Scoliosis and polio
When I was treated for scoliosis at age 13 we asked if it could have come from polio--because many children had polio those days. None of us(with scoliosis in my family) had polio. Apparently, my Doctor (John Cobb) could tell by examining us that we did not have curves resulting from polio. I really do not know how they could tell. I had fellow teens with mothers and sisters with scoliosis who did not have polio and I had one fellow patient with scoliosis who had polio and was in a wheelchair. Perhaps the scoliosis from polio arose from muscle weakness and a physical exam could show that.
There is so much we really do not know--and we do not know what we do not know-- but no one could convince me it's not genetically modulated. As a matter of fact, while I was working at Columbia-Presbyterian in the 1970s-1990 we were told it was 85% in girls(the 'idiopathic type') a sex linked genetic expression with mixed dominance.
I do not know if further research has clarified that.
One problem with genetics, that unless we unearth our ancestors, we really do not know who had what gene and what disease because: we do not have their medical history and many people died in infancy,as young adults or middle age. My maternal grandmother-who did not have scoliosis-- could not tell us if her mother had scoliosis because my maternal great-grandmother died from typhus when my grandmother was 4. My maternal first cousin has scoliosis. (Mother's sister's daughter).
How can we really make a correct assumption about a new mutation???
When I was treated for scoliosis at age 13 we asked if it could have come from polio--because many children had polio those days. None of us(with scoliosis in my family) had polio. Apparently, my Doctor (John Cobb) could tell by examining us that we did not have curves resulting from polio. I really do not know how they could tell. I had fellow teens with mothers and sisters with scoliosis who did not have polio and I had one fellow patient with scoliosis who had polio and was in a wheelchair. Perhaps the scoliosis from polio arose from muscle weakness and a physical exam could show that.
There is so much we really do not know--and we do not know what we do not know-- but no one could convince me it's not genetically modulated. As a matter of fact, while I was working at Columbia-Presbyterian in the 1970s-1990 we were told it was 85% in girls(the 'idiopathic type') a sex linked genetic expression with mixed dominance.
I do not know if further research has clarified that.
One problem with genetics, that unless we unearth our ancestors, we really do not know who had what gene and what disease because: we do not have their medical history and many people died in infancy,as young adults or middle age. My maternal grandmother-who did not have scoliosis-- could not tell us if her mother had scoliosis because my maternal great-grandmother died from typhus when my grandmother was 4. My maternal first cousin has scoliosis. (Mother's sister's daughter).
How can we really make a correct assumption about a new mutation???
Comment