Neck pain, so much more than a pain in the neck! When I spoke about whiplash I mentioned some of the other conditions and symptoms which whiplash victims can also suffer from. And the reason why whiplash victims often end up with a whole laundry list of symptoms apparently unconnected to their neck? Every single nerve in the body travels through the neck. And every single action in the body,…
In the past I have jokingly referred to gait analysis as a way to predict the future. I can watch you walk, analyse your foot function and be pretty certain whether you will have hip, knee or ankle pain in the next decade. Foot function rarely alters, it gets worse but if you have high big toe impact at 18 the chances are you will continue to have high big…
A few years ago I was involved in a car accident – another driver didn’t see the red light and rear ended me. I became part of a growing statistic – a whiplash victim. Immediate and Short Term Symptoms stiffness and tenderness in the neck and upper back headaches dizziness pain into shoulders and arms difficulty turning your head Early Treatment The quicker you start treatment, the better. Use an…
What is Persistent Pain? The dictionary definition of chronic or persistent pain is “any pain that lasts longer than 12 weeks.” For many of my patients, by the time they come to see me, they have seen numerous therapists, tried many medications and even had surgeries, all with varying degrees of success. And those weeks have become months or years. Is Chronic Pain different? Yes. The difference lies in how…
The hip or acetabilofemoral joint includes over 70 different ligaments, tendons, muscles and bones and is (with the shoulder) the most flexible joint in the body, slightly different in men and women. Where’s the pain? Confusingly, the area that most of us refer to as our hip is actually the pelvis bone. The hip joint itself is deep into the groin. So “true” hip joint pain is usually felt as…
The Griffith University in Australia recently did some research looking at patient satisfaction during musculoskeletal treatment. One of the key factors in making patients feel the most satisfied and the least depressed was having an X-ray. Of course there are now a multitude of investigations available, and while an X-ray might make you feel better it might not give your clinician the information they need. These are some of the…
As a kid one of my favourite games was Charades. Is it a movie. . . Sounds like . . . . Now as a physiotherapist, when doing an initial assessment I play a different kind of game with my patients – Feels like . . . . And I watch the movements of my patients as closely as I listen to the words. Pain is a funny thing –…
I’ve spoken about both of these conditions before and the difficulty in getting a good resolution to both, but there is a common cause to both conditions, one which is often ignored. New research published by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons shows that “patients with carpal tunnel syndrome are more than twice as likely to have migraine headaches”. The study then poses the question: “Could Migraine indicate a higher…
Many runners complain of lower back pain, in the United States this could account for nearly 10% of all running related injuries. As I’ve explained before there is a myth that the shock and impact from running causes joint pain. This isn’t true! Runners actually have stronger bones, healthier joints and are less likely to require joint replacement surgery. It’s not the activity that’s at fault – it’s the mechanics…
Arthroscopy – one of the most common surgical options for arthritic knees. A procedure that most patients with knee pain have been offered at some point in their process. What is an arthroscopy? This is a “keyhole” surgery procedure where an arthroscope camera is inserted through a small incision in the knee, allowing the surgeon to view the inside of the knee. The surgeon can then use other micro instruments…