Alternative medicines

Posts Tagged ‘physical therapy’

If you are someone who has a job that requires repeated use of the hands and wrists, then you may know what carpal tunnel syndrome is all about. You know all about that tightening feeling in the forearm and wrist, numbness and sometimes even pain. You know what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night with any one of these sensations, and you are wondering what to do about it.

To understand carpal tunnel syndrome, you need to understand the physiology of the syndrome. Carpal tunnel syndrome, quite simply, is the tightening of the wrist that compresses the median nerve and causes all of the typical symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. It can be a debilitating and sometimes excruciating condition that requires some sort of intervention to repair.

This problem can be terrible for those who need to use their hands and arms every day to work. Typists, data entry clerks, and others who work on computers know that carpal tunnel can make you lose your job. Those who paint houses, work in construction or even style hair for a living may be under similar pressure. Most people just take it for granted that their hands and wrists will always do exactly what they need to do. It comes as a surprise to them when they begin feeling numbness or pain.

Surgery is one option for those who wish to be rid of the pain of carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpal tunnel surgery is usually done under “twilight anesthesia”. The surgery itself involves cutting the transverse carpal ligament to relieve ongoing damage to the nerves. The transverse carpal ligament is a ligament at the wrist that wraps around all the other ligaments running vertically along the arm. The idea is that cutting this ever tightening ligament will immediately reduce pressure on the other ligaments. The transverse carpal ligament will then “scar” together while leaving more room for the other ligaments.

No one can predict the true outcome of any surgery. When you are dealing with a complicated area containing small bones, ligaments and muscles like the hand and wrist, this can make it even more unpredictable. Costs of surgery and rehabilitation can cost up to $10,000 or more and you may still find yourself with symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. There is also the possibility of losing strength in your arms and wrists.

It may be easier than you think to prevent or relieve symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. To begin with, take some time off from your usual tasks to let your hands and wrists have a rest. Even if you can only take a few days, it can help. There are wrist exercises you can do to stretch the transverse carpal ligament that can help. This will help ease pressure on the nerve and ligaments involved. You may need to work with a physical therapist to find the right exercises that work best for you. Results should begin to be felt quickly. Surgery should be a last resort.

You may find preventing carpal tunnel syndrome is easier than you think it is. With a little bit of effort, you can do exercises and stretches every day that will help make more room for your median nerve and avoid surgery.

Amateur and professional athletes alike both know that injury comes hand in hand with sports. Sports by its very nature are geared to push the limits of individuals to remain competitive. As boundaries are pushed, limits will be crossed. This is when injuries happen. However, the body is very resilient and with the help of the physical therapy programs recovery times are minimal. These advanced therapy programs build a regimen of activities to restore health and vitality to the affected areas. Many programs require the use of exercise equipment, massage chairs and stretching elements.

You may have just undergone surgery or are able to recover with surgery. The physical therapist must be able to handle a wide variety of situations for their patients. They are going to design a specific regimen for you to follow. Their goals are to restore flexibility and also to help strengthen the injured or stressed areas. Your therapist is an expert in the make up of the muscle and skeletal systems. They also must know about typical surgery procedures. This helps them understand how scar tissue may form deeper within the body. You will use exercise equipment and perhaps a massage chair to help you heal the injury.

If you are a professional athlete your goals are going to be different than if you play sport occasionally. Your physical therapist will consult with you on a direction and time line that fits your needs. An athlete needs quick recovery and to restore maximum flexibility and strength. Whereas the occasional player may take more time to fully recover. In either case, you will be put through stretching, massage, exercise and more. You will get to use various exercise equipment, massage chairs, free weights and more. These are important tools in the therapist’s recovery arsenal.

One of the key areas when you start is to make your muscles more pliable. When an injury occurs, the body immobilizes the affected area. Your body has redundant systems for most everything. If your leg is injured, it will want the other leg to take over. The body does not want the injured leg used and tries to shut it down to heal again. This is good, but your muscles become stiff and tight. They actually hurt to start to bend them. Stretching is an important part of the physical therapy routine to build back flexibility.

Exercises are important to help rebuild strength. When we have an injury, we tend to protect that area. Protecting that area is usually to isolate and immobilize it. In other words, we tend not to use the injured area. This helps to prevent further injury, but at the expense of strength and conditioning. To help rebuild the body, exercises help to build up strength, endurance and agility. Physical therapy clinics have a wide array of exercise equipment from treadmills, stationary bikes, weights and more. These help you focus building up a particular set of muscles.

When you are recovering from surgery most likely you will have new scar tissue. Scar tissue needs to be made more pliable through time. This will enhance the flexibility of the affected area. The mobility of the muscle and also the skin is at stake here. Massage therapy has been shown to increase the flexibility of muscles. Your muscles when injured may also have the muscle fibers break into short units. This reduces their flexibility. The muscles need to be more pliable by elongating the muscle fibers. Massage chairs use kneading and pressing massage techniques to relieve tight muscles and elongate the muscle fibers to restore their flexibility.

Whether you are a professional tennis player or a beginner skier, injuries can happen to anyone. If you do find yourself in physical therapy, work on setting goals to recover. Find yourself an excellent physical therapy clinic. Make sure they have qualified people, proper exercise equipment and massage therapy. And if you need massage therapy, make sure a massage chair is part of your recovery plans.

Clean out your system with an Acupressure massage. Acupressure massage is based on the ancient Chinese medical arts of acupuncture, but without the needles. Acupressure is accomplished by putting medium pressure on particular trigger points throughout the body. This type of massage therapy activates the body’s energy to increase the effectiveness of the immune system and restore balance within the body. Now technology is being used to locate and stimulate your body’s acupressure points in the premier massage chair brands of today.

Did you know that your body has over 300 acupressure points? These trigger points connect to major organs throughout the body. Sometimes these trigger points can become blocked leading to decreases in energy and lower levels of efficiency for your body. The ancient Chinese studied these points thoroughly and correlated the use of pressure to enhancing energy flow in the body. Western medicine is now catching up and has created maps of the body showing these relationships. Acupressure works by applying pressure to targeted points which help to restore energy flow and regain harmony in the body.

Acupressure massage is performed using kneading, tapping and vibration massage techniques. These massage techniques are used throughout the body in conjunction with stimulating the acupressure points. Delivering the acupressure massage is achieved by making rapid circular motions with medium pressure on particular trigger points. The trigger points are then stimulated in conjunction with massaging the body to release blocked energy. The energy flow is restored and the body returns to a normal balance.

If you are like most people, then you know your body can just get out of balance. We all deal with stress in different ways, but stress seems to be a constant. As it builds up, we need to relieve it. Built up stress causes muscle stiffness and the built up of toxins in the body. Both of these conditions cause the body to be out of balance. Acupressure massage benefits the body by helping to relieve the built up of stress, muscle aches and pain and reduce toxins levels. This helps to get the body back in balance.

The technology that is being incorporated into the best massage chairs is simply amazing. Advanced mechanical systems coupled to sophisticated software has produced wonderfully effective massage therapies. These massage recliners have sensors to scan your back. Their software programs create a digital map of your back and locate your individual trigger points. The software then targets these points and the mechanical systems provide kneading, chopping, vibration and firm pressure. These effective systems provide thorough and invigorating relief for your whole back and body.

The extremities of the body can now be effectively massaged with the massage chairs of today. These chairs have integrated air massage systems which use compressed air. The compressed air is delivered with a built in air compressor. The air compressor activates air bags which are specifically designed for a given muscle group. These air bags can be placed to massage the buttocks, thighs, arms, hands, calves and feet. They design them in an array of shapes and sizes to produce effective massage therapy for the targeted area.

New studies of acupressure massage are showing that it can help alleviate headaches, insomnia, dizziness, digestive disorders, constipation and in some cases even motion sickness. We are just beginning to understand the power of acupressure which has been known for centuries in China. Modern technology is being employed in the best massage chair recliners to deliver more effective acupressure massage treatments. The true effectiveness of acupressure massage is when it is done on a frequent basis. Remember stress accumulates daily, so the stress must also be released periodically. Massage chairs are the most cost effective and convenient way of receiving the benefits of acupressure massage.

Injuring the knee is one of the most common general and sporting injuries and can give long-term problems with pain, stability and functional activities. Physios begin with the subjective examination, asking about the cause of the injury, the amount of force involved, whether the knee swelled up quickly or the knee was unstable afterwards and the person found it difficult to weight bear.

The amount of pain a patient suffers indicates the severity of the injury involved and the particular location of the pain can point to which anatomical structures have been injured. As the knee will be very difficult to walk on in the presence of a fracture these injuries are rarely missed in diagnosis. During the examination the physiotherapist will test the knee structures to look for the cause of the injury.

The Knee Examination

Checking the knee for swelling or joint effusion is one of the first observations a physio will make, squeezing the fluid into the centre of the joint and tapping the patella down to confirm the presence of fluid. Knee effusions can be tense and require needle aspiration by a doctor to relieve the pressure. The physiotherapist then checks the quality of knee movement on the plinth and without any weight on the joint. Knee ranges of movement are assessed including extension, flexion and the small rotatory movements.

The reaction to examination testing indicates how the treatment plan should proceed. The pain level, ease of joint movement and reaction to tests are included in this assessment. The patient moves the joint actively with the physiotherapist adding passive movement to test the joint further. The power of the main antigravity muscles, the hamstrings and quadriceps, are tested by manually resisting the knee movements or asking the patient to perform weight bearing movements.

Stability is confirmed on a mechanically unstable joint by the ligaments and muscles. Physiotherapy testing of the collateral ligaments of the knee, the medial and lateral ligaments, is done by stressing the knee into knock-knee and bow-leg. These ligaments provide side-to-side stability to the knee. The anterior cruciate ligament and the posterior cruciate ligament are tested in the same way, giving front to back and rotatory stability to the joint. The joint structures are then palpated by the physio to confirm the diagnosis.

Physiotherapy treatment

Cryotherapy, or cold treatment, is an initial treatment for an acute painful knee and is used to reduce the swelling and pain. If pain is reduced then movement can occur more readily, allowing rehabilitation to progress to the next stage. A compression sleeve useful to compress the effusion as swelling inhibits the function of knee muscles. Of the knee is unstable on weight bearing a brace can be used to stabilise and protect it, with crutches or a stick necessary if the patient cannot weight bear well or achieve a reasonable gait.

Exercises to increase the strength and movement are instigated once the pain and effusion have begun to settle, working on the major weight supporting muscles of the thigh, the quadriceps and the hamstrings. The knee extensors (quadriceps) push us up from a chair, control the knee in running and walking and push us steps. Exercise progression by the physiotherapist involves non-weight bearing exercises initially, followed by rehab exercises in the gym and finally sport-focused activities.

A normal knee joint involved in activity sends a stream of impulses up to the brain, informing us of the joint position at all times, the degree of muscle activity and movement. This is known as joint position sense (JPS) or proprioception, which is lost to some degree after injury and restoring it to a normal level is vital if the knee is to successfully return to activity. The physio starts with balancing on one leg and progresses to standing on a wobble board and finally works on active, dynamic exercises in preparation for sport.