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 children, differing from the other peers, are seen as taller, 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 up 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, a couple of years later I was already in physical education One of the first among girls, and stretched out to the graduating class in such a way that she not only overtook her mother, but also overgrew it by 20 cm. Of course, next to the smaller boys did not want to look like a "duff", she had to slouch, refuse From shoes with heels, do not do high hairstyles for school discos and. Teachers and parents constantly said: "Lena, you're a slender, pretty girl, straighten your shoulders - because stoop does not go to anyone." But I finished school with some kind of 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 higher , 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 one and a half or two previous years, 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 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 problem points from the axis of the spinal column, 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 region. 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), which arises due to incorrect posture, long non-physiological sitting at the table or, as in my case, connected with psychological aspects (complex due to High growth)

Kyphosis of the spine - treatment

Since our children spend a lot of time not only for school and home lessons, but also sitting at the computer - the posture is spoiled by almost everyone, not only among tall children.

In the presence of complaints of painful pain in the back or neck, reduced sensitivity and numbness of the limbs, irregularities in the heart and lungs, your child, after a manual examination, must be assigned 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 clinic, 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 situation with the spine.

Some children are prescribed wearing special corsets for correcting the 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).

Watch for 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 loads and do not let things slide. If you do not do this - in the future you can easily get a disability.