Cause of Scoliosis

Discussion of Possible Causes of Idiopathic Scoliosis

One of the greatest areas of confusion in regards to scoliosis has to do with its cause. Many mothers are fraught with a sense of guilt, feeling that scoliosis was “in their genes, and somehow passed down to their son or daughter. Although a recent article in the scientific journal of Spine stated that no specific gene has even been linked to scoliosis, much of the current resources energy of the scientific community remain committed to the search.

The idea that scoliosis is strictly due to a genetic condition is both incomplete and unlikely. A 1992 study on Kinetic Imbalance in the suboccipital region of the brain (aka KISS) is another potential ingredient as well as newborn birth traumas such as Caesarean section, multiple births, prolonged labor, use of extraction devices, torn or over-stretched alar and other upper cervical ligaments during the birth process.

In the study, published in the Journal of Manual Medicine and entitled, Kinetic Imbalance due to Suboccipital Strain in Newborns, over 600 children with evidence of KISS was evaluated. The authors noted that this condition, if left unchecked, could lead to postural problems such as scoliosis, due to the interference on the nerves that are responsible for coordinating the motor input from the body with the sensory input from the eyes.

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