Physiotherapy clinic

15/12/2023

New client was experiencing knee pain with numbness and tingling in her outer lower leg. This started about a year ago when she gained a lot of weight. All her nerve conduction studies were negative. The peroneal nerve, which innervates that area, passes through the back of the knee before entering the outer leg.
NKT testing found the popliteus overworking and impinging the peroneal nerve, and the glute max underworking. Released the popliteus and activated the glute max.
Then we found the peroneals overworking and the glute max underworking. Released the peroneals and activated the glute max.
When we were done her lower leg regained some feeling and felt hopeful that the homework would do the rest.

11/12/2023

FLAT FEET (PES PLANUS)

Flat feet is a condition in which the normal arches on the inside of the feet are low or missing.This gives the foot a flat appearance with the entire sole of the foot contacting the ground.

There are two main types of flat feet: flexible and rigid.

Flexible flat feet are the most common. A flexible flat foot has the ability to form an arch but the arch flattens when standing. A rigid flat foot, on the other hand, cannot form an arch.

Flexible flat feet often respond well to exercises designed to increase the height and stability of the arch. While exercise alone may not change the arch shape for other types of flat feet, it can still be helpful for managing pain or improving overall foot function in some cases.

Thank you for reading. Kindly like, give your comment and share.

08/12/2023

🔈 TIGHT HIP FLEXORS CAN GIVE YOU A HEADACHE

ℹ️ Can tight hip flexor muscles cause a headache? Certainly, tight myofascial tissue in one region of the body can cause pain and/or dysfunction locally, but as most manual therapists know, it can also cause pain and dysfunction elsewhere in the body. There are many ways that a problem in one region of the body can affect another distant region of the body, including myofascial meridian lines of tension and myofascial trigger point referral. But another way is through mechanical kinematic chains of myofascial pulls that result in postural distortion compensation patterns. So, with this in mind, let’s examine the kinematic chain of elements that can lead from tight hip flexor musculature to headaches.

💡 A kinematic chain of elements simply refers to the links in a chain that are interconnected that involve movement. So, for example, the movement of the lower extremity involves the following kinematic “links”: foot, leg, thigh, and pelvis. Similarly, the movement links of the upper extremity are the: hand, forearm, arm, and shoulder girdle. And the kinematic links of the axial body are the: pelvis, lumbar spine, thoracic spine, cervical spine, and head. The concept is that motion and posture at one link of the chain affects motion and posture at the other links along the chain.

So, here is how it is happening:

➡️ Tight hip flexor musculature causes excessive anterior tilt of the pelvis,
➡️ which causes hyperlordosis of the lumbar spine,
➡️ which causes hyperkyphosis of the thoracic spine,
➡️ which causes hypolordosis of the lower to middle cervical spine with hyperlordosis (hyperextension) of the head at the atlanto-occipital joint,
➡️ which causes forward head carriage,
➡️ which causes tight posterior neck muscles,
➡️ which causes a headache.

✔️ CONCLUSION

When working as a manual therapist, it is necessary not only have excellent hands-on skills, but also understand how the human body functions mechanically and learn to recognize patterns of mechanics and pathomechanics that travel through the body.

28/10/2023

WRIST SPRAIN:

INTRODUCTION:
🔸️Wrist sprains are very common and typically result from a fall where the individual reaches out to catch themselves with their arm resulting in a FOOSH (fall onto an outstretched hand) injury.

🔹️️Wrist sprains, like other sprains, injure ligaments, which are connective tissue structures that connect our bones together and provide joint stability.

SYMPTOMS:
🔸️Typical symptoms associated with a wrist sprain include pain (especially with movement), swelling and weakness or inability to grasp objects or pick things up.

DIAGNOSIS:
🔹️If you have suffered a severe wrist injury, it is important to see your doctor as an x-ray may be necessary to rule out a fracture.

TREATMENT:
✅wrist sprain rehab, we would first work on restoring pain-free range of motion. Only move as far as you can comfortably as pushing into pain will delay your recovery.

1️⃣Flexion-Extension Mobility
2️⃣Radial-Ulnar Deviation Mobility
3️⃣Pronation-Supination Mobility
4️⃣Flexor-Extensor Strength
5️⃣Radial-Ulnar Deviator Strength
6️⃣Pronator-Supinator Strength

24/09/2023

23/07/2023

06/04/2023

Trochanteric bursitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the bursa located at the outside of the hip, called the greater trochanter.

The bursa is a fluid-filled sac that acts as a cushion between the bone and soft tissues, such as muscles and tendons.

The most common symptoms of trochanteric bursitis include pain, tenderness, and swelling in the hip area, which can often radiate down to the thigh or buttock.
Pain is usually aggravated by activities such as walking, running, climbing stairs, or prolonged periods of sitting.

Trochanteric bursitis can be caused by several factors, including overuse, repetitive stress, injury, or degeneration due to aging.

It can also be associated with conditions such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, or gout.

Treatment for trochanteric bursitis usually involves a combination of rest, ice therapy, and physical therapy to stretch and strengthen the hip muscles.

Anti-inflammatory medications or corticosteroid injections may be used to relieve pain and reduce inflammation.
In severe cases, surgery may be required to remove the inflamed bursa.

If you suspect you have trochanteric bursitis, it is important to seek medical attention from a healthcare provider for proper diagnosis and treatment.

25/02/2023

♻️LOW BACK PAIN | LUMBAGO |

Pain that is felt anywhere between the lower part of your ribs to the lower part of your backside is considered lower back pain. Lower back pain is the commonest of all back pain cases. It’s not discriminatory. Both the aged and the youth populations can have low back pain. Often, in the youth population, the working class experience lower back pain. It’s a condition of the bones and soft tissues.

There are two types:
🔰Sciatica (called lumbosacral radiculopathy) and 🔰Non-sciatica.

The sciatica nerve runs from your lower back through your buttocks and down your legs.Sciatica pain is often described as a sudden, hot pain that shoots down the buttocks and leg. Sciatica can be caused by a number of conditions that put pressure on the sciatica nerve. This may either be disc bulging or disc herniation. Spina stenosis and other spinal problems can also lead to nerve root compression.

Non-sciatica pain is mostly in your back and not felt in the legs.Such pain is localized. Thus, centered only around the lower back section. Lower back pain can also be caused by arthritis, over-exertion, and trauma.

Back pain usually improves on its own in about 4 weeks. If you are experiencing significant pain, or your pain isn’t getting better, then see a doctor for further evaluation and treatment.

🔰UNDERSTANDING THE TWO TYPES OF LOWER BACK PAIN

Sciatica and non-sciatica pain have somewhat different symptoms.

🌀Sciatica symptoms:
Sciatica pain typically feels like a sharp, electric-like pain that starts in your lower back and travels through the buttocks and down one leg.

Non-sciatica pain

Non-sciatica pain is felt within the lower back area. The pain can be dull, achy, sharp, or burning.

🌀Main symptoms:

Sciatica:
Sharp pain in your back that moves down one leg.
The pain is usually felt behind the legs.
Sometimes there is numbness or weakness in legs.

Non-sciatica:
Dull, achy, or sharp pain mostly in your back. It’s usually worse with movement, Usually not felt in legs,Can feel like your back is “tight, May be painful around your hips.

🔰CAUSES/RISK FACTORS OF LOW BACK PAIN

The longest nerve in the body is the sciatica. it starts in your lower spinal cord and extends through the butt, down into your legs.

Sciatica pain is caused by something irritating the sciatic nerve at its root in the spinal cord. If a disk (the cushion between bones in the spine) moves out of position (known as a disk herniation), or if the bones, disks, or ligaments wear down with age, this can pinch or irritate the sciatica nerve nearby and cause pain.

Several other conditions can mimic sciatica, including diabetic polyneuropathy, hip arthritis, and piriformis syndrome. A doctor will do an exam and may order tests to make an accurate diagnosis.

For non-sciatica lower back pain, the cause is often unknown. It may be caused by damage to the spinal disks, bones, and joints, or strains to soft tissue like muscle or ligaments.

🔰RISK FACTORS:

•Smoke ci******es (smoking lowers bone density and may affect your spine)
•Drink alcohol regularly
•Are overweight or obese
•Participate in sports like football or gymnastics, which put pressure on your spine
•Sit for most of the day
•Over-exercise (doing too much shoveling or pushing too hard)
•Have certain health issues like osteoporosis or pain in other parts of your body, such as hip, knees, or wrist
•Take medications like steroid pills
•Have had surgery on your spine
•Are older

This short article only introduced the concept about low back pain. An equally important aspect of low back pain is its treatment. In our next post, we’ll try as much as possible to share with you treatment options for lower back pain, especially physiotherapy approach. In meantime, kindly like, comment and share this post.

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Physiotherapy clinic

23/02/2023

♻️BREATHING EXERCISE

CAUTION: Do not just jump into practicing any of the breathing exercise techniques attached to this article. The images used here are used to create a picture of the subject matter. Though there are more than countable benefits breathing exercises offer, assessment is key for the right and best option of breathing exercise to be selected.The principle of individuality also applies all the time.

What are breathing exercises?

Breathing is an automatic function of the body that is controlled by the respiratory centre of the brain. When we feel stressed, our breathing rate and pattern changes as part of the ‘fight-or-flight response’. Fortunately, we also have the power to deliberately change our own breathing and this is through breathing exercises.

Even though we all breath unstoppably everyday, we still have problems with breathing either through our nostrils, or mouths due to an ill-health. The fact that we breath doesn’t mean we are exercising. Breathing exercise is an intentional or deliberate, and planned breathing. It’s timed, and purposed for a particular health reason. Breathing exercises are exercises intended to promote effective and healthy breathing and breath control.

Breathing exercises are a form of exercise that can be used for a variety of health-related reasons to;
1. Enhance the respiratory system by improving ventilation; strengthening respiratory muscles; make breathing more efficient; and for stress reduction.

Improper breathing can upset the oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange and contribute to anxiety, panic attacks, fatigue, and other physical and emotional disturbances. Hence the need for breathing exercise in our lives.

Breathing exercises help improve our breathing by improving our lung function.When all the supportive structures of respiration are made to function properly, breathing becomes more patent.

Examples of breathing exercises include the following;

🌀DEEP BREATHING

🌀DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING, ALSO KNOWN AS BELLY BREATHING

🌀PURSED-LIP BREATHING

🌀BOX BREATHING

🌀PRANAYAMA

🌀MINDFUL BREATHING

🌀CARDIAC COHERENCE BREATHING

🌀POSITIVE EXPIRATORY PRESSURE BREATHING

🔰BENEFITS TO THE PERFORMER

•Breathing exercises can improve pulmonary function, respiratory muscle strength, exercise capacity, dyspnea, and health-related quality of life in patients with COPD

•Evidence suggests that diaphragmatic breathing may decrease stress as measured by physiologic biomarkers, as well psychological self-report tools.

•Evidence exists to support the use of breathing exercises in the treatment of chronic, nonspecific low back pain.

•Breathing-based meditation decreases posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in U.S. military veterans.

•The way of breathing decisively influences autonomic and pain processing. Deep slow breathing in concert with relaxation are essential feature in the modulation of sympathetic arousal and pain perception. Thus can be useful in chronic pain management.

•Breathing exercises for adults with asthma may have some positive effects on quality of life, hyperventilation symptoms, and lung function

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Physiotherapy clinic

13/02/2023

TAILBONE PAIN

Tailbone pain, also called coccydynia, is pain in and around the small triangular bone at the very bottom of your spinal column, above the cleft of your buttocks known as the coccyx.

The term coccyx comes from the Greek word for “cuckoo” as it resembles a bird’s beak with the tip pointed down. “Dynia” means “pain,” and so “coccydynia” literally means “pain of the coccyx.” And because the bone corresponds to the location of an animal’s tail, it’s called the tailbone in common terms.

Anatomy of the coccyx:
Your coccyx is made up of three to five fused vertebrae (bones). It lies beneath the sacrum, a bone structure at the base of your spine. Several tendons, muscles and ligaments connect to it.

Both the coccyx and the ischial tuberosities (two bones that make up the bottom of your pelvis) bear your weight when you sit down. Two-thirds of adults have a coccyx that curves a bit instead of pointing straight down, but one that is curved too far is abnormal and, therefore, painful.Tailbone pain (coccydynia) can make everyday tasks uncomfortable at best, and unbearable at worst.

Tailbone pain ranges from a dull ache to a fierce stab. It can last for weeks, months or sometimes longer. There are three types of events that cause tailbone pain:

External Trauma: A bruised, broken or dislocated coccyx caused by a fall.
Internal Trauma: Trauma caused by a difficult childbirth or from sitting on a narrow or hard surface for too long.
Others: Infection, abscess and tumors.

Interestingly, for one-third of those with coccydynia, the cause is unknown. Women are five times more likely than men to develop coccydynia. Adults and adolescents get it more often than children. Obese persons are three times more susceptible than those at the ideal weight according to the BMI (Body Mass Index) scale. You’re also more vulnerable if you lose weight too quickly.

Symptoms:
The symptoms of coccydynia include:
a. Achy or piercing pain in the tailbone.
b. More severe pain when changing from sitting to standing up.
c. More severe pain when sitting for long periods of time.
d. Pain during bowel movements.
e. Pain during s*x.
Other related symptoms that may occur with coccydynia include:

•Depression.
•Anxiety.
•Poor sleep.
•Painful buttocks.
•Back pain.

Based on these symptoms, is it possible physiotherapy will be very essential in the management of this type of painful condition? Meet me my subsequent post as I share with you protocols that could emerge from a therapist to help in the case.

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Physiotherapy clinic

06/02/2023

What you need to know about disc herniated...

29/01/2023

SPINA BIFIDA | SPLIT SPINE

Spina bifida, also known in latin as 'split spine is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the spine and the membranes around the spinal cord during early development in pregnancy.

There are three main types: spina bifida occulta, meningocele and myelomeningocele. Meningocele and myelomeningocele may be grouped as spina bifida cystica.The most common location is the lower back, but in rare cases it may be in the middle back or neck.

ETIOLOGY/CAUSES:
Spina bifida is believed to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. After having one child with the condition, or if a parent has the condition, there is a 4% chance the next child will also be affected.

A folic acid deficiency during pregnancy also plays a significant role. It’s the main reason why antenatal care must be taken serious by every pregnant woman so that some of these conditions can be avoided.

Other risk factors include certain antiseizure medications, obesity, and poorly managed diabetes. Alcohol misuse can trigger macrocytosis which discards folate. After stopping the drinking of alcohol, a time period of months is needed to rejuvenate bone marrow and recover from the macrocytosis.

Those who are white or Hispanic have a higher risk. Girls are more prone to being born with spina bifida.

The symptoms of spina bifida in dependent on the type of spina bifida. This is to say that, symptoms look different in oculta, meningocele and myelomeningocele. The mild, moderate and severe types respectively.

In effect, this article will tackle general symptoms but readers must be able to understand which of the types present with those symptoms. Subsequent post which will pick up each of the types of spina bifida will be presented with their respective symptoms to clear any confusion.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF SPINA BIFIDA

The Signs and symptoms ranges from physical, and neurological problems.

Physical problems:
Physical signs of spina bifida may include:
1. Leg weakness and paralysis
2. Orthopedic abnormalities (i.e., club foot, hip dislocation, scoliosis)
3. Bladder and bowel control problems, including incontinence, urinary tract infections, and poor kidney function
4. Pressure sores and skin irritations.
5. Abnormal eye movement.
6. 68% of children with spina bifida have an allergy to latex, ranging from mild to life-threatening. The common use of latex in medical facilities makes this a particularly serious concern. The most common approach to avoid developing an allergy is to avoid contact with latex-containing products such as examination gloves and condoms and catheters that do not specify they are latex-free, and many other products, such as some commonly used by dentists.

7. The spinal cord lesion or the scarring due to surgery may result in a tethered spinal cord. In some individuals, this causes significant traction and stress on the spinal cord and can lead to a worsening of associated paralysis, scoliosis, back pain, and worsening bowel and/or bladder function.

Neurological problems:
Spina bifida presents other symptoms or signs that are classified considered being neurological problems. Mostly, in most severe cases, spina bifida causes hydrocephalus. This is a build up of fluid(CSF) on the brain. This hydrocephalus can cause damage to the brain and will go a long way to affect brain functioning. This is believed to be caused by abnormality in the cerebellum called Arnold Chiari Malformation. Many problems are associated with hydrocephalus. The condition can cause cognitive decline, which will affect the child’s ability to learn or do some basic mathematical calculations.

Meet me in my next post as I share with you a detailed information on the three types of spina bifida. Wha did you want to know about spina bifida that this article didn’t capture it? Share your feedback with us and don’t forget to like, share this content.

28/01/2023

ULNAR NEUROPATHY

BACKGROUND:
Ulnar neuropathy is a medical condition in which the ulnar nerve is compressed as it travels across the elbow or the wrist. It is considered to be the second most common site of nerve entrapment in the upper extremity, the first being the wrist (carpal tunnel syndrome). There is a higher occurrence in men.

CAUSES:

Ulnar neuropathy is caused by increased pressure on the ulnar nerve as it travels across the elbow or the wrist less frequently. Compression of a peripheral nerve induces marked changes in the nerve fiber structure causing impairment and damage to the nerve. Ulnar neuropathy can be associated with many medical conditions that cause pressure on the ulnar nerve, such as arthritis, pre-diabetes (impaired glucose tolerance), diabetes, thyroid dysfunction, trauma or excessive use of the arms. Few studies also suggest that ulnar neuropathy is provoked by repetitive flexion of the elbow in industrial occupation causing damage to the ulnar nerve.

SIGNS & SYMPTOMS:

Numbness and tingling sensations in the fingers in the ulnar nerve distribution are the hallmark neuropathic and compressive symptoms of ulnar nerve entrapment. Most often, the abnormal sensations are diverse and are confined to the fourth and fifth fingers, but should not include the palm of the hand.

The numbness may be more noticeable at night, possibly related to awkward sleep position causing prolonged flexion of the elbow. If left untreated, it may progress to involve the motor fibers leading to difficulty using the fingers and weakness of hand grip as patients report trouble with opening jars, brushing the teeth, turning doorknobs, etc. Occasionally, few patient also complain of elbow pain that may radiate to the shoulder.

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