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Scoliosis can cause back pain and many other health problems, including shallow breathing, sciatica, headaches, and even insomnia. Yoga not only brings relief but can also help you accept and embrace the body you're in.

By Elise Miller

Drawing from my own experience, I've created a yoga program that helps people of all ages with scoliosis, whether or not they've had surgery. My approach is to lengthen the spine, stretch muscles that have become tight, and strengthen muscles that have grown weak. I also focus on de-rotating the spine and ribs to create more balance in the body. Almost every day I receive emails from students who express how this yoga practice has brought balance and ease to their life.

Back Basics

The word "scoliosis" is derived from a Greek word that means twists and turns. Scoliosis was first treated with braces by the Greek physician Hippocrates in the fourth century BCE. Today, it's much more prevalent than people realize, affecting more than 6 million people in the United States alone. It typically begins in adolescence and progresses at its most aggressive rate while a teenager is still growing. But even after the growth spurt and into adulthood it can continue to worsen by about one degree per year. It can also get worse in women who are pregnant more than once. But beyond that, many facts about the disease remain a mystery. In 85 percent of the cases, the cause of scoliosis is idiopathic, or unknown. (The other 15 percent of the cases are caused by a variety of disorders such as cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy.) "It's a multifactorial disease. It goes hand in hand with growth, but we don't know exactly why," says Joseph O'Brien, president of the National Scoliosis Foundation. "Genetics plays a role, but hormones or physiology may too." O'Brien adds that it's also not known why the disease more often progresses in girls to a degree where treatment is required than it does in boys, at a rate of eight to one. Perhaps most troubling is that when a teen is first diagnosed, doctors can't predict if the curve is going to progress beyond 30 degrees (the point at which the bones can become deformed), so it's difficult to recommend the best course of treatment.

In scoliosis, the spine curves to one side, forming a reverse-S or a reverse-C shape up and down the back. (Most of the time the spine curves to the right in the upper back and to the left in the lower back, but, again, no one knows why.) The spine also twists, which causes the ribs to push forward on one side and back on the other. So, if the spine curves to the right, the right ribs will bulge backward, creating a convex shape as the left ribs push forward, creating a hollow, concave area. When this happens, the right ribs also spread, causing the intercostals (the muscles between the ribs) to overstretch and the left ribs to become compressed.

These twists and turns—whether extreme or minor—can create a domino effect that knocks the rest of the body out of whack. The shoulders may be off kilter, causing one shoulder blade to be more prominent than the other; or one hip may be higher than the other, resulting in an uneven waist. The head often either leans to one side or hangs forward instead of being centered directly over the pelvis. All these imbalances can add up to a long list of pains and other infirmities. Since the head and shoulders are constantly out of alignment, headaches often occur. Having uneven hips can lead to lower back pain and sciatica. Constant compression on the concave side of the curve can wear away the tiny facet joints between the vertebrae and cause the disks to degenerate. It can also lead to bulging or ruptured disks. Aching pain on the concave side is often so relentless it leads to insomnia. In extreme cases, cardiopulmonary complications can occur due to compression of the heart and lungs. Not surprisingly, the stress of these physiological complications can cause depression and low self-esteem.

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