Uses for Arthritis Pain Management in Connecticut

Physical therapy Connecticut addresses a variety of joints, tendons and ligament issues. Treatment is carried out using a variety of traditional and contemporary methods.

One of the forms of treatment that could be considered the most controversial in this state is the use of stem cell enhancement therapy. However, it is because people are often confused about this type of pain management. Whether or not this process is legal is one of the primary concerns. However, this misunderstanding is usually cleared up with patients before or during the initial appointment.

Concerning stem cell enhancement therapy, this is a different process than the “stem cell treatment” not approved by the FDA. Stem cell treatment, which is a process that involves using almost all stem cells, is not a legal practice. On the other hand, stem cell enhancement is a process that is not just pure stem cells, and it typically comes from bone marrow or fat.

This substance being extracted from bone marrow or is not just stem cells. It also includes blood cells, proteins, enzymes and more. Furthermore, it only includes material derived from an adult not a child, fetus or embryo. Therefore, if this is a concern for some people, it can put them at ease come time to seek treatment.

The stem cell enhancement substance extracted from bone marrow is then usually cultured in vitro. Usually the supply comes from the back of the hip bone and subcutaneous fat. After the culturing process, an injection process guided by ultrasound takes place.

The stem cell enhancement success rate is usually more than 80 percent, and it seems to work permanently for repairing tendons and ligaments. The knees and shoulders seem to experience the most improvement in about 80-90 percent of patients. About 50-70 percent of patients have seen improvement when using this kind of arthritis treatment on the hip.

Sometimes, milder cases requiring physical therapy New Haven using stem cell enhancement require only one treatment. The more severe conditions could require at least one repeat treatment within one to three years. Two main purposes of this therapy is to improve mobility and reduce pain when active.

Lifestyle Changes Enhance Healing from Back Injury

Healing from back pain and injury can be expedited through working with a skilled physical therapist or orthopedic physician. The practitioner will give each client specific stretches and strengthening exercises to do between sessions. In some cases, light aerobic exercises will be recommended.

However, in addition to physical therapy Connecticut and at-home exercises between sessions, it’s important that those healing from a back issue make some key lifestyle changes. Doing so can expedite tissue regeneration and help to prevent the same injuries from reoccurring in the future.

Reduce and Manage Stress Levels

Stress is often a major factor in back pain. Stress and anxiety are accompanied by shallow, constricted breathing as well a tightening and constricting of the muscles, including the ones surrounding the spine. Posture becomes poor, and the central nervous system responds by increasing heart rate and sending cortisol and adrenaline throughout the body.

Reducing and managing stress allows for more relaxation both physically and emotionally. Remembering to breathe deeply, getting therapeutic massage, meditating, spending time in nature, and scheduling regular breaks from work can all contribute to lowered stress and faster healing from back pain.

Physical therapy New Haven is the best way to re-train stressed, constricted muscles to relax from their protective mode and function normally. However, reducing stress is a lifestyle change that only the client can accomplish.

Proper Diet and Hydration

Extra weight and poor diet can hinder overcoming back pain. Eating nutritious, healthy foods and drinking plenty of fresh filtered water is essential for creating the basis for healing. Sugar- and carbohydrate-laden foods should be avoided; these include bread, pastries and sweets, pasta, white rice, and starchy foods like potatoes.

A balanced diet for healing should consist of plenty of lean protein to support soft tissue regeneration. Organic vegetables and fruits bring key vitamins, compounds and trace elements to facilitate healing. Control or avoid stimulants like nicotine and caffeine.

Get Adequate Sleep 

The body does much of its regeneration and healing while the client is sleeping, so getting at least seven hours per night is crucial to healing back injuries efficiently. Reducing stress and doing appropriate physical exercises during the day can contribute to being able to sleep deeply, soundly and restfully through the night.

Participating in rehabilitation, exercise and physical therapy in Connecticut is foundational to healing from back pain. However, key lifestyle changes made by the client can support healing and prevent recurrence.

3 Major Benefits of Physical Therapy

It's clear that physical therapy can be beneficial to patients who have suffered injuries, but even those who haven't may benefit from the work physical therapists do. Physical therapy Connecticut, as well as in other locations, focuses on several steps that help boost mobility, strength, and flexibility. Here are three of the main benefits physical therapy provides.

Physical Therapy Improves Mobility

Imagine a patient struggling with mobility because of pain in the legs or knees. Physical therapists can help these patients by working on strength and balance.

If a patient is struggling with obesity, physical therapy can also help him lose weight and even prevent the return of weight once it's off. Obesity is currently the cause of around 18 percent of all adult deaths in the United States, according to the American Physical Therapy Association, so reducing weight and increasing a healthy lifestyle is a major goal of physical therapists.

Physical Therapy Helps Patients Avoid Surgeries

Another major benefit of physical therapy is that it can help patients avoid surgery. How? Studies have shown that physical therapy can be as effective as surgery in many cases, like if a patient is suffering from degenerative disk disease, spinal stenosis, or osteoarthritis.

Physical therapy focuses on reducing pain by improving strength and flexibility. Over time, the therapies may help a patient sit in a different way, stretch a little further, or reduce strain on a disk, for example. Things like anti-gravity tables, also known as decompression tables, could be used to reduce strain on the spine, for example, while a patient also works through exercises during another part of the appointment.

Recoveries are Quickened

After surgery or an accident, patients may find they can't move like they wanted to. In particular, patients who have had knee or hip replacements may find that the new joint isn't functional in the way they'd have hoped and seek out physical therapy New Haven. 

The problem doesn't lie with the mechanics of the operation; it's the patient's strength and flexibility that needs to be adjusted. By attending regular physical therapy appointments, patients are pushed to extend, lengthen, retract, and otherwise exercise their bodies, so they can eventually get back to a relatively good range of motion.

Physical Therapy Isn't Only About Exercise Anymore

The days when physical therapy was limited to a few prescribed exercises and stretches are over. While physical therapy Connecticut still includes those things, they are often supplemented by other techniques to form a comprehensive recovery plan. Here are a few of the methods that may be used: Water Therapy Weak or damaged muscles often have a hard time holding up a person's body weight. Trying to add standard exercise to this effort tends to fail because all of the person's current strength is spent just attempting to do basic movements. Water therapy counters this problem by taking much of the weight off a person's muscles.

Getting into the water instantly makes a person effectively lighter – much lighter. Someone with only 10 percent body fat will effectively weigh just 7 percent of his usual total body weight. If a person has 45 percent body fat, he will effectively weigh nothing! Needless to say, this makes it so that a water therapy patient can do exercises that would otherwise be totally impossible. Electrical Stimulation Strange as it may seem, zapping sore muscles and joints with controlled amounts of electricity can work wonders for reducing pain. Once the pain is diminished or gone, it's easy to move on and start stretching or strength-training exercises. Many people gain relief from this method where other methods have failed.

Prescribed Exercises Even though other methods may be used in conjunction with exercise, most physical therapy systems still rely on specifically-tailored exercises to do most of the work. This is because muscles, tendons, and ligaments need to be strong in order to do their jobs right. Without exercise, the affected body part will get weak. Muscles, ligaments, and tendons can also become stiff or atrophy if they aren't used enough. This use must also be done in the proper way in order to avoid causing more problems. For this reason, physical therapy New Haven will almost always include some form of carefully-designed exercises.

Prescribed Stretching Sometimes, pain and limited mobility arise from stiffness rather than weakness. In these cases, prescribed stretches are in order. By gently stretching, muscles and connective tissues are lengthened over time. Finally, the patient returns to full mobility. Stretching can also help with painful problems like sciatica and plantar fasciitis. There is no one program that works for everyone. For this reason, it's important to consult with a qualified therapist before beginning any new physical remediation regimen.

The Athlete's Nemesis - Iliotibial Band Syndrome

Many runners are familiar with the popping sound in the knee that feels like stinging needles whenever their heel strikes the ground. With over 200,000 cases diagnosed in the US each year, Iliotibial Band Syndrome, or ITBS is a common overuse injury. Characterized by pain between the hip and knees on the outside of one or both legs, ITBS occurs when the ligament extending from the pelvis to the shin becomes so tight that it rubs against the femur, or thigh bone. Runners, cyclists, and weight lifters - people who frequently flex their knees and hips - will usually try to treat ITBS with rest, ice, stretching, or foam rolling, but these treatments do not address the underlying structural problem.

The IT band stabilizes the outside of the knee as it flexes and extends. If one leg is longer than the other, the pelvis is tilted, or someone has bowed legs, the IT band can be extremely tight leading to inflammation and pain when the knee moves. Runners may also experience IT band problems when they always run on the same side of the road, or run too many hills.

While icing, rest and massage may be the part of an ITBS recovery process, physical therapy New Haven can result in a permanent, structural fix. Musculoskeletal ultrasound, prolotherapy, and stretching and strengthening exercises may be prescribed in order to address the underlying causes of ITBS. Through these modalities, the structure of the hip and knee are stabilized and ITBS is treated at the source of the problem. For those who have an anatomical problem, shoe orthotics may be useful to correct leg-length discrepancies or a person's stride.

Many athletes are looking for a quick fix to their IT band problems. While most physical therapy patients fully recover from ITBS, it may take weeks or months. In the meantime, a doctor or physical therapist can suggest alternative physical activities that will not create inflammation in the IT band. These may include swimming, yoga, or weight training that does not aggravate the IT band.

ITBS is a frustrating part of many people's athletic experience, but it does not need to be permanent. With proper physical therapy Connecticut citizens can correct their underlying issue and get back on the road or in the gym, pain free.

New Physical Therapy Patients Have Tough But Rewarding Work Ahead of Them

Any patient diving into their first adventure to the world of physical therapy might not know what to expect. First, they are probably grateful and happy to have a name or diagnosis for their ailment, especially if that means they might avoid having to undergo surgery.

 However, of course, some patients do end up with a prescription for physical therapy New Haven, Connecticut after having had surgery. Either way, this effective course of treatment to get patients back into the swing of their lives as their injury heals.

What Is In Store for Patients Visiting a Physical Therapy Clinic?

Some patients have never visited a physical therapy Connecticut (PT) provider's facility — or perhaps they haven't visited many other medical offices — and might feel more confident about their upcoming treatment if they get a preview or a primer on what will happen during their first visit, as well as what they can expect from their treatment. 

Below are some basic bits of information about physical therapy and how it can help them:

• Patients Can Choose Their Physical Therapist. Primary care physicians recommend their first-choice physical therapy. Actually, the doctor can probably give the patient aseveral professionals' names, as long as those physical therapy professionals are in the patient's network of providers. Patients might choose their physical therapist based on proximity to work or based on word-of-mouth from a good friend, family member or colleague.

• The Patient's First Visit. Like any other healthcare visit, the first visit is largely focused on housekeeping, paperwork and discussions about the patient's expectations and hopes, as well as the physical therapist's goals. It is good to time for both to explore the points that diverge to see what sorts of compromises they can broker together. Physical therapists have the advantage of looking at — and deeply understanding the nature of the injury, as well — X-Rays and MRIs to see the full scope and extend of the damage to the area. PTs can see the spots that are weak and need restoration versus areas that are brittle and weak and need more gentle care.

• The Patient Will Receive a Lighter Therapy Session to Become Acquainted With the Physical Therapist. Even with all the bureaucratic matters during the first visit, physical therapist teams rarely want a patient to let a patient leave without providing some sort of treatment, so they might do some do some mild stretching, receive a massage or electrical stimulation.

Stem Cells for Tissue Regeneration

A physical therapy Connecticut offers stem cell injections to treat muscles and tendons that have been severely injured as well as joint arthritis. Stem cells are cells that do not have specific characteristics and can be transplanted into areas of the body where they will take on those characteristics, divide and multiply. The technique involves harvesting stem cells from different sources in the person’s body. There are three main areas of the adult or child's body where stem cells can be harvested. The first one is the bone marrow, which is collected by drilling into the bone. Stem cells are also present in the adipose, or fatty tissue, and can be extracted through liposuction.

The third most prominent source of stem cells is in the blood, which can be drawn can and put into a machine to extract the stem cells. After the extraction, the remaining blood is then returned to the donor. The collected cells, which are highly concentrated, are then injected into the damaged areas of the same person’s body. Unlike embryonic stem cells, this method uses strictly adult stem cells and are not transplanted into a different body.

Adult Stem Cells for Treatment

Stem cells are able to take on the characteristics of the part of the body where they are injected and help rebuild and regenerate healthy tissue. The stem cells found in adults are cells that help repair and maintain tissue where they are located. One of the richest sources of adult stem cells is the bone marrow. Those stem cells have already been collected and used to treat such diseases and ailments as spinal cord injuries, end stage heart failure, chronic limb ischemia and liver cirrhosis. There has also been great success in the treatment of leukemia and other blood and  bone cancers by transplanting the bone marrow. Although the number of stem cells in a person’s body lessens with age, they are still collectable using special techniques such as those used at clinics specializing in physical therapy New Haven.

Continuing Research

Although the introduction of stem cells into damaged areas of the body has shown great success, there is still an intense amount of research being conducted. It is hoped that as time goes on, different sources of stem cells will be developed with more advanced applications, such as in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and heart disease.