingo]

Mechanical cause of Scoliosis

Writer

You might be interested in this. I'm doing an interview with a spine surgeon who holds patents on several medical devices. Some of these are for Scoliosis, others are designed for other spinal problems. I hope to post the whole thing within the next week or two.

Anyway you might be interested to read his explanation of the mechanical cause of Scoliosis.

Scoliosis is not just a lateral bending of the spine. It is a lateral bend linked with rotation. For rotation to occur there must be an axis of rotation in the midline. I proved this with growing rabbits and a dog while I was still in training. What happens is while the spine grows, the back of the spine is tethered by the ligaments, while the front (where the vertebral bodies are which support the weight) grows without restraints. Eventually there is too much length in the front, and very tight structures in the back. The spine then pops off to the side creating a spiral around the tight structures in the back (which stay almost straight). As such it is growth that powers the curve. If the posterior structures can be stretched-out by hormones of pregnancy, exercise, sleep, etc. or the anterior structure shorten by dehydration of the disk, aging, hormones, etc.; then the curve would be expected to improve. After a certain amount of curve, gravity prevents spontaneous correction.

My take away from this is that the muscles in the back pull the spine out of place. This is consistent with asymmetry.

Since nearly all growth takes place at night we began stretching out my son before he goes to bed. After about 5 mintues of stretching we run a massager up and down his back for another minute or so. I don't know if this will help but stretching his back before he sleeps makes some degree of sense. In any case I don't have 10 years to wait for the clinical study.

[Pooka1]

It's well documented that child atheletes have high rates of Scoliosis probably because they favor one side and develop muscle asymmetry.

PubMed - Scoliosis in swimmers.

I find that strange. Swimming would seem to require symmetrical movement to stay in the lane. If they are moving asymmetrically then they are compensating for a pre-existing asymmetry it would seem.

I would think certain riding disciplines that focus on absolute straightness and symmetry in the horse (dressage for example) requires riders to be absolutely symmetrical or to completely compensate for any asymmetries in their bodies. This asymmetry, even in folks without scoliosis is one of the millions of reasons why most folks never make it out of the lower levels.

So not all sports are equal in this regard.

[Dingo]

I don't know either

I find that strange. Swimming would seem to require symmetrical movement to stay in the lane.

A swimmer might be able to explain this but evidently the body finds a way to favor a side. I believe that dancers and cheerleaders have high rates of Scoliosis as well.

[Pooka1]

A swimmer might be able to explain this but evidently the body finds a way to favor a side. I believe that dancers and cheerleaders have high rates of Scoliosis as well.

I think there may be an issue of what is cause and what is effect.

Maybe folks with a certain body type are draw to, or otherwise excel in, certain activities.

Here is something strange... two sports that require absolute straightness and symmetry in the body, ice skating and dressage, both seem to have gay men over-represented at the top of the ranks compared to their prevalence in the general population.

A reasonable explanation is that the biological basis of homosexuality might be somehow linked to high ability in certain sports. Maybe a similar type of case can be made for a biological cause of scoliosis that also happens to correlate with high ability in certain sports. An example might be ballet and scoliosis if scoliotics are in fact over-represented in the ballet ranks compared to the general population. I don't know.

[Dingo]

I wouldn't think so

Maybe a similar type of case can be made for a biological cause of scoliosis that also happens to correlate with high ability in certain sports.

There might be 100 different reasons for muscle asymmetry and only a few have to do with athletics.

1) All children with Scoliosis have muscle asymmetry
2) Specific strength training exercises eliminate muscle asymmetry
3) Once the asymmetry is eliminated curves stop progressing and can even reverse

To me it's pretty clear that asymmetry is the problem. Someone might come up with a better explanation but until that point this looks strong.