The main purpose of the current assignment is to consider the effects of scoliosis on the organism of people, whose career appears to be directly associated with the state of their body parts and their back, in particular. Thousands of people are getting a diagnosis of scoliosis and appear to be significantly concerned about the dangerous effects of this physical disorder. Further, not only do they worry about their career as performers, but also about their health in general. What is more important, the majority of people does not have perfect spine, which has its natural peculiarities. Technically, these can be classified as scoliosis, but practically such state of the spine is significantly variable, from mild to severe, where the symptoms are clearly visible not only for specialists, but for a person himself. Correspondingly, the treatment of this disorder varies. However, it is still worth accepting that regardless of its origin, either genetic or inherited, the deformations of the spine can be effectively removed along with their effects.
Thus, the following paragraphs are going to discuss and explicitly illustrate the exact influences of scoliosis, especially in dancers, including the variety of different characteristics being changed along with the progression of scoliosis. Furthermore, the treatment of this disorder is going to be discussed, as well along with the impact of it on the patient’s ability to continue his/her dancing career. It is worth defining though, that following examples of disorders being present in dancers rarely tend to stop the people from developing themselves as dancers and maintain their career. Therefore, regardless of the severity of the spine’s deformations, it appears only up to each person, whether to fight it or accept it along with their severe consequences.
What is more important in this regard, the spine deformations along with various skeletal aberrations tend be the corresponding results of the regime the dancers tend to maintain. This is particularly true for the female ballet dancers, as they tend to start their trainings in early childhood along with a strict diet and weight control. Correspondingly, the researchers tend to report prolonged hypoestrogenism in these dancers, which results in various abnormalities in these dancers; furthermore, the severity of these abnormalities tend to be developing with the process of growing up. As a result, the researchers tend to report about the delayed menarche, secondary amenorrhea along with absence of regular menstrual periods among the young ballet dancers (Warren).
Combined with strict diet in order to maintain physical shape in them along with early beginning of their trainings, the aforementioned delays of menarche appear to be more than logical and obvious. Furthermore, despite the fact that the therapists have not found any considerable problems of medical nature requiring any treatment, the aforementioned alterations of skeletal proportions have also been reported. It is worth stating that due to the high importance of estrogen in shaping healthy bone in females, the reported alterations and deviation in gonadal steroids’ secretion and estrogen, in particular, have colossal effects on the young dancers’ health (LINDSAY et al.). That’s why, during the most important period of their development – the sexual maturation, the girls tend to experience significant abnormalities in their hormonal development, which results in a variety of hazardous consequences. Certainly, scoliosis appears to be one of these.
As a result, young female dancers experiencing an aforementioned delay in menarche have the higher risk of experiencing scoliosis and fractures; furthermore, the probability of having this disorder rises along with the age of the first menstruation. In other words, such significant delay in puberty appears to be one of the crucial factors for the development of scoliosis, which is effectively proved by the results of a corresponding research (Drummond and Rogala). Nevertheless, despite this negative tendency, the rates of scoliosis in young dancers appears to be significantly higher compared to the predicted ones. Transposing these onto the general population, scoliosis affects less than 2% of it; still, it affects almost 4% of all white girls. Such increase is reported to be a corresponding result of physiological, hereditary and environmental characteristics. The researches also prove the familial incidence of scoliosis, as “it occurred in 28 percent of the affected dancers' families but in only 4 percent of the families of those not affected (P<O.O1), suggesting a hereditary influence” (Warren et al.). What is more important in this regard, the characteristics and shape of the body preferable for the classical ballet is closely associated with symptoms of scoliosis, including the decreased ratios of upper-to-lower body along with the long arm span. In fact, the same traits of the body never appeared to be present in mothers of these young dancers and/or their non-dancing sisters. Therefore, it is worth defining in this regard that the same concept of classical dance, ballet in particular, stimulates the organisms of young females to become vulnerable against the deformations of their skeletal systems and result in scoliosis.
Correspondingly, the aforementioned young dancers with such delay in the development of their skeletal system have high risk of facing long-bone growth, resulting in ennuchoid proportions similar to the individuals suffering from hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. Furthermore, hypoestrogenism resulted by the characteristics mentioned previously may and will definitely result in delay of development and further maturation of the spine’s osseous centers, making a person considerably vulnerable against vertebral instability. According to the clinical evidence, a number of dancers has reported corresponding delay in skeletal development, examples of scoliosis with “no fusion of the iliac apopphyseal plates at age 19” (Warren et al.).
The dancers diagnosed with scoliosis have also been reported as being significantly taller compared to the healthy dancers. As a result, the clinicians have concluded that the taller dancers and all the individuals in general have higher risk of having scoliosis due to the prolonged growth spurts. Furthermore, the same association of higher height with the probability of having scoliosis has been reported and practically proved by a number of studies (Willner).
Still, it is necessary stating that there has not been found any difference between the structures of the bodies of healthy dancers and the ones with scoliosis; further, the latest researches tend to report that the weight and height of the dancers do not differ among them, as well, despite the aforementioned findings by Warren.
What is more important, the studies proved the relation of athletic activities with corresponding anatomical abnormalities. All of these tend to discuss two major issues concerning the influence of scoliosis on dancing performance. The first is the probability of scoliosis being associated with the other anatomical anomalies, including foot/knee misalignment, while the second type of researches focused on the probability of dancers with scoliosis to have exact and specific structural deformities resulted by their high physical activity (Steinberg et al.) .
Nevertheless, it is still worth accepting that the first issue still needs to be discussed in further detail due to the fact that the majority of the related researches and studies considered corresponding associations between a number of abnormalities detected in the lower limbs. For example, a study has reported significant association between the foot planus with the other conditions including pronated foot, hindfoot valgus alignment and subtalar mobility. Still, all the studies of this particular type tended to conclude that scoliosis was present among all these conditions and parameters. Considering the second issue, the respective studies have reported significant prevalence of scoliosis-specific foor and lower limb abnormalities, including “genuvarum, genu-recurvatum, splay foot, and hallux valgus” - all of these clearly shown by the dancers with scoliosis (Steinberg et al.). The studies conclude that among the young dancers, the prevalence of extensive dancing trainings and exercises makes them considerably vulnerable against strains and high loads, which traditionally lead to various growth plates and further anatomical deformations development. Similar mechanism explains the development of spine deformities, including the occurrence of scoliosis in previously healthy young organism.
Another point for the dancers with scoliosis to consider is the increasing probability of having any injuries and the association of their severity in spine with scoliosis. A number of studies has been conducted discussing the question of whether the lower extremity abnormalities can increase this risk; furthermore, a considerable percentage of them has reported no association with them stating that the last is not a risk factor for such type of injuries. Still, the majority of the related studies has concluded that there was positive correlation between the injuries and the misalignment in the respective regions of the spine. Thus, the majority of empirical studies prove the increasing risk of injuries among the dancers and athletes. Furthermore, a respective research considered the importance of postural screening in the process of defining particular differences among the dancers, who have received according injuries with the dancers without any. The research concluded that the first have shown greater potential of having a pronated right foot in comparison to their healthy colleagues. Once the results of this research have been transposed on considering the association between the injuries and scoliosis in dancers, the results remained the same (Steinberg et al.).
In other words, the dancers diagnosed with scoliosis have shown greater risk of having injuries of the back in comparison to their non-scoliotic colleagues. Moreover, regardless of the importance of additional factors influencing the risk of injuries among dancers and athletes, the studies tend to prioritize this particular association due to the fact that the region related to back and spine appears to be the most injured among the dancers regardless of the fact that scoliosis does not directly cause corresponding injuries. In this regard, it is worth stating that two major issues remain unsolved and require detailed consideration. The first remains traditional and has already been discussed previously – whether the dancing activities stimulate the development of scoliosis. Despite the previously mentioned conclusions by Warren, a number of contemporary studies has shown that the risk for the dancers to become scoliotic is significantly lower; moreover, some of these tend to report that there is no risk at all (Kenanidis et al.). Therefore, this particular issue needs further research.
The second issue in this regard is whether the young dancers and/or athletes being at risk of having developed spine deformations should avoid the particular parts of their trainings or amend them accordingly. For example, a study has shown that for children having training with highly repetitive nature there is a great risk of developing corresponding imbalances in their musculature, which can lead to developing of scoliosis. On the other hand, a number of studies tends to report successful adaptation to these trainings among the young girls, also suggesting that scoliotic children should be treated with physical activities unless they are having highly severe stage of scoliosis (Bas et al.).
What is more important to this regard, the aforementioned trends, tendencies and relations of scoliosis with dancing abilities and spine abnormalities needs precise and detailed evaluation and research due to the fact that the results regarding these tendencies appear to be more than uncertain. Regardless of the fact that dancing activities and continuous trainings result in deformations of the spine and diminish the dancers’ ability to effectively train and perform due to the aforementioned pains and risk of injuries, some researchers even tend to conclude that dancing activities hide great potential of improving the status of children diagnosed with scoliosis. The new pioneering study aims to represent “A new form of scoliosis treatment, giving up static exercising for a more dynamic, dance-like therapy, has been developed allowing a playful and self determined way of exercising” (Bauknecht). As a result, the participants of this research program have reported positive dynamics in their status, including body awareness, body balance improvement and gradual pain relief. Furthermore, the overall appearance of the patients has also show positive dynamics. Still, further research is required with bigger sample group accompanied by the corresponding clinical estimations.
Regardless of the uncertainty concerning the effects and reasons of scoliosis along with its influence on dancing abilities, it is still worth reminding that the corresponding deformations are caused not by the process of dancing, but by the repetitive exercises that require physical strength and agility. It remains up to each particular dancer though, whether to keep on training being aware of potential consequences, or choosing another physical activity. However, the risk of injuries and physical abnormalities is prevalent not only for dancing, but for each kind of physical and athletic activity; gladly, the majority of these can be healed and removed for keeping effective performance.
Works cited
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Drummond, Denis S., and Eugene J. Rogala. "GROWTH AND MATURATION OF ADOLESCENTS WITH IDIOPATHIC SCOLIOSIS". Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics 1.2 (1981): 235. Web.
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Warren, Michelle P. et al. "Scoliosis And Fractures In Young Ballet Dancers". New England Journal of Medicine 314.21 (1986): 1348-1353. Web.
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