Knee Arthritis

Arthritis is a common misunderstood word patients often hear from their doctors. Basically, it means swelling and tenderness of one or more of your joints, that may result in pain or achiness in the joint. Over time our understanding of this diagnosis has changed:

Myth - We used to think that this discomfort was due to structural loss of cartilage, or “wear and tear of the joint” resulting in irreversible damage that requires a knee replacement.

However new research has shown that this is a misleading hypothesis. We know now that with consistent, targeted exercise we can decrease symptoms of achiness and pain. Targeted exercise has also been shown to prolong or prevent the need for surgical intervention. 

Exercise is a form of medicine and it can prevent and treat over 25 chronic conditions 

Surgical intervention should be your last resort: A knee replacement is tough! It’s not the easy way out and takes months of rehab. It is very important to participate in prehab to strengthen the joint prior to a knee replacement.

Vertigo

Vertigo is a type of dizziness that lasts for a short period of time - it could be minutes, hours, or days. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is one of the most common types of vertigo. It can cause a feeling of dizziness, ringing in the ears, feeling of sickness and loss of balance. Commonly it’s described as feeling like the room is spinning or the inside of your head is spinning.

Symptoms can occur with:

• Lying down/ Getting up

• Standing up/Sitting down

• Tilting your head up or down

• Rolling over

Causes

• BPPV is due to dysfunction of your inner ear.

• Small crystals that detect movement become dislodged and create the sensation of movement

• The gel matrix the crystals sit in can become dehydrated with age and increase your risk of BPPV

Treatment

Vertigo can be bothersome and disruptive but it's rarely serious except when it increases riks of falling from feeling dizzy.

You can receive effective treatment for BPPV during a PT visit office visit.

• Your physical therapist will move you through a series of movements that can decrease and resolve your symptoms

• The treatment is effective at reducing onset and intensity of dizziness and is typically resolved in just a few treatments based on the extent of the dysfunction.

Runner's Knee

Runner’s Knee 

Symptoms

• Pain around the knee cap when on one leg such as running and stairs.

• Knee pain with standing and walking after prolonged sitting

Causes

• This injury can affect people of any fitness level or age. 

• It is caused by overuse and under stretching of the TFL muscle which is on the side of the hip and attaches to the IT band, which attaches to the knee cap.

Treatment

• Instruction on how and when to stretch the TFL muscle to prevent pulling on knee cap

• Targeted strengthening that avoids over stressing the muscle but still challenges it

• Guided return to movement with a progressive increase in activity

Ankle Sprain

WHAT IS A SPRAINED ANKLE?

An ankle sprain can occur when you roll or twist your ankle in an odd way. This causes overstretching and/or tearing in the ligaments that help to keep your ankle joint stable.

Most sprained ankles involve injuries to the ligaments on the outer side of the ankle. An medical assessment can help determine how severe the sprain is.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE SYMPTOMS OF A SPRAINED ANKLE?

• Pain especially standing on the injured foot

• swelling

• Tenderness when you touch the ankle

• Bruising

• limited motion in that ankle

• Popping sensation or sound at the time of injury

• Instability in the ankle

Recurrence of ankle sprains and persistent pain following the injury are also very common, but with physical therapy you can prevent future injury and get back to your normal daily and recreational activities.

A physical therapist will create a unique program for you that typically involves hands-on treatment, balance, stretching, and strengthening. This program will help restore normal mobility and strength in the ankle, allowing you to return to your normal level of function.