Category: Mental Health

Physiotherapy Helps Postural Problems

Postural problems have always been a problem; they are even worse in the modern workplace. Too many times people have to reach for their computer mouse, putting them in unnatural positions. There is help for both kinds of postural problems in physiotherapy.

Posture is the way one stands, sits, or walks. It can refer to any normal position that the body usually holds. When the shoulders are hunched forward or the arm is extended in an awkward position, these are postural problems. They can lead to muscle and joint pain, headaches, and other unpleasant symptoms.

Some postural problems are caused because a person has pain in one part of her body. She might count on other muscles to do the work of the ones that hurt. This could lead to an unbalanced or awkward posture. It could cause more pain in the long run.

Postural problems can be treated with physiotherapy such as heat, massage, exercises, and chiropractic manipulation. The first order of business is to reduce the pain. Patients with postural problems usually go in to the doctor with painful symptoms. Heat can be used to ease sore muscles that have been holding the body in unfamiliar poses.

Next, postural problems can be treated by an attempt to reverse the affect the awkward positions have had on the muscles. This can be done by massage. The muscles that are tightened because of poor carriage of the body can be worked until they are less tender.

Some muscles may have contracted, or shortened, due to postural problems. Other muscles which oppose them might have lengthened and weakened. It is necessary to stretch the shortened muscles before trying to strengthen, or tighten, the longer muscles. Physiotherapy exercises have been invented for just this purpose.

Anyone who works with a mouse that is not close enough to their keyboard is prone to postural problems. The first step is to make a better arrangement of the work space. Then, exercises can correct the neck, shoulder, and wrist problems that have resulted from postural problems.

Surgeries, like the Carpal tunnel surgery, are the last resort, as physiotherapy can take care of most of these postural problems before such drastic measures are needed. If one wants to avoid surgery, getting physiotherapy early on is a key. Then, with adequate rearrangement of the workplace, the surgery should never be needed at all.

Chiropractic doctors practice physiotherapy techniques to put the body back into alignment after postural problems occur. They can do manipulations to help the patient regain full range of motion. They can also work on the muscles to ease tension there.

Postural problems are common for people of all ages. They can all find help for these aches and pains. A strict regimen of physiotherapy, along with a restructuring of the work and other environments, can be a positive influence on postural problems. With the right physiotherapist, these patients will be able to sit and stand comfortably again. They will not be defined by their postural problems.

Pediatric Disorders and Physiotherapy to Help Them

It is a sad day when one has to deal with pediatric disorders in the family. Most people believe that children should never suffer from physical problems. Yet, the reality must be faced that pediatric disorders can happen. The good news is that physiotherapy offers some help for them.

Unfortunately, there are numerous pediatric disorders. To name a few, there are: scoliosis, torticollis, Osgood-Schlatter, sports and traumatic injuries, reluctant walkers, developmental disorders, cerebral palsy, and genetic disorders.

Physiotherapy for scoliosis – a curvature of the spine – consists of exercises to strengthen the back. Electrical stimulation is used for this type of pediatric disorders. The stimulation goes directly to the skeletal muscles. Chiropractic is also used in an effort to straighten the spine.

Torticollis is a type of pediatric disorders of the neck. There is a problem with one of the muscles of the neck so that the child is not able to hold his head up straight. The head will be tilted to one side. This chin will jut out on the opposite side of the neck. Physiotherapy can stretch this muscle so that the child can hold his head more normally.

Spinal cord injuries as pediatric disorders are difficult to treat. Children often do not want to do the work that is required to stay ahead of the deterioration that can be caused by this condition. Physiotherapy personnel are challenged to keep the child’s spirits up as they teach them how to exercise with and without special equipment.

Brain injuries, including cerebral palsy and strokes are pediatric disorders that must be managed delicately. The neurological system is often not as sturdy as the skeletal or muscular systems. However, brain injuries also involve these other systems as well.

A new treatment for these pediatric disorders like brain injuries is using hyperbaric oxygen therapy. This type of physiotherapy is based on the idea that, in these conditions, there are often parts of the brain that are not working but can be revived. The HBOT can sometimes revive them.

Pediatric disorders such as sports injuries and traumatic injuries require different types of physiotherapy based upon the location and severity of the injury. If a child has repeatedly sprained the same ankle, therapy will necessarily focus on that ankle, as well as any body part that supports or counterbalances that ankle. Overall strength is important.

Traumatic injuries require a certain amount of psychological training, as the subject of the accident or other ordeal may bring on such distress that the child does not want to work. A good physiotherapist will be able to work with such a child. Traumatic injuries can also be severe enough that the physiotherapist plans a lengthy course of therapy to overcome them. Pediatric disorders like this require patience from everyone involved.

The list of pediatric disorders is long and varied. Not all of them can be helped by physiotherapy at this time. Right now, physiotherapy can be used in many cases to relieve symptoms or even to reverse damage. Physiotherapy performs a valuable function in helping children live more normal lives.

How to Start a Physiotherapy Career

If one wants to help others with physical problems, one might want to start a physiotherapy career. By doing so, one could learn to evaluate physical problems, create plans for patients, and see to carrying out those plans. A physiotherapy career can be professionally rewarding.

The average physiotherapist is between 25 and 54, earns $50,000 to $60,000, and works in a full-time salaried position. Many of these started out with a BA degree, but the trend is towards hiring MA degree or doctoral degree holders who are beginning a physiotherapy career.

If one is considering a physiotherapy career, the degree one gets in important. A physiotherapy aide can get an entry-level degree at a university, community college, or technical school. This is a two-year degree. After graduation, the physiotherapy aide will perform many jobs in the treatment of patients, under the direction of the physiotherapist.

To begin a physiotherapy career as a professional, one needs to get either a master’s degree or a doctoral degree. With the master’s degree programs, one may have to enter the program at the same time one starts college. At other places, one simply takes about three years of school after the bachelor’s degree. Doctoral degrees have similar requirements.

Before one gets into a physiotherapy degree program, one needs to meet specific requirements. Coursework in various life sciences like biology, anatomy are needed. Also important are courses in fields like psychology and social science.

To choose a school to prepare one for a physiotherapy degree, it is wise to consider whether that school offers clinical experiences as a part of the training. It is also important to be aware of the degrees that are available to earn, and the length of the course of study.

The final step before getting that first job to start a physiotherapy career is accreditation. The Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) is tasked with ensuring that physiotherapists are fit for the licensing exam. At that point, the licensure exam must be taken and passed. Employers are impressed with high licensure scores. Once the test is complete, you are ready to start your physiotherapy career.

Once the career is started, there will be several things to consider. One is that many states expect one to get routine updates on one’s education. This can be done through workshops and continuing education courses. You will not be able to keep your license without keeping up on the latest knowledge throughout your physiotherapy career.

Also, you may want to consider a specialty. There are physiotherapy career specialties in geriatrics, pediatrics, orthopedics, neurological disorders, and sports medicine, to name a few. By choosing a specialty, you make yourself more valuable, thus earning yourself a higher salary and often more respect. Besides this, you can choose a field that is the most important to you.

You can begin your physiotherapy career by researching schools and finding which ones have the best programs for you. If you do become a physiotherapy professional, you will find both financial and personal rewards await you.

How to Make the Most of a Physiotherapy Assessment

The first step in recovering from several painful and incapacitating conditions is a physiotherapy assessment. One can sit back and let the physiotherapist do all the work. However, more accurate and positive results will come of the physiotherapy assessment if the patient becomes involved.

When you go in to the physiotherapy appointment, your doctor should have given the physiotherapist some idea of your condition. The physiotherapy assessment will begin when the therapist takes a medical history. This is standard procedure for any type of health related problem. It is wise to be thorough in explaining past problems and conditions that seem to run in the family.

This can have a bearing on your treatment. It might even point to some disease or disorder that no one suspected that you had. A thorough physiotherapy assessment could possibly lead to treatment by a physician for an unexpected illness. You might find out that, while physiotherapy is bad for very few people, it is not what you need the most.

Then, the therapist will ask questions about your present condition. She will want to know when the pain, stiffness, or other problems started. She will ask you just how much it hurts, having you grade your pain on a scale of one to ten. One means no pain and ten means the worst pain you can imagine. The physiotherapy assessment will go on with your hypotheses of what caused it all.

The accuracy of your physiotherapy assessment rests on the precision with which you answer these questions. Telling the therapist that the pain is at a level of four when you know it is more like a level of eight will lead her to treat your pain less aggressively. It will be as if you had no physiotherapy assessment at all.

However, if you are able to correctly measure your degree of pain, you will help the therapist understand your problem. When the therapist knows when the problem began and has an idea of what caused it, the physiotherapy assessment will reflect that information.

Then, the therapist will watch you move. For a person who does not wish to be seen as weak, it may be a challenge to walk and do other movements as the person does them when no one is watching. In other words, a person with a sore and stiff neck may try to move it normally in order not to seem like an invalid.

You will be put through a series of movements that may seem cruel to you. It is a part of a good physiotherapy assessment to show all the movements done as best you can do them. If you can barely do them, that tells your physiotherapist a great deal of information.

It is best that the physiotherapy assessment covers all these pains and conditions. The way to make the most of a physiotherapy assessment is to be as honest and accurate as possible. It is only then that you will get the best care.