Tag: Medical History

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.

What You Should Know About IBS

Irritable bowel syndrome is a disorder in the body that affects the digestive system, particularly the large intestine or the colon, which is assigned to regulate and man over the excretion of solid wastes of the body.

Although it may not seem true, irritable bowel syndrome is one of the most common diagnosed functional problems in the body. In the country alone, one out of five people are afflicted with the problem. This translates to about 20 percent of Americans. Still, little is known about the problem. Unlike other disorders that have already had awareness campaigns, irritable bowel syndrome still remain under the shadows. There is a lot of confusion as to how it starts and if a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome is appropriate.

What is doubly hard for this problem is the fact that there are no laboratory tests that can confirm the presence of irritable bowel syndrome. Diagnosis as mentioned before is solely dependent on the examination and study of the symptoms based on the account of the patient as well as on the medical history. Unlike other diseases that are directly caused by bacteria, virus and other organisms, irritable bowel syndrome has no known organic cause. Indirect causes or factors that may trigger the problem include stress, food items that may serve as irritant in the colon as well as milk products.

The numbers of cases of irritable bowel syndrome can actually even grow further as most people who have the problem do not even know that they have the problem. This is perhaps because of the fact that most of its symptoms are similar to symptoms of other body disorders. There is actually no distinctive symptom. This also the reason why it is classified under the term syndrome. Because there is a clear lack of a symptom that will differentiate it from other problems, diagnosis will depend on a set of symptoms that must be present. But what are the symptoms?

One of the main symptoms that doctors often watch out for in irritable bowel syndrome is the abdominal pain. This is actually one of the differentiating factors that doctors use to make a conclusion or final diagnosis. According to the Rome II Diagnostic Criteria, which is often used in the diagnosis of gastrointestinal disorders, irritable bowel syndrome symptoms include abdominal pain and discomfort episodes that may last for about 12 months.

Understanding IBS in Children

Irritable bowel syndrome is a dysfunction in the digestive system particularly in the large intestine or in the colon. There is actually no known cause of this problem. Although there are some factors that do trigger its exacerbation such as stress, certain food items and milk. Symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome include constipation or diarrhea, abdominal pain and feeling of fullness or bloating.

As irritable bowel syndrome affects all ages and all genders, children are not free from the problems it may bring on. In fact, it is even more a problem with children as they may feel severe abdominal pain because of their inability to excrete their body waste. Still, the same set of criteria that the Rome II Diagnostic Criteria System prescribed is used with children. There is no age distinction as well as gender differences. In fact, irritable bowel syndrome affects girls and boys equally.

Children suffering from irritable bowel syndrome may also experience headaches and nausea just like their adult counterparts. They may also find mucus threads on their stool. Mucus is a substance that helps moisten the passage of wastes out of the body. Most often, irritable bowel syndrome occur during periods when they are on the throes of growth milestones such as teething or some serious illness such as a flu. Some children may also develop irritable bowel syndrome if they are stressed in class. Despite this, it must be noted that stress does not cause irritable bowel syndrome. Rather it triggers the effects of irritable bowel syndrome to the body.

Diagnosis in children will also involve accounts of symptoms as well as examination of the medical history. As with diagnosing adults, physicians may conduct tests that will rule out the possibility of other diseases before reaching a full diagnosis.

Treatment in children involves more on the natural diet side as they are much too young to take in medications. Often, they are asked to eat food items that are rich in fiber to help ease constipation and get rid of the pain in the abdomen. Training is also recommended especially to children who do not empty their bowels often.

Medications like laxatives may also be prescribed but as last resort as children are more susceptible to addiction to the drug compared to adults. If laxatives however is badly needed, doctors provide detailed procedure to the parents to endure that the medication will be properly taken in.

Signs And Symptoms Of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome is perhaps one of the most difficult medical problems to diagnose. In addition to having no specific cause, irritable bowel syndrome cannot also be tested as there are no diagnostic tests that can confirm the condition.

What is IBS?
Irritable bowel syndrome is dysfunction in the large intestine, the part of the digestive system that is responsible for the storage and excretion of solid body wastes. According to experts, it seems that people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome have large intestines that are very sensitive to stimulation, too much so that the slightest change in the bodily function can cause the whole system to go haywire.
Although there are no known causes of the problem, most doctors agree that food intake and the stress that the body experience may play a role in triggering the problem. Similar to allergic reactions, there are certain foods that may irritate the large intestine and lead to either constipation or diarrhea. Milk products for instance, can cause irritable bowel syndrome.

No direct cause
The lack of direct cause is also the reason why there is no diagnostic test that can confirm the diagnosis. Doctors have to rely on the accounts of the patients about their symptoms as well as the medical history. Diagnosis can only be achieved if the set of criteria is fulfilled. This means that the presence of only one symptom is not enough to make a diagnosis. The doctor must find a set of symptoms before drawing conclusions. Thus, it is called a syndrome and not just a disorder. This, however, can be rather confusing as most if not all of the symptoms under irritable bowel syndrome are those that are also present in other diseases.

What are its symptoms?
According to the Rome II Diagnostic Criteria System, often used in the diagnosis of gastrointestinal disorders, a problem is diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome if there is a 12 month-period of abdominal pain accompanied by two of these three factors, pain is relieved when the person has already excreted the waste material; the onset is associated with a change in the frequency of defecating, either by constipation or diarrhea; or the onset is associated with a change in the appearance of the stool. Accompaniment of these factors must have a duration of at least 12 weeks and is not necessarily consecutive.