Debunking the Myth: Scoliosis and Posture

By Stacey Teytel

Scoliosis is an unfortunately very common illness that affects over three million people per year. Due to this, there are many myths created about the disorder by people who do not understand what it is. One of those myths is that scoliosis is caused by poor posture. I remember when I was first diagnosed with scoliosis, my mother told me that to make it go away I needed to sit up straighter and walk with better posture. Of course, after talking with my doctor it became clear that this was, quite obviously, not the case. However, this is a story I have been hearing my entire life. If I don’t sit up with better posture then my bad posture will become permanent. Thinking back on it, this was people telling me that I would develop scoliosis. This myth creates a negative light over people with scoliosis in two distinct ways. First, it creates a fear of the disorder for young kids. Due to the fact that scoliosis is not preventable, this fear is not aimed toward a positive goal. Parents create a fear of diabetes in children in order to get them to stop eating as much sugar. However, with scoliosis this is not the case. There is no healthier lifestyle that can prevent the disease and creating a fear of it does not help anyone. Next, it creates the idea that somehow people with scoliosis brought it onto themselves. This is much worse than the first implication because people look at the disease differently when it is self-inflicted than when people could not prevent its onset. For example, looking at patients with type one versus type two diabetes. People don’t view the two equally because type two is self-inflicted. It is incredibly important to dispel myths such as scoliosis is caused by poor posture, because they cast a negative light on people with scoliosis and can be damaging to the entire community of people with the disease.