Take the "spine" action and protect love for a lifetime

Award-winning works (article category) of the Health Management Committee's "Popularize health knowledge, advocate healthy life" popular science collection

Author: Wu Zhenghui

Unit: Department of Child Rehabilitation, Hunan Maternal and Child Health Hospital

"Stand at attention, raise your head, straighten your chest, sit like a bell, stand like a pine tree..." Whenever parents and teachers see children sitting or standing in a crooked or slouched posture, they will inevitably remind them. Little do they know that wrong postures can lead to scoliosis in the long run.

1. What is scoliosis?

Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine. It is a three-dimensional deformity of the spine. A normal spine should be a straight line when viewed from the back and front, and the two sides of the spine are symmetrical. If the shoulders are not at the same height or the back is uneven, "scoliosis" should be suspected. In recent years, it has become the third largest health problem for Chinese children after myopia and obesity, seriously threatening the physical and mental health of children and adolescents.

2. What are the causes of scoliosis?

1. Neuromuscular scoliosis: scoliosis caused by nerve damage and muscle pathology, mainly due to poor muscle growth and

Muscle strength imbalances, including cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord

Injury, craniocerebral trauma, etc.

2. Congenital scoliosis: It begins when the spine is developing before birth. The structure of one or more vertebrae is not fully formed, or the vertebrae are not segmented normally. This type of scoliosis is often accompanied by other diseases, such as heart disease.

Heart or lung disease, etc.

3. Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: It is the most common type of scoliosis today. The overall incidence rate in my country is about 3%, mainly referring to scoliosis in children aged 5-18 years. The cause of 80% of the disease is unknown. It may be related to many factors such as genetics, hormones, metabolic disorders, biomechanical factors, and also to the environment and lifestyle, such as incorrect sitting posture, carrying a shoulder bag, and unilateral limb

Exercise habits, etc., over time, the uneven force on the spine increases

Scoliosis.

3. What are the dangers of scoliosis?

1. Impact on body posture: Scoliosis can cause patients to be short and unable to grow tall, affecting their body shape.

2. Impact on mental health: Obvious deformed body posture causes patients to feel uncomfortable.

The mentality of faith is not conducive to mental health.

3. Impact on cardiopulmonary function: Since scoliosis mostly occurs in the thoracic and lumbar regions, as the degree of curvature increases, it will compress the lungs and affect circulation.

Ring, chest tightness, shortness of breath and other cardiopulmonary dysfunction.

4. Impact on spinal function: Scoliosis leads to limited spinal function. Over time, it may cause disc herniation, nucleus pulposus rupture, vertebral dislocation, etc., resulting in reduced quality of life and the risk of paralysis.

4. How do I know if I have scoliosis?

1. Four horizontal and one vertical: Observe whether the two shoulders are at the same height, whether the lower angles of the two shoulder blades are at the same height, whether the two waist dimples are symmetrical, whether the heights of both sides of the pelvis are consistent, and whether the spine is in the midline.

2. Forward bending test: put your heels together, straighten your legs, turn your torso to 90°, put your hands together and place them between your knees.

There will be an obvious asymmetry in height between the two sides.

Once the above "danger signals" appear, you should go to a medical institution in time and conduct further examinations to achieve early detection, early diagnosis, and early intervention to control its development.

5. How to prevent scoliosis?

1. Correct bad standing and sitting postures: Children and adolescents who have bad sitting postures (sleeping on their stomachs, crossing their legs, etc.) and bad standing postures (shrugging shoulders, hunching over, carrying heavy backpacks, carrying single-shoulder bags, etc.) for a long time.

It will cause the forces on both sides of the spine to be inconsistent, and the muscle strength will be unbalanced, leading to scoliosis. We should try to improve the influence of the environment, such as the height of the seat, the brightness of the light, the excessive weight on the spine or one side of the limbs, and the development of good habits of reading, writing and homework.

2. Increase outdoor exercise: Lack of exercise and malnutrition will cause insufficient waist and back muscle strength, affecting bone development. It is necessary for children and adolescents to do 1-2 hours of medium and high intensity aerobic exercise every day and 3-4 times of high intensity resistance exercise per week. Necessary calcium and vitamin D supplementation is conducive to the healthy development of the spine.