Of course, it’s possible to have a flexible spine.  Take a look;

And there are ten more pictures of her doing various yoga poses on this site.

Yoga Poses Showing Spine Flexibility

I’m bringing this up because I’m trying to bring patients in who have functional scoliosis.  As I’ve said before, it’s usually adolescent onset so it’s possible your muscles and the rest of your soft tissue and your spine grew a certain way because of outside circumstances changing your body.  Humans have always tried and succeeded in molding their bodies a certain way on purpose or accidentally.  That sort of proves that we are very malleable, like a rubber band, especially when we’re young with plenty of growth hormones.

Functional scoliosis, and actually all pathology of the bones/skeleton START with contraction and injury to the soft tissue, mostly the muscles.  I need you to read that sentence over ten times and then pass it on as a social meme to your friends and family around the Thanksgiving table this year. Thank you.

You may ask, “If that’s the case, why aren’t there muscle doctors?” There are.  They are called Naprapaths but no one has heard of them because the squeaky Chiropractor wheel got the oil at the turn of the century.  The focus erroneously became the bones which make no sense because bone follows muscle.  Muscle leads.  And forcing the bones into alignment does not change the tissue.  That is wrong as well. If you’re looking for a Naprapath they are D.N.’s or manual therapists, or deep tissue therapists.  They are nothing akin to massage therapists but work well with P.T.’s (physical therapists).

In the case of functional scoliosis, first the tissue and the attachment structures of the ligament and tendon became injured, then the muscles, then the spine.  So in treatment, a professional manual therapist must first release all of the soft tissue and restore blood flow.  As that is being accomplished, the blood flow is returning to the attachment structures.  As that is being accomplished, the vertebrae start to loosen.  Then the practitioner must know how to move the spine gradually without forcing the adjustment at this point as that would traumatize the attachment tissue.

Please note, if you come to me with functional scoliosis, your spine will much more stiff and rigid than a patient with fairly normal blood flow in the back muscles. But can your spine loosen?  Of course!  See the pictures I attached to this post.  There is no tissue in the body that receives blood and fluid and then refuses to change its condition. That’s highly irrational and your body is not irrational in and of itself, but your mind can be.  In holistic medicine, we seek mindfulness which em-bodies or sits in body awareness and listens to it.

So the point of this post is to accept the positive fact that your body can indeed align with hydration (plenty of water), manual therapy treatment with heat, castor oil packs occasionally, and exercise, stretching, and breathing.