Physical therapy is just one of the many pain control options offered by specialists today. Although older adults are more likely to experience pain, it is not a “symptom” of aging, and it should not be accepted as inevitable. Unfortunately, pain has often been undertreated in older adults, but pain relief is an essential part of good healthcare. Untreated pain…
Bed Rest serves as a time honored treatment for both injury and illness, and is prescribed more often around flu season. A normal muscle, at complete rest, in absence of illness, loses up to 15% of its strength each week.1 During bed rest, the first muscles to become atrophied are the trunk and lower extremity muscles involved in gait and…
While arthritis is associated with a deteriorating physical condition, a new study suggests that it also can affect an arthritis patient’s psychological condition. Arthritis includes more than 100 different rheumatic diseases and conditions, the most common of which is osteoarthritis. Other forms of arthritis that occur often are rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia, and gout. Symptoms include pain, aching, stiffness,…
A story by United Press International (UPI) discovered that traumatic spinal cord injuries are on the rise in the United States and the leading cause no longer is motor vehicle crashes, but falls, researchers say. The story appeared in the Journal of Neurotrauma. UPI’s source was Dr. Shalini Selvarajah, a post-doctoral surgical research fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School…
Quoting from a study by the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease, HealthDay News reports that being physically fit can help prevent heart attacks and increase survival in people with stable coronary artery disease. This was true whether or not the patients underwent a procedure to open blocked heart arteries. Researchers analyzed data from more than…
According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which has analysed data from the Hospital Cost and Utilization project , senior health conditions accounted for 9 out of the 10 most frequent, fastest growing conditions leading to hospitalization in 2011. While seniors may not account for most of the conditions listed, they are common among this age group. .According to AHRQ’s Statistical Brief…
The importance of addressing incontinence immediately when it arises cannot be overstated. Around 20 million people in the United States alone suffer from incontinence, nearly 75% of which are women. Childbirth can very easily weaken the pelvic floor muscles enough to where urinary incontinence becomes a problem immediately after pregnancy. Given the personal and rather embarrassing nature of the symptom…
According to a report in Reuters, seniors with high blood sugar – but not high enough to be diabetic – face a slightly greater risk of developing dementia, according to a new study of over 2,000 volunteers. The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that an average glucose reading of 105 to 120 milligrams per deciliter…
As a Physical Therapist, I have been telling my patients to take their blood pressure medication and take their time getting out of bed in the morning by “rolling” to one side vs doing a sit up to avoid heart attacks and strokes. According to another recent report in HealthDay News, failure to take blood pressure-lowering medicines as directed greatly increases…
