Health blog Category: Aches and Pains
How Physical Therapy can Help with Frequent Headaches
With people working from home, there has been a drastic increase in the number of people suffering from frequent and chronic headaches. One fact that many people do not know is that physical therapy can help treat them!
There are several causes of headaches, but many are being caused by tight neck and head muscles, poor posture, and an increase in stress. These are all areas that can be addressed with physical therapy!
Read full blogHow Does Stress Impact Our Neck?
Many people experience neck pain but aren’t sure what is causing their pain. As silly as it may sound, one source that could be to blame, is stress.
Could stress really be causing me to physically hurt? The answer is yes.
The tension of stress can cause the small muscles in our neck to tighten up and stiffen which can cause pain. This can also cause us to lose motion in our neck and make it harder for us to turn and rotate our head.
Read full blogWhat Are You Doing to Prevent Fall Sports Injuries?
The leaves turning and the cooling of the air brings back the clatter of football and the squeak of sneakers on a basketball court. Along with a return to these dynamic sports subsequently has an uptick in ankle and knee injuries. Let’s talk about how to prevent these injuries!
One of the best things to do for injury prevention is to have a well balanced, dynamic routine for stretching and strengthening to prevent those injuries to our athletes.
Read full blogChronic Ankle Instability
Have you sprained your ankle more times than you can count? You are likely suffering from what is called chronic ankle instability, aka CAI.
Why does this happen? Once you injure your ankle once, unless rehabbed well, the function of the ankle itself is forever altered. Every part of your body has little internal GPS sensors called proprioceptors. The function of these proprioceptors decreases following ankle injuries. With this decline in function, your ankle has a hard time knowing where it is at in space and therefore has a hard time righting itself when walking on uneven surfaces or running.
Read full blogWhat is Ergonomics?
To start, Ergonomics is the study of individuals in their workplace in which workplaces are designed to fit individuals who use them. This aims to improve the environment to minimize the risk of injury.
Since the pandemic, many more individuals around the world began working from home and at desks/computers not realizing they have been sitting in a poor position for several hours a day and multiple days a week. Walking around and standing up in a typical office setting has decreased due to being in the comfort of our homes.
Read full blogCommon Causes of SI Joint Pain
What in the world is an SI joint? Why is it even important?
SI joint problems can happen in people of all ages and fitness levels. Many young athletes often complain about lower back pain or symptoms that radiated down their legs. You might be thinking, ‘They’re young. They can’t have low back problems. They’re in peak physical condition and participate in sports practices for hours a day!’ So why were they coming into the athletic training room with lower back issues?
Read full blogWhy Does My Knee Hurt When I Sit Too Long?
Has your knee ever started to hurt after sitting for a period time? This may mean you have arthritis. Luckily, physical therapy can help eliminate the symptoms you experience with arthritis.
Arthritis:
Osteoarthritis: caused by the mechanical wearing away of the cartilage (cushion) between joints. Pain can be caused by frayed pieces of cartilage getting caught or from two boney surfaces being in greater contact with each other.
Read full blogWhy Do Our Knees Pop and Crackle?
Knee noise in the form of a crack, click, or pop is very common. It may be caused by simple soft tissue catching or by more serious damage to the bearing surface of the joint: the articular cartilage.
No worries: Painless clicks & pops
The rice crispy noises coming from your knee is common and this is called crepitus. Sometimes the noise is due to tiny air bubbles inside the joint fluid, which build up with changes in joint pressure.
Read full blogWhat is a Fracture?
Simply put, a fracture is the medical term for a break in a bone within the body. There are many different classifications of a fracture and each one has its own characteristics and healing time. Being told that you have a fracture can be a scary thing, but knowledge is power! Read below to learn about the different types of fractures and what to expect as you recover.
Types of fractures:
Overall classification of break
- Displaced: Bone breaks and moves out of place
- Non-Displaced: Bone breaks but does not move out of place
- Closed: Bone does not break through the skin
- Open: Bone breaks through the skin
Patterns of fractures:
Ways in which the bone can break
- Avulsion: A piece of bone breaks off
- Comminuted: Bone breaks into many pieces
- Greenstick: the bone bends but does not break completely (common in children)
- Spiral: The bone was twisted to create the break
- Stress: A small fracture in the bone (hairline)
How long will it take to heal?
Read full blogFoot and Ankle Problems
There are many reasons as to why your foot and ankle could be bothering you. Some of the primary injuries we see here at LSTC are:
- Ankle sprains
- Plantar fasciitis
- Achilles Tendonitis
Ankle sprains are a very common injury we treat here at LSTC. The most common ankle sprain is an inversion sprain which happens when your foot gets turned towards the other foot and stretches the tendons and ligaments on the outside of the ankle causing the injury.
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