Vitamin D and Scoliosis by: Kerri Knox, RN-The Immune Health Queen!
Thanks for writing in Dr. Porter,
Good to have you here. While is sure seems logical for scoliosis to have a vitamin D component to it, there sure is not much out there about it that I could find. BUT, there are some correlations that seems like someone should be looking into it- but that no one has made the correlation.
For instance, This Study and This Study show that girls with more progressed scoliosis have higher rates of osteopenia. And osteopenia is usually accompanied by Vitamin D Deficiency- if you look for it, which they didn't.
This Study concludes that Scoliosis "reflected an abnormal mechanism of calcium homeostasis and bone turnover". Hmmm, kinda sounds like something that Low Vitamin D Levels would cause.
I had to laugh when I read This Study where they seem to have got their cause and effect mixed up, stating that scoliosis is the probable cause for the decreased bone mass in Scoliosis sufferers rather than the other way around! Also, there HAVE been LOTS Of studies showing that a high percentage of teenage girls have Vitamin D Deficiency- so there's another association without a link.
So, no- at this time is doesn't appear that anyone has even LOOKED to see if there is a link because there are also no studies saying that there was NO link between the two. But as a practitioner, I'd certainly rule that in or out. Also, it seems that a high percentage of celiac disease patients have scoliosis, so that could also be a direction to look at in someone with Scoliosis as well.
Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen Functional Medicine Practitioner Easy Immune Health.com
