Note to parents: kyphosis of the spine in adolescents

Very often, seeing a gaggle of teenagers walking in the crowd, one or two of the guys, who differ from the other peers with higher growth, can be noticed, and, as a rule, these guys or girls are very slouching, trying to seem less.

I myself, at 12-13 years old, wanted to grow above my mother, whose height is only 156 cm. And, I must say, "my prayers" were heard - being one of the youngest in my class, in a couple of years I was already onphysical education one of the first among girls, and to the graduating class stretched out so that not only caught up with her mother, but also overgrew it almost 20 cm. Of course, next to the smaller boys did not want to look like a "dildo", involuntarily had to stoop,to refuse shoes with heels, do not do high hairstyles for school discats. Teachers and parents constantly said: "Lena, you're a slender, pretty girl, straighten shoulders - because stoop does not go to anyone."But I graduated from high school with a certain complex about my growth( the blessing at the institute was that almost all my friends were also quite tall, besides, in those years, beauty contests were actively held - podiums were girls and taller, and my complex is gone).

Now my son graduates from high school and he also suffers from his high growth( he grew very fast and quickly in the past year or two, and now his height is 190 cm), but the worst thing is that his back and neck often hurts.

What is kyphosis of the spine?

The word kyphosis comes from the Greek kyphosis and means literally "hunchback".That is, kyphosis of the spine is a disease, meaning the presence of a curvature of the spine with a bulge back( unlike lordosis, which means concavity).It should be noted that you should not immediately frighten the terms kyphosis and lordosis, as soon as you hear them in the doctor's office - after all, a normal healthy spine and should not be perfectly straight. In a standing position, he must necessarily have bends in the right places. Another thing is that the angle of deflection at the problem points from the axis of the spine, exceeding the norm, just says that there is one or another stage of the disease.

As a rule, with the kyphosis of the spine, the thoracic region is subjected to curvature, but in rare cases, there is also kyphosis of the cervical spine, and kyphosis of the lumbar spine. Curvature develops when one or more vertebrae of the area are affected: this may be the result of a spinal injury, after a severe infectious disease( for example, poliomyelitis, which can lead to paralysis of the back muscles), infantile cerebral palsy and other diseases. There are other, more rare, reasons for the development of kyphosis, for example, due to a spinal tumor, radiotherapy, etc.

But, as a rule, teenagers are diagnosed with the so-called functional kyphosis of the spine( better known to us as the usual stoop), resulting from incorrect posture, long non-physiological sitting at the table or, as in my case, related to psychological aspects( complex due to non-for high growth)

Kifoz spine - treatment

Because our children spend a lot of time not only for school and home lessons, but also sitting at the computer - the posture spoils almost everyone, not only for tall children.

If you have complaints about excruciating pains in the back or neck, reduced sensitivity and numbness of the limbs, irregularities in the heart and lungs, your child, after a manual examination, will definitely be given an x-ray of the spine( sometimes they can be directed to magnetic resonance imaging).But, in any case, the examination should be done by a qualified specialist, a doctor - it is not necessary to trust the health of your child with manual therapists who advertise their services in newspapers with free ads. Of course, when the son began to complain of frequent pain several years ago, we went to the polyclinic and, like many teenagers, the surgeon discovered signs of juvenile scoliosis and kyphosis( good not in severe form).The son on the recommendation of the doctor went to LFK and massage in the same polyclinic, and also signed up for swimming. But the lessons of basketball and volleyball, despite the high growth of his son, the doctor categorically advised him not to aggravate the state of affairs with the spine.

Some children are prescribed wearing special corsets for correction of posture( my daughter's daughter wore one of the variations of such a corset, there are a lot of them in the specialized departments of large pharmacies, the main thing is to choose the right one for you).

Keep track of the correct posture of your children, find opportunities to write them in sports sections( although this is sometimes very costly for the parent wallet).It is important to properly strengthen the muscles of the back in the period of active growth of the child, do not give excessive load and do not let things slide. If you do not do this - in the future you can easily get a disability.