We have two daughters who still have not entered puberty. Due to their mother’s scoliosis and the proven hereditary nature of scoliosis, we are naturally very concerned that one or both of them will develop it.
There is one supplement that has a documented association with scoliosis though the cause and effect relationship has not been determined, namely vitamin D.
In this recent study, it was found that while 60% of normal teen girls have vitamin D deficiency, the same was true of around 90% of scoliosis patients of the same age group.
Also in this study it was found that girls with scoliosis more often have osteopenia. And osteopenia is usually accompanied by vitamin D deficiency. Other studies like this one links low bone mineral density to scoliosis. Low BMD is also often linked to vitamin D deficiency.
This page has several interesting comments stressing that it is D3 vitamin that helps, not D2. Also, a comment states that vitamin D3 is not enough but needs to be helped with vitamin K.
I will further study vitamin K (MK7 version) and add my findings to this blog.
The page referred above mentions that studies have suggested that a decrease in bone mineral density may be responsible for the development of scoliosis and though I have been unable to find mention of this, it does seem plausible. One result of bone demineralisation is that the bones become less rigid!
As indicated for instance here, vitamin D deficiency is known to cause bone demineralisation as well as having negative effects on neuromuscular function and muscle strength.
We give our kids tablets with 35 mcg (1400 IU) vitamin D3 per day. However we are not sure whether this is too little or too much. There is a wealth of conflicting advice on the matter. According to this page, we could safely double the dose.
This seems like a good vitamin D3 supplement:
And this seems like a good and reasonably priced vitamin K2 (MK7) supplement: