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Recent scientific articles have begun to explore the role of gait (walking), and how the body balances itself while it is moving, in patients with scoliosis (1,2). These studies have proven that there are differences in how people with scoliosis walk and move, compared to people without scoliosis. After a while, the brain develops a pattern to help the body balance.

Scoliosis is 3-dimensional. If you only look at the sideways curvature, you are missing the big picture, because compression and rotation of the spinal column are also involved. Similarly, walking is a 3-dimensional process – it is not simply moving forward. In the normal pattern of walking, there is a twisting of the shoulders and a simultaneous counter rotation in the hips (3,4). The head must yaw (bend slightly to the left and right) to compensate for this motion and keep the eyes level (5).

In patients with scoliosis, this normal pattern is often absent. The hips and shoulders do not rotate opposite each other, and the head does not move. The main righting reflex of the body is the eyes; if the head is not moving to keep the eyes level, it suggests that scoliosis may create problems with balancing.

Further research supports this conclusion; scoliosis patients tend to have a more difficult time balancing, on average, than non-scoliosis patients (6). Typically, scoliosis patients must slow down their walking speed, and stiffen their upper spine significantly, to maintain their balance when walking.

Restoring normal patterns of movement in scoliosis patients is more difficult than one might suspect. You cannot simply tell someone to walk differently; the brain creates a pattern, and it falls into this pattern automatically, even when the biomechanics of the spine are altered. When the body falls into this old pattern, it can re-enforce imbalances in the muscles, and cause the spine to shift back to its old position.

To prevent this, CLEAR Institute teaches methods of rehabilitating the spine in both static (standing) and dynamic (walking) environments. One such method, pictured above, is referred to as the "Tightrope" Exercise. Scientifically-applied spinal weights are used to create a "mirror-image" of the patient's scoliotic posture, and the eyes are blocked to remove the primary optical righting reflex; this enhances the communication between the body & the brain. In order to balance, the brain must receive sensory input from the body and reply with appropriate motor feedback to the postural muscles. In this manner, the neuromuscular pathways can be re-trained, and new patterns of walking established that will "re-program" the brain to better maintain & improve upon the non-surgical reductions to the scoliosis that were achieved.

1) Gait analysis in patients with idiopathic scoliosis. Kramers et al, Eur Spine J 2004; 13:449-56
2) Locomotor skills and Balance Strategies in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis. Mallau et al, Spine 2007; 32(1):E14-E22
3) Patterns of spinal motion during walking. Crosbie et al, Gait Posture 1997;5:6-12
4) Head and trunk stabilization strategies during forward and backward walking in healthy adults. Nadeau et al, Gait Posture
2003;18:134-42
5) Head stabilization during various locomotor tasks in humans. Pozzo et al, Exp Brain Res 1990;82:97-106
6) Influence of different types of progressive idiopathic scoliosis on static and dynamic postural control. Gauchard et al, Spine 2001;26:1052-8.