Response to a specific question about Schroth

[Ballet Mom]

I have forgotten which type brace your daughter is using - remind me?

My daughter was initially prescribed a Charleston Bending Brace which is worn at night. When she outgrew that, she was placed in another nighttime brace similar to the Providence brace. This brace is custom-made by an expert local orthotist.

[LindaRacine]

What would be nice would be if enough was known about the different exercise and stretching methods that a video could be provided to those diagnosed with scoliosis with helpful exercises or therapy programs they could become involved with that have shown to be helpful for scoliosis patients, especially what kids could do to be successful in their bracing journey.

Both of these women have scoliosis:

http://www.yogaforscoliosis.com
http://www.amazon.com/Pilates-Therap.../dp/B000NAHCEY

[Ballet Mom]

Both of these women have scoliosis:

http://www.yogaforscoliosis.com
http://www.amazon.com/Pilates-Therap.../dp/B000NAHCEY

Very interesting....now if Schroth and Seas and others made videos and that info was made available to new scoli patients...I think it would help people tremendously. Thanks for the links!

[hdugger]

Very interesting....now if Schroth and Seas and others made videos and that info was made available to new scoli patients...I think it would help people tremendously. Thanks for the links!

The unfortunate thing is that, with the exception of the torso rotation exercises, it's to the benefit of the practitioner to obscure these exercise methods. I think that makes a video pretty unlikely, although I agree that it would be very helpful.

[Ballet Mom]

The unfortunate thing is that, with the exception of the torso rotation exercises, it's to the benefit of the practitioner to obscure these exercise methods. I think that makes a video pretty unlikely, although I agree that it would be very helpful.

That's a really sad reflection of things as they currently are, isn't it? Maybe a few of us on this site should get together and make our own video or "sheet of knowledge" of all that we have learned to provide to new scoli patients.

[hdugger]

That's a really sad reflection of things as they currently are, isn't it? Maybe a few of us on this site should get together and make our own video or "sheet of knowledge" of all that we have learned to provide to new scoli patients.

Hey, Dingo's already doing it!

[LindaRacine]

Hey, Dingo's already doing it!

Sharon... I can hear you now. Behave yourself! ;-)

[Pooka1]

Sharon... I can hear you now. Behave yourself! ;-)

I am on travel and haven't had much access to the forum but I want to report that hdugger's account has apparently been hacked based on that post.

[mamamax]

If this method is as good as you say, you should be more than willing to spend your own money to go and test it out. Please let us know the results!
Nothing has been withheld, people are free to go and see the Schroth people here in the states anytime they wish to.

Yep. Honestly, if I had the resources to do so ... I truly would! All donations accepted (joke).

There are many people who have had very positive results utilizing many different methods. Even Martha Hawes was successful and yet did not use this method.

True. Martha in fact, endorses Scroth in her book. I have often wondered what similarities there may be in what she stumbled across and the Schroth Method. Katherina Schroth, a PT & the woman who first developed the method, also by herself - discovered such things & and in turn was able to teach and share. Fascinating stuff (to me).

[Ballet Mom]

Yep. Honestly, if I had the resources to do so ... I truly would! All donations accepted (joke).

That's always the problem, isn't it! Perhaps they could take some economics lessons and reduce the price and bump up the volume and end up making more money in the end!

[mamamax]

That's always the problem, isn't it! Perhaps they could take some economics lessons and reduce the price and bump up the volume and end up making more money in the end!

You know - I'd be happy if insurance covered it. And really it is rehab based so if this new Power Schroth could be implemented in local Physical Therapy departments, that would help a lot!!! Otherwise I'm saving my pennies for a trip to Germany, that would be sweet.

[Ballet Mom]

You know - I'd be happy if insurance covered it. And really it is rehab based so if this new Power Schroth could be implemented in local Physical Therapy departments, that would help a lot!!! Otherwise I'm saving my pennies for a trip to Germany, that would be sweet.

A trip to Germany would be very cool! Good for you.

I have to believe the quality of medical care will end up being less rather than more in the near future.

[mamamax]

I have to believe the quality of medical care will end up being less rather than more in the near future.

That thought crosses my mind too :-(

[mamamax]

Why no Schroth Videos?

The unfortunate thing is that, with the exception of the torso rotation exercises, it's to the benefit of the practitioner to obscure these exercise methods. I think that makes a video pretty unlikely, although I agree that it would be very helpful.

I can’t speak with professional authority as to why Schroth and SEAS do not publish videos making exercises available to all, but I think I have some ideas as to why Schroth does not.

Schroth exercises are considered rehabilitative in nature – so maybe we wouldn’t expect them to necessarily be available in video format. Much like we would not expect other medically needed physical therapy to be in video format designed for self instruction.

For example, the Schroth exercises and breathing patterns that would be prescribed for me (a typical 4 curve left thoracolumbar case), would be completely wrong for another curvature pattern and actually could cause undesirable effects if done by someone with a different curvature pattern. Even if one had the correct exercises for their curvature pattern, if done unsupervised while learning, and without the proper breathing technique, then the possibility exists to cause more harm than good. Maybe some members here, more familiar with Schroth than myself, can confirm or clarify these statements.

So bottom line, I think they cannot make this information widely available, without personal and professional instruction for - ethical reasons. If someone did make them available for all the many different curvature patterns (very costly) people would buy them (very lucrative), and due to the the missing supervision required to learn them correctly - they could maybe cause harm enough as to discredit the method altogether - not to mention the ethics involved. Providing a video after supervised training would be nice (for a specific curvature pattern) maybe some do that, I don't know.

I'm not a big fan of Yoga or Palates videos for scoliosis – because I have not seen one yet that would address my specific curvature pattern – nor do I have access to someone in my area with experience in either (for my specific curvature pattern), that could supervise my use of it.

If one’s curvature pattern exactly matched that of a video instructor who has achieved some success using Yoga or Pilates, seems like that could be of benefit, but still this leaves no personal supervision which is necessary in order to best learn correctly – especially so for those with no prior experience in the disciplines which takes years of training to perform expertly among the non scoliotic population. Just my opinion, I know others highly recommend some videos and some find them useful - maybe at my age I'm just a little more over cautious than I need to be.

[skevimc]

I can’t speak with professional authority as to why Schroth and SEAS do not publish videos making exercises available to all, but I think I have some ideas as to why Schroth does not.

Schroth exercises are considered rehabilitative in nature – so maybe we wouldn’t expect them to necessarily be available in video format. Much like we would not expect other medically needed physical therapy to be in video format designed for self instruction.

For example, the Schroth exercises and breathing patterns that would be prescribed for me (a typical 4 curve left thoracolumbar case), would be completely wrong for another curvature pattern and actually could cause undesirable effects if done by someone with a different curvature pattern. Even if one had the correct exercises for their curvature pattern, if done unsupervised while learning, and without the proper breathing technique, then the possibility exists to cause more harm than good. Maybe some members here, more familiar with Schroth than myself, can confirm or clarify these statements.

So bottom line, I think they cannot make this information widely available, without personal and professional instruction for - ethical reasons. If someone did make them available for all the many different curvature patterns (very costly) people would buy them (very lucrative), and due to the the missing supervision required to learn them correctly - they could maybe cause harm enough as to discredit the method altogether - not to mention the ethics involved. Providing a video after supervised training would be nice (for a specific curvature pattern) maybe some do that, I don't know.

No doubt that there are plenty of ethical considerations. But even assuming all of those concerns could be met, there is still the difficulty/impossibility to standardize something that has so much possible variation. You hit on it above, each curve is different and each patient is also different. Some have great body awareness, some, not so much. Having a therapist work with the individual patient is crucial for ANY type of therapy. Even trunk rotations would require a certain amount of teaching, just to ensure pelvic stabilization. Some could certainly learn it on their own. But I was amazed at how difficult a simple trunk rotation was for some kids to learn. We even programmed in 2 sessions of 'learning' before we began to strengthen anything. And there were still 1 or 2 patients that needed a 3rd 'learning' session.