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Chiropractic Care That Can Make Your Child's Scoliosis Worse · Scoliosis with Dr. Chris Gubbels

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: No amatocyropic adjustments can fix your child's scoliosis.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Recently, a physical therapist brought me her daughter, who had a 36-degree scolionic curve.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: She was right in the middle of her peak growth period, what's known as the peak height velocity, which is the fastest period that someone grows during puberty.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is when someone has a very high risk because of the size of the curb and where she was at in her growth phase, she pretty much had a 100% risk of progression without the proper treatment.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the chiropractor they originally went to see told the mother that he could fix her scoliosis by just adjusting her five times a week and that she shouldn't get the scoliosis brace.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I heard that, I was furious.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: You see, there's no valid scientific evidence that shows that chiropractic adjustments alone can stop a progressive idiopathic scoliosis.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: None.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean no valid evidence.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Dr.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Chris Goobwolst.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also a chiropractor, and I specialize in the non-surgical treatment of scoliosis and hyperkyphosis.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And in this video, I'm going to explain why that advice was so dangerous, how chiropractic adjustments can appear to be working while the curve continues to progress.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the question every parent should ask when someone claims they are correcting your child's scoliosis.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to go back to this case because what happened next made the problem even more obvious.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I actually posted about this case to a group of chiropractors.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Many of them actually made claims that I've adjusted hundreds of scoliotic patients and I've seen patients improve.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Or that they've actually corrected or routinely correct scoliosis with adjustments below.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And my response to that was pretty simple.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Just show me the cases.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to hear about it.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: If that's true, show me.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, unless you actually specialize in scoliosis, the likelihood that you've seen hundreds of scoliosis patients in a general chiropractic office is almost absurd.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I know these doctors are full of it and they don't have evidence to actually back up what they say.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, show me, show me the full spine standing x-rays, show me the measurements before and after.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Show me specific cases where the curve maintained controlled while the child or adolescent went through a rapid growth phase.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I asked this is because someone feeling better after a chiropractic adjustment does not prove their scoliosis actually changed.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Moving better or standing up straighter for a few hours does not prove that scoliosis actually changed.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And even more so, in simply saying, I've seen this work is very different from showing that you've actually controlled a progressive structural scoliosis.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the more I went back and forth these chiropractors, the more obvious it was that most of these chiropractors simply did not understand what idiopathic scoliosis is, what causes it, or how it actually progresses over time.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: They were treating it more like bad posture or more like someone had a bone that's out of position that needs to be adjusted back into place.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: That is not what a progressive idiopathic scoliosis is.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And when somebody starts with the wrong understanding of what the condition is, it becomes very easy to give advice that can cost a child or adolescent viable time and bad information actually allows the curve and become much harder to treat later on.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I want to be really clear about what I'm saying here because the problem is not simply that the child was being adjusted.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Chiropractic adjustments may help somebody with scoliosis move better.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: They may reduce pain and stiffness.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And there are times where chiropractic adjustments can be a very useful part of a larger overall scoliospecific treatment plan.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is when someone tells a family you don't need scolios-specific treatment because these adjustments are going to correct your scoliosis.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's a completely different claim, then chiropractic adjustments can also be helpful.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: You see, helping a person feel better or move better is one thing.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Controlling a progressive structural deformity with a child growing is something entirely different.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And look, there's just no good evidence showing repeated chiropractic adjustments alone can actually stop or control a progressive idiopathic scoliosis.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what makes this confusing sometimes is the child may actually look better after an adjustment.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: The muscles could be more relaxed, they may actually stand taller, their shoulders may even look more level initially after being adjusted, and they may feel lesser or have less pain if they're actually in pain.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: All of those changes are real, but they do not prove the shape of the spine has actually changed.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: You see, you can actually improve someone's posture without actually changing or controlling a scoliotic curve.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can reduce muscle tension without stopping the progression.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: You could help somebody feel better while the scoliosis continues to get worse over time.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where families can frequently get fooled.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody can actually take before and after adjustment photos.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: The posture may look better, the child may feel better, and the chiropractor says, look, I'm actually correcting or holding the scoliosis in place.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: The scoliosis is not measured by how someone looks 10 minutes after treatment.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: It has to be tracked over time using comparable standing full spine x-rays.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so when somebody tells you they are reducing your child's scoliosis, ask them to show you the actual evidence.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: A postural photo alone is not enough.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's part of the picture, but it's not enough on its own.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: How far the child can bend is not enough.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Feeling better is valuable and it's important, but it's the different outcome from controlling the scoliotic curve.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: While the family believes the curve is being corrected, the child is still growing and the vertebrae can become more misshaped and more wedged over time.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: The rotation continue to increase, and most importantly, that window of time when the right treatment would have been easier and more effective keeps getting smaller and smaller.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: So the adjustments themselves aren't going to make a scoliotic curve get worse.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: The danger is in the false confidence it can give a family when they believe the condition is being controlled when it's actually not.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a quick pause here.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if your child has been told that adjustments are correct in their scoliosis and you're not sure if the curve is actually being controlled, clip it in the link below, request a free discovery call, and that'll set up a time with our team so we can talk to you about your child's scoliosis and what's actually going on.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: We can look at your or your child's case, talk you through the curve, the risk of curve progression, and what treatment options are most effective and available to you.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's look at the biggest misunderstandings most chiropractors have about scoliosis.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: You see, scoliosis is much more than a misalignment.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason this misadvice is frequently given is a lot of chiropractors think scolos is simply a misalignment problem, but the spine is just crooked.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it seems logical to them that you should be able to adjust it back into the right place.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: But progressive idiopathic scoliosis is actually a three-dimensional structural growth deformity.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: The spine is actually growing deformed.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: The spine bends and it rotates, the rib cage will actually deform and change shape over time along with the scoliotic curve.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And in a growing child or adolescent, the vertebrae themselves are changing shape continuously over time.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not dealing with a simple bone that is move or shifted out of place.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: The actual shape of the spine and the vertebrae themselves are changing as the child or teenager grows.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a chiropractic adjustment is designed to improve movement in a joint.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's not designed to create or control lasting three-dimensional correction in a progressive structural boning deformity.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I understand how chiropractors end up believing otherwise because I am a chiropractor.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when I went through chiropractic school, scoliosis was barely ever covered.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: We probably only spent one or two hours even learning about scoliosis.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the only thing we learned is some different causes of scoliosis and how to measure the size of it.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: We absolutely did not learn how to effectively manage progressive scoliosis.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't really understand how growth changes the risk of curve progression and how to predict how likely a curb is to progress.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Or when a child needs scoliosis specific treatments, or what those treatments even are.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just chiropractors.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care if you're an MD or a PT, you just don't learn this stuff in professional schools.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now I had already been in chiropractic practice for quite a while when I took my first advanced scoliosis course.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember sitting here thinking, I know virtually nothing.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: I remember looking around the room with the rest of the doctors in this room, and everyone's thinking the same thing.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've been in practice for years, and the group that was there were pretty advanced in spine biomechanics.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And even they knew virtually nothing about the effective management of scoliosis.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this was a really hard realization because, like I just mentioned, I'd have already done a lot of advanced training in spine biomechanics.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Look, there'd be a lot of very good chiropractors, chiropractors that are really good at treating pain, stiffness, general spine problems, that doesn't automatically mean they understand progressive scoliosis.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when you don't fully understand a condition, you can recommend something that sounds reasonable for a general spinal problem, but makes no sense for a growing structural deformity.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the most dangerous part is the delay in treatment.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: You see, with a child that's still growing, this is where the real damage can happen.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say a child has a 20-degree curve and the parents are told the adjustments are correcting it, so they just continue to do the chiropractic treatments.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: The child keeps growing, and six months later, the curve is 28 degrees, and they're told the treatment needs more time, but they just need more of that treatment.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: After another six months passes, the curve is now 36 degrees.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: At that point, the family has lost something they can never get back.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's time during growth when the most effective treatment could have been done.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: You see, every large curve starts as a small curve, and the smaller and more flexible the curve is, the easier it is to control and potentially correct.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as curves become larger, the vertebrae get more wedged and deformed shape, the rotation in the spine gets bigger, all the soft tissues around the curve start to change over time, and the spine becomes stiffer and more rigid.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the bigger the deformity gets and the stiffer the spine gets, the harder it is to change.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: So when a chybertectiles a patient, don't get a scoliosis brace, just keep getting adjusted over and over again.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's not harmless advice because it actually keeps someone from getting the most effective treatments.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: You see, the parents may feel like they're being proactive because they're actually doing something.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: They may be going to the office five times a week, spending a lot of money following every recommendation that doctor is giving them.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: But that treatment may have no chance of being effective.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because you see, if the curve is not being measured properly and the treatment is not capable of controlling it, the squash continue to get worse while everyone believes it's actually being treated properly.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the part that irritates me the most.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: The parents didn't just ignore the problem, they found a provider, they sought to help, and they trusted the advice they were given.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: But then by the time they actually discovered the curve was continuing to progress, the treatment becomes more difficult than it actually needed to be in the beginning.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where we have to separate from what the patient feels to what the scoliosis is actually doing.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: You see, pain could actually be improved while curve keeps getting worse.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Movement can improve, posture can look better temporarily, even though the structural condition is actually continuing to get worse over time.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And this is especially important with children and adolescents because idiopathic scoliosis typically causes very little or no pain at all.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the absence of pain does not tell you that the curve is stable or there isn't a problem.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: You need objective measurement starting with full spine standing x-rays.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: This allows you to measure the cob angle, which is the standard measurement used to determine the size of the scoliotic curve.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Then we can compare similar images over time to see whether the curve is being maintained or if it's actually progressing.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the measurement is only part of the picture.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: We also need to know how much growth the child has remaining, whether he or she is actually entering their peak growth pace, what's known as their peak height velocity.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is the phase where they're growing the fastest during puberty, and whether the rotation, the overall shape of the spine has actually changed over time.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: All that information together tells us exactly what the curve is actually doing.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if somebody claims they're correcting your scoliosis or your child's scoliosis, but not actually tracking the proper x-rays, then they don't really know if they're correcting it.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're just guessing and likely giving you misinformation.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And when someone is still growing, guessing is simply not good enough.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if your child is seeing a chiropractor for scoliosis, absolutely do not panic.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that your child shouldn't be adjusted.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: You should necessarily stop seeing the chiropractor.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I frequently recommend patients get adjusted along with scoliosis specific treatments.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: But you need to ask one very specific question.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: What evidence do you have that this treatment is actually controlling the scoliosis?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Not just anodal evidence, but actual scientific evidence.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then listen carefully to their answer.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because a chiropractor talks about less pain, better posture, improved movement.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Those may all be worthwhile changes, but they do not prove the curve is being controlled.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if they show you postural pictures and muscle tests and surface scans and thermal scans and EMGs without also comparing those to pre- and post x-rays, that information is just not valid on its own.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Ask what the curve measured before and after treatment.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Ask how much growth your child has left.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Ask how fast they're growing in it during their peak growth phase.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ask what the risk of curb progression is and what the plan will be if the curve continues to get worse over time.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: A provider that's trained in treating scoliosis should be able to answer all those questions clearly.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if they can't, you need a second opinion from somebody who actually specializes in the non-surgical treatment of scoliosis.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, where does chiropractic care actually fit?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, chiropractic care may still have a role for somebody with scoliosis.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: It can help reduce pain, stiffness, and increase mobility, which are all important parts of someone's overall treatment plan.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: But the provider needs to be honest about what the job of chiropractic treatment is actually doing.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: If the goal is to relieve pain, call it pain relief.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: If the goal is to improve mobility, call it mobility.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Do not tell the family that those changes prove scoliosis itself is actually being controlled.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's simply the line.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about attacking chiropractic.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I am a chiropractor, and I think chiropractic adjustments are great for someone with scoliosis.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is about making sure patients with progressive scoliosis get the right treatment at the right time.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that the patient and the family does not lose the most important treatment window when they have the highest chance at the most effective treatment.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've been told that adjustments along will correct you or your child's scoliosis, get the standing x-rays and get a second opinion.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just wait until the curb gets larger to find out that the treatment was unsuccessful.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And if your child's curb is progressing, one of the next things you may hear is that surgery is simply inevitable.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before you accept that, watch my video called Before You Get Scoliosis Surgery.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Watch this.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: In that video, I'll walk you through what parents need to understand about scoliosis progression, treatment options, and the question asked before making the decision that is permanent.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can watch that by clicking on the video in the end screen or the description below.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you there.