Health Blog
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.
Where Your Pain Is Coming From
If you are suffering from aches or pains, here are some important questions that can help you determine the root cause of the problem:
How long have you had your pain?
For example, acute low back pain may be from a muscle strain. Chronic low back pain is typical of restricted joints, tight muscle tissue and weakened muscle strength.
How is the pain? Achy, sharp, tingling?
Achy pain is typically a problem with movement due to poor functioning of muscles and joints.
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, Achy? Physical Therapy Helps
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.
Read full blogFREE Community Education Night
Sep 15th 2014Nebraska Orthopaedic Physical Therapy has proudly teamed with Hy-Vee Dietician, Rachel Sinley, MPH RD LMNT to offer a FREE Community Education Night! You will have the opportunity to dispel “Nutritional Myths”, taste test a healthy option of a favorite recipe, and have all of your nutritional questions answered by an expert. Please join us in our clinic at 5:30p.m. on Tuesday, September 23rd. This event is open to our entire community, no need to be a past or current patient, and you are more than welcome to bring a guest.
Read full blogIncreasing Core Strength to Relieve Pain
How Your Core Muscle Strength Affects Your Health
Do you ever find yourself slouching in a chair, slumping at the computer or your belly sticking out after standing for awhile? This is a sign of core muscle weakness that can negatively affect your health and create long-term back or neck pain.
What are Your Core Muscles?
Your “core” is the group of muscles that help stabilize your body and give a strong anchor point from which your skeleton can move properly with good posture.
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.
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