Health blog Category: Health and Wellness
How to put the spring back in your step
Spring is just around the corner and that means a lot more outdoors time. However, if you suffer from knee pain, arthritis, low back pain or other aches and pains that keep you from being active, there are things you can easily do to become more active.
Change How You Sit
A lot of aches and pains relate to how we use our bodies in the day. Many back pain sufferers actually begin having back pain, because they sit too much.
How to Stop Suffering with Arthritis Pain
Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis. In fact over 65 million people in the US have osteoarthritis to some degree. Arthritis is characterized by progressive wearing away of the cartilage in a joint. This wear and tear over time leads to bone spurs, poor tissue strength, inflammation, pain, weakness of surrounding muscles and poor joint movement.
Symptoms of arthritis:
- Pain with activities
- Limited range of motion and stiffness
- Swelling and tenderness
- Poor balance and walking abilities
- Reports of on and off pain
- Loss of function with normal tasks of cleaning, dressing, lifting groceries, working, etc.
Feeling Stiff and Achy? How Physical Therapy Can Help
Our bodies are made to move and rely on a finely-tuned balance of proper posture, strength, coordination, chemical levels, blood pressure and more. When you don’t move on a consistent basis or experience changes to your health, you may start to feel stiff and achy, especially in the mornings. Poor health, injury, a sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition are also often to blame for the constant nagging aches or pains you may be experiencing.
Why do I ache in the morning?
Read full blogThe benefits of stretching
As you age, your muscle tissue actually dries out a little, tightening. This causes a loss of range of motion in your joints and tissues. In addition to the loss of range of motion, it can really limit your active lifestyles and hinder day-to-day, normal motions. Tasks that used to be simple, such as dressing or squatting down to tie your shoes, now become extremely difficult. A regular stretching program helps lengthen your muscles and makes daily living activities much easier.
Read full blogHow to achieve real relief from stress related headaches
Life’s demands create stress and although some stress may be good, too much can cause health problems. Most people equate stress with high blood pressure, a heart attack or a stroke. But did you know headaches, dizziness, neck and shoulder pain can be stress-related too?
Chronic headaches, usually accompanied by extreme fatigue are almost always a sign of stress. People literally live on Tylenol and Ibuprofen for years because they constantly have a nagging headache, induced by muscle spasms from the high amount of stress in their life.
Ways to stay active in winter
As the winter months approach, you may find yourself spending more time indoors and less time being active and mobile. This can lead to stiffness, fatigue and difficulties in accomplishing your daily activities and tasks. Despite the cooler temperatures and wintery weather, you need to keep moving and making daily efforts to be healthy. Here are some easy steps and fun alternatives to increase movement, decrease pain and increase your energy:
- Plan your daily activity / exercise routine and decide to get up and get moving!
How to treat arthritis pain
When it comes to relieving your arthritis aches and pains, you may have more options than you realize. There is a lot you can do to reduce your aches and pains from arthritis while gaining more mobility and function. Arthritis pain and inflammation is what we help our patients day in and day out with. If you want to know how to relieve and reduce the pain of arthritis, try physical therapy first. Patients often experience pain from arthritis because of stiff joints, muscles and other tissues.
Read full blogWhy low back pain may not go away
Low back pain is one of the most common aches and pains that causes people to see their physical therapist. Low back pain comes in different levels, from a simple achy, stiff back in the morning, to a severe and debilitating condition. By receiving treatment sooner, you can lessen the long-term damage that may result in your spine.
What causes low back pain? Typically, there are 4 main factors at work here:
- Poor spinal and abdominal muscle support
- Poor posture and alignment of the spine
- Limited movement of the spinal joints
- Lack of proper coordination of the spinal muscles
In order for your spine to be healthy and to work properly, you need to have strength, flexibility and coordination.
Read full blogWhat We Eat can Make Us Hurt More…
If we are suffering with aches and pains, whether it be low back pain or even headaches, what we eat can make the pain worse. When it comes to aches and pains, we generally don’t think of our food causing us more pain, but it can. When you have pain in your body, it is typically from localized inflammation due to an injury or overuse. This inflammation can be made worse by what you eat.
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