Minerals in diet linked to scoliosis

AN INABILITY to process a mineral in our diets might be to blame for some cases of scoliosis, the most common childhood musculoskeletal condition, where the spine begins to curve sideways.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, in St Louis in the US, have found that children with severe scoliosis are twice as likely as those without the disease to carry a gene that makes it hard for their cells to take in and use manganese — a mineral required for growing bones and cartilage.

Writing in a piece for the journal Nature Communications, the scientists said the results suggest the possibility that scoliosis could be treated by dietary intervention.