The rotator cuff is the special group of muscles and tendons that work with the shoulder capsule, which comprises the ligaments that hold the upper arm bone in the shoulder socket. The rotator cuff can suffer many tiny tears or one large tear, and treatment for this includes rest, ice, anti-inflammatory medication, and physical therapy. If you have relatively minor damage to your rotator cuff, you may only need physical therapy rather than surgery. In a study published in the Journal of ... [Read More]
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7 Things to Know About Trigger-Point Therapy
Chronic pain affects approximately 50 million American adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fortunately, scientific advancements have resulted in many different treatment options to help you control your chronic pain so you can get back to the life you love. One of those treatments involves no medicine at all, but is rather inspired by acupuncture: trigger-point therapy. Trigger-point therapy is a safe pain management technique whereby a trained ... [Read More]
Tendonitis Diagnosis and Treatment
Especially when you’re physically active and participate in sports like tennis or golf, you may develop a painful condition known as tendonitis. This term simply means inflammation and swelling of a tendon. Tendons are the thick but flexible tissues that connect a muscle to a bone or to another type of tissue. (Compare that to ligaments, which connect a bone to another bone in a joint.) Tendonitis can cause you a great deal of chronic pain. Often, tendonitis occurs as we get older, but it ... [Read More]
Importance of an Exercise Program Pre-Op and Physical Therapy
Most of us are familiar with the need for rehabilitation and physical therapy following a surgical procedure, but there is growing evidence to suggest that physical therapy prior to surgery is just as beneficial to the eventual outcome of surgery. Having a pre-operation exercise program by a physical therapist helps to prepare and strengthen the body before surgery, thereby facilitating a better outcome and quicker recovery. Participating in physical therapy before surgery can help to ... [Read More]
How Physical Therapy Can Prevent a Future Disability
Often, we hear of physical therapy’s ability to rehabilitate and heal injuries progressively. However, not everybody is aware of physical therapy’s ability to prevent disabilities. Aside from its role in a patient’s recovery, physical therapy plays an important, but often underutilized, role in preventing future disability. How Do We Define Disability? Disabilities are body impairments caused by medical conditions or injuries that limit what we can do physically. They can restrict us from ... [Read More]