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  • Min Mehta's Own Words

    Here's a link to a series of three videos starring Min Mehta. I think it is a phenomenal series of videos. Well-worth anyone watching who deals with scoliosis.

    I re-watched the videos and took the liberty of writing down the final words of Miss Mehta in the third video. Fascinating.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/AmilCast.../0/9fpOsKFBrFo

    Min Mehta:

    In the very early stages, scoliosis can be cured by the child's growth if we take appropriate early steps to do that.

    All of us are now conditioned to believing that once a child has a scoliosis, it's there forever. So we have to change our thinking and entertain another idea, which is that scoliosis increases with growth because we allow it to.

    Interviewer:

    Looking now at your 88 children who've grown straight, how does that make you feel?

    Min Mehta:

    Good. Happy. And helpful that they can persuade others who treat spinal deformities to look again at the possibility of curing scoliosis...NOT just in infants, but also in adolescence.




  • #2
    There are patients of Min Mehta on the Scoliosis Support Forum who regard her as a hero.

    I've always wondered why casting does not seem to be practiced in the US. Is it an insurance issue?

    Comment


    • #3
      I really don't know hdugger, other than it seems like our medical profession is trained to be very aggressive. I know I would love to be seen by doctors in the U.S. if my life was in danger...not so sure I'm impressed with American doctors who prescribe a 112 pound girl, the same dosage of high risk, high side-effect medicine as men that are bigger than 200 pounds, in order to reduce the potential of recurring acne. Ridiculous in my book.

      Anyhow, I'm trying to do my very little part for kids with scoliosis in the only way I can. :-)

      Comment


      • #4
        It is surprising that EDF casting for infants isn't more widely available in the US, and indeed elsewhere outside the UK. I've known of children who have flown over from Australia to be cast at the main hospital here (The RNOH in Stanmore, where Min Mehta was based). The impression I have got over the years is that US doctors tend to feel that casting an infant is "barbaric", and parents often struggle with the thought of putting their child into a cast anyway.

        I was diagnosed at 6 months old and grew up wearing casts (from the age of about 4 I also wore Milwaukee braces during the summer months), treated by a colleague of Ms Mehta's at the RNOH - I met her many times. I believe that my curves weren't corrected because I wore non-EDF Minerva casts for the first couple of years, and after that my bones weren't soft enough to be "moulded" straight by the casts; also I started out with much larger curves than Ms Mehta initially worked with, and was diagnosed a couple of years before she began to concentrate her work in this direction. Casting really isn't barbaric; infants adapt very quickly and grow up not really knowing any different. It was an annoyance for me rather than something that made my life miserable. I think it must be much harder for a teenager to face bracing.

        Min Mehta absolutely deserves the respect she is accorded - she has saved countless children from a lifetime of bracing, surgery, and fused spines. Also, two ladies that have done an enormous amount to promote the fact that EDF casting is an option for infants with scoliosis are Heather Hyatt and Celia Vogel.

        Comment


        • #5
          Hi tonibunny,

          Thanks for your input. I realize that infantile scoliosis is also much rarer here in the U.S. than in England, for some strange reason. It may just be that there are so few cases here, that it doesn't get the attention that it would normally get.

          I'm thrilled Mehta has been able to cure so many kids. I think she's wonderful.

          Oh yes, and kudos to the two ladies who are providing attention to the method. I actually don't spend time in infantile forums, so I don't know what's being done!

          Comment


          • #6
            EDF technique http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/showthread.php?p=99905 is used in some countries in adolescents and not always with low Riser.
            I think it is the most obvious and useful way to use a brace.

            Comment


            • #7
              I'm so glad to see casting and Min Mehta mentioned here. I've often referred folks over to www.infantilescoliosis.org. This site is run by the aforementioned Heather Hyatt

              Heather single-handedly founded ISOP (Infantile Scoliosis Outreach Project) and continues to run it today while at the same time caring for her daughter and being a working mom. She has helped countless families and has been instrumental in bringing Dr. Mehta here in the past to train doctors in the U.S. in this method and continues to work tirelessly to make sure more and more doctors in the United States are aware of, and are trained in, this method. And it's working - the number of doctors is growing every day.

              Heather is truly a hero!!!
              mariaf305@yahoo.com
              Mom to David, age 17, braced June 2000 to March 2004
              Vertebral Body Stapling 3/10/04 for 40 degree curve (currently mid 20's)

              https://www.facebook.com/groups/ScoliosisTethering/

              http://pediatricspinefoundation.org/

              Comment


              • #8
                Amazing video! I wish there were more people like this woman. This is truly incredible. I would be interested in the contraindications for casting, although this certainly doesn't apply to me. But I do have a grandchild that I watch diligently and thankfully he's fine so far. She mentioned that this treatment could be used on adolescents. I'm wondering up to what point it might be effective.
                Be happy!
                We don't know what tomorrow brings,
                but we are alive today!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Who knows if EDF (stretch and keep the stretching) cannot works in adults.. probably not alone, but combined with other methods/therapies/products/habits.. all of them in the same direction.. it seems a reasonable possibility, at least for me.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Who knows, Flerc? Although, I wore the EDF casts from the age of 2 until I was 10 and they didn't correct my scoliosis at all - though I think they did a lot to prevent it from progressing too fast. Back in the 1970s and early 1980s plenty of kids were put into these casts at Stanmore; it was a standard treatment. So, you'd think that if it was possible for an EDF cast to correct scoliosis beyond infancy then they would have seen it happen and would have documented it, and would still be doing it! It's rare for Stanmore to cast older children now though. They tend to have custom-made TLSO braces and then growth rod surgery if bracing doesn't hold the curves.

                    As I understand it, EDF casts can work for infants because they still have very soft bones which can be "moulded" straight using casts during the infantile growth spurts.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I suppose that all we have some belief about scoliosis.
                      My beliefs refers about non surgical treatments could also be really effectives in adults.
                      I think that there are great treatments, but I think that none can be really effective without combining with others.
                      When I talk about EDF I refer only to the concept about stretch and keep the stretching.
                      I believe that it could be performed with other kind of braces, not only cast and rigid braces in a very flexible spine. I think that a dynamic brace, reducing the risk of muscular weakness would be probably the best, but Spinecor people, at least in my experience, refuse to say if it could be used to that purpose.
                      I really think that EDF was always used in the same way than 40 years ago. The only difference as I know is that Cotrel's Machine is replaced in some countries by other modern solutions, making less traumatic the treatment.
                      So I think that other variations could be attempted some day and combined with great therapies, which I believe are very limited, without the possibility of keep the stretching.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I think the problem with attempting EDF in adults, if it showed efficacy, would be the pain thresh-hold. Adult spines are so stiff as compared to an infants cartilaginous bones. I would think that the cast would have to be worn for many, many years, as the body replaces itself every so often. Babies and young children replace themselves at a much faster rate because they are growing rapidly. I don't know if an adult could wear one long enough to reach the desired effect. I know that when I do stretches that oppose my lower curve, I can only go so far before the pain becomes intense. With surgery, they just do it all at once, the person deals with the tremendous pain, and then it gets better. I personally am not in to prolonged pain. Ironic, since I've been in pain since I was 12 and I'm now in my 40's. I would also worry about skin breakdown more in an adult, since we don't heal as rapidly as babies and small children.

                        Flerc, if you are considering this method for your daughter, I wouldn't consider it too long. I would find a practitioner as soon as possible and get it done. Each day you wait, she matures more and more.
                        Be happy!
                        We don't know what tomorrow brings,
                        but we are alive today!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by mariaf View Post
                          I'm so glad to see casting and Min Mehta mentioned here. I've often referred folks over to www.infantilescoliosis.org. This site is run by the aforementioned Heather Hyatt

                          Heather single-handedly founded ISOP (Infantile Scoliosis Outreach Project) and continues to run it today while at the same time caring for her daughter and being a working mom. She has helped countless families and has been instrumental in bringing Dr. Mehta here in the past to train doctors in the U.S. in this method and continues to work tirelessly to make sure more and more doctors in the United States are aware of, and are trained in, this method. And it's working - the number of doctors is growing every day.

                          Heather is truly a hero!!!
                          I had read some of Celia Vogel's interesting information in the archives on this site which piqued my interest in Min Mehta. In researching Mehta on the internet, I came across those videos which I thought were fabulous and beneficial and should be posted on this site.

                          I have never heard of Heather, but I'm glad someone has been working to promote Mehta's work here in the states. Was Heather's daughter cured of scoliosis using casting? I'm assuming that must be how Heather got involved.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Hi Ballet Mom,

                            Heather learned about the Mehta casting method when it was too late for her daughter to benefit from it. Liv's curve had become so severe (and I'm not sure how old she was at the time) that she had to endure everything from halo traction, to later either a growing rod or VEPTR. I know she has had several surgeries.

                            Amazingly, even though Liv couldn't benefit from it - or maybe because of Liv's experience, Heather vowed to find a better option for kids diagnosed with infantile scoliosis. She founded the Infantile Scoliosis Outreach Project - and later a support forum named C.A.S.T. (Casting as an Alternative Scoliosis Treatment) which can be accessed by going to www.infantilescoliosis.org and clicking on "links".

                            Heather is a truly amazing woman who raises money through ISOP to train more and more doctors in this technique so that other kids can be spared the more invasive methods, such as those her own daughter endured.
                            mariaf305@yahoo.com
                            Mom to David, age 17, braced June 2000 to March 2004
                            Vertebral Body Stapling 3/10/04 for 40 degree curve (currently mid 20's)

                            https://www.facebook.com/groups/ScoliosisTethering/

                            http://pediatricspinefoundation.org/

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Celia is having an Emily Litella moment on her group... she has concluded, in several consecutive posts, that the moderator removed fireflymd's thread at the behest of Maria and I. Celia has further concluded that the reason fireflymd started a new thread is because she won't be silenced.

                              Since Celia is reading along, I am sending out this note to help her...

                              Fireflymd deleted the thread. I know it goes against every notion you hold to be true but I am telling you that is a fact.

                              It happened for a reason. There is a reason for everything.

                              Deep breaths always.
                              Sharon, mother of identical twin girls with scoliosis

                              No island of sanity.

                              Question: What do you call alternative medicine that works?
                              Answer: Medicine


                              "We are all African."

                              Comment

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