Health Information Articles

We’ve all heard it before: we need to stretch whenever we want to join in a game of football or when we go jogging. Ever since primary school, we have been taught that stretching before partaking in any strenuous physical activity is vital if we want to avoid serious injury. All the top athletes do it, but that still isn’t enough motivation for us to do it on a daily basis.

So why should we stretch? Stretching can, in fact, be advantageous in a number of ways. The first, and most obvious reason we should stretch is the old (yet valid) argument that we have been spoon-fed for so long - that stretching minimizes injury during any physical activity, and makes the tired muscles less painful the next day. But why is this? As we stretch, we send oxygenated blood to circulate through our body and brain, which helps rid our body of unwanted toxins and it enhances both our physical and mental performance. Our joints, tendons, and muscles tend to lose their elasticity with old age, so the more we stretch when we are young, the more fit and flexible you’ll be in the future.

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According to many professionals, a good remedy to back pain is Yoga. The reasons lie beneath; yoga teaches us the right ways to breathe, which is essential for the body to get sufficient oxygen as well as the method involves various exercises which stretches the body. Thus Yoga helps the body to settle down.

Stretching the body is extremely useful for backache. Often the result is quite noticeable. So, we all should do some exercises to stretch the regularly. Backache is also caused from unusual postures while sitting or standing. So, we should always sit in the right pose- which is upright, straight and face looking forward. Also we should give some rest to our muscles from time to time rather than standing for a prolonged period.

National Institute of Health has been responsible for the research work on Pain succor.
And the Chinese method of treating back pain, which is known as acupuncture has been found really effective against back ache. Today, one can easily do a Yoga course under any professional Yoga trainer.

Physiotherapy management of knee injuries and knee operations requires a good way of applying cryotherapy to counter the swelling and pain involved. The Aircast Cryocuff gives physiotherapists this option as traditional ways of applying cold are clumsy and not very effective.

Physiotherapists commonly assess and treat knee injuries and post-operative knee conditions, managing them promptly for speedy recovery and return to normal function. Recreational activities and sport involve many knee injuries such as ligamentous injuries to the medial, lateral and anterior cruciate ligaments, meniscal injuries to the knee cartilages, dislocation of the kneecap and injury to the knee capsule and knee joint replacement.

The knee is the largest synovial joint in the body and when the joint is damaged it responds by becoming inflamed, increasing the metabolic rate of the tissues and secreting large amounts of synovial fluid into the joint. This can lead to a knee effusion, a large and tight swelling of the knee, at times called “water on the knee”. An effusion can be painful in itself and it inhibits normal muscle function, thereby interfering with muscle action and joint recovery.

Normal methods of applying compression and cooling have several difficulties:

The shoulder, or more strictly the glenohumeral joint, is a major and important joint in the upper limb, responsible mostly for placing the hand in front of the body where the eyes can see it as it performs tasks. To allow this ability the shoulder has a very large range of movement, moderate strength and limited stability. This makes the shoulder a “soft tissue joint”, where the stability and satisfactory function depend on the function of the soft tissues, the ligaments, tendons and muscles. For physiotherapists the shoulder is an important joint, with much treatment and pre- and post-operative rehab required.

The gleno-humeral joint is made up of the ball of the humerus and the socket of the shoulder blade which is called the glenoid surface. The top of the arm bone, the humeral head, is large and carries many of the tendon insertions for the stability and movement of the shoulder. The socket or glenoid is a relatively small and shallow socket for the large ball but is deepened slightly by a fibrocartilage rim called the glenoid labrum. Above the shoulder is the acromio-clavicular joint, a joint between the outer end of the collar bone and part of the shoulder blade, a stabilizing strut for arm movement.