Copper Levels in Children with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS)

I thought it would be helpful if I added some more information about CopperScan0001 and Scoliosis.  Chris currently has a raised copper level of 4.2 micrograms.  The normal reference range shown on his report is between 1.0 and 2.1 micrograms.  This was addressed in the written report that accompanied his hair mineral analysis results and I discussed it at my meeting with our nutritionist.  I have also done some research of my own online and discovered that there has been research into the relationship between key minerals and Scoliosis and one study conducted in 1976 found that the hair Copper level of a sample of AIS children was significantly higher than that of the controls.  See the Abstract of this report below:

Hair samples were collected from 74 patients with idiopathic adolescent scoliosis and from 25 control children and were analyzed for content of the following minerals: copper, sodium, iron, zinc, potassium, magnesium, cadmium, calcium, and manganese. The hair copper level of the scoliotic children was significantly higher than that of the controls. The scoliosis mean was 6.5 micrograms/dl and the control mean was 3.6 micrograms/dl, P less than 0.025. There was no correlation between the amount of hair copper and the severity of the scoliosis. The authors suggest that copper may be a factor in the development of scoliosis since it is part of the lysyl oxidase enzymes that are required for cross-linking of collagen and elastin. Another connection is that postpubertal girls have higher copper levels than boys and also have a greater severity of scoliosis.”

This abstract comes from the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health.  This is the link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7394662

I also found the following websites of interest when I researched further into Copper and Scoliosis.

The articles on copper I found were:

http://www.healingedge.net/store/article_copper_toxicity.html

http://www.traceelements.com/Docs/News%20March%2095.pdf

http://www.drgangemi.com/kids/osgoodscoliosis/

We have now acted on the advice given and ordered a range of supplements for Chris to try to reduce his Copper levels and to balance out the other key minerals.  He has to take these for 4 months after which we will repeat the hair mineral test and see what effects the supplements have had on him.