Peter Egwom is from Baltimore, MD and currently attending the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He is working on a Bachelors degree in Health Administration and Public Policy, with a Public Health Track. Peter plans to attend Physical Therapy school once he graduates. In his spare time, he enjoys playing sports, watching movies and hanging out with friends.

Click here to read more about the office staff at BodyWise Physical Therapy.

Here are some tips to help you prevent injury and stay well during your spring clean-up:

• HYDRATE – Drinking water frequently is very important to supply our muscles and tissues with the oxygen and lubrication needed to function well.  If you don’t like water, try adding a little lemon or fruit juice to it.  Soda is not recommended as this depletes the body of important nutrients.

• PROTECT – Wear sunscreen, a hat, and gardening gloves to protect your skin from the sun and cuts.  If you have a pre-existing injury such as a sprain or strain, wear a brace or splint to support and protect the area from further injury.

• BREATHE – Taking deep breaths from your diaphragm will relieve cardiovascular stress and improve endurance.  Avoid holding your breath when straining or lifting. Blow out/exhale as you exert a force and inhale through your nose on the relaxation part of the activity.

• STRETCH – Take regular breaks to stretch and change positions. If you’re normally tight, remember to stretch your major muscles in your arms and legs and back before and after any strenuous activity or prolonged position.
  • Backbend if you are stooped or bent forward for awhile.
  • Flex forward reaching towards your toes if you’ve been reaching up or standing for awhile.

• ADAPT – If you have difficulty kneeling or standing up from the ground level, using a stool or garden scooter is a great way to get around this challenge.

• SUPPORT YOUR BACK – Whenever possible stand with your feet spread apart wide for a good base of support and to ease the pressure off of your back.
  • Work at waist level whenever possible.
  • Remember to tighten your core/abdominal muscles while digging, lifting or pulling (NOT holding your breath) by pulling inwards from your naval.
  • Use the larger muscles of the legs, bending from the hips and knees, NOT your waist.
  • Change positions slowly.

• LISTEN TO YOUR BODY – Do not push through pain! It is your body’s way of asking you to stop what you are doing. If you observe and listen to your body in the moment, you will be less likely to suffer more severe pain or injury later.

• REST – Get out of the sun, relax and sit for a while or lie in the grass under a tree and admire your work!

Ellen Driscoll, PT of BodyWise Physical Therapy in Columbia, MD can be reached at 240-841-2639 or EDriscollPT (at) BWtherapy (dot) com

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As a 1985 graduate of Florida International University in the field of Physical Therapy, Ellen has been practicing for over 25 years in Florida and Maryland as a licensed physical therapist. In addition to treating patients, she successfully managed clinics for in-patient rehabilitation and out-patient sports-medicine settings for 15 of those 25 years. Between 1987 and 1995, Ellen served as a Clinical Instructor for physical therapy programs at the University of Miami, Temple University, Thomas Jefferson University and the University of Maryland at Baltimore.

On top of her extensive background in physical therapy, Ellen is also a graduate of the Advanced Program of Ohashiatsu in Italy and received her certificate in Advanced Oriental Diagnosis and Treatment from the Ohashi Institute in Manhattan. This unique combination of both Eastern and Western medicine models, for a truly holistic approach to treatment, has made Ellen a highly sought after practitioner in the local area and BodyWise Physical Therapy is very happy to have her as part of our team.

Ellen has three grown children and enjoys travel, hiking and teaching workshops for couples to learn to give each other acupressure and perform stretches as a healthy way to bond and stay connected through energy work.

Click here to read more about the therapists at BodyWise Physical Therapy.

Established by the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF) it links the activities of MS Societies worldwide aiding the researchers who are working around the world for a cure and promoting awareness globally.

This year the focus will be on employment and the international survey will be used to raise awareness of employment issues faced by people with MS.

For more information, please visit World MS Day 2010’s website here to see how you can help and to view the World MS Day global campaign video with the music to “A Beautiful Day”.

Contact your local multiple sclerosis chapter to see how you can get involved.  To read more about Multiple Sclerosis and learn about the different ways it can be treated please read this.

“I am proud to be a part of this as I am so fortunate to work with a supportive employer and with colleagues who have a good awareness of MS.”  – Margot Calder

CHICAGO (AP) — Four common bad habits combined — smoking, drinking too much, inactivity and poor diet — can age you by 12 years, sobering new research suggests.

The findings are from a study that tracked nearly 5,000 British adults for 20 years, and they highlight yet another reason to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

Overall, 314 people studied had all four unhealthy behaviors. Among them, 91 died during the study, or 29 percent. Among the 387 healthiest people with none of the four habits, only 32 died, or about 8 percent.

The risky behaviors were: smoking tobacco; downing more than three alcoholic drinks per day for men and more than two daily for women; getting less than two hours of physical activity per week; and eating fruits and vegetables fewer than three times daily.

These habits combined substantially increased the risk of death and made people who engaged in them seem 12 years older than people in the healthiest group, said lead researcher Elisabeth Kvaavik of the University of Oslo.

The study appears in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine.
The healthiest group included never-smokers and those who had quit; teetotalers, women who had fewer than two drinks daily and men who had fewer than three; those who got at least two hours of physical activity weekly; and those who ate fruits and vegetables at least three times daily.

“You don’t need to be extreme” to be in the healthy category, Kvaavik said. “These behaviors add up, so together it’s quite good. It should be possible for most people to manage to do it.”

For example, one carrot, one apple and a glass of orange juice would suffice for the fruit and vegetable cutoffs in the study, Kvaavik said, noting that the amounts are pretty modest and less strict than many guidelines.

The U.S. government generally recommends at least 4 cups of fruits or vegetables daily for adults, depending on age and activity level; and about 2 1/2 hours of exercise weekly.

Study participants were 4,886 British adults aged 18 and older, or 44 years old on average. They were randomly selected from participants in a separate nationwide British health survey. Study subjects were asked about various lifestyle habits only once, a potential limitation, but Kvaavik said those habits tend to be fairly stable in adulthood.

Death certificates were checked for the next 20 years. The most common causes of death included heart disease and cancer, both related to unhealthy lifestyles.

Kvaavik said her results are applicable to other westernized nations including the United States.

June Stevens, a University of North Carolina public health researcher, said the results are in line with previous studies that examined the combined effects of health-related habits on longevity.

The findings don’t mean that everyone who maintains a healthy lifestyle will live longer than those who don’t, but it will increase the odds, Stevens said.

The original article can be found here

By Bridgette McNeill
American Heart Association

Women who walked two or more hours a week or who usually walked at a brisk pace (3 miles per hour or faster) had a significantly lower risk of stroke than women who didn’t walk, according to a large, long-term study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The risks were lower for total stroke, clot-related (ischemic) stroke and bleeding (hemorrhagic) stroke, researchers said.

Compared to women who didn’t walk:

• Women who usually walked at a brisk pace had a 37 percent lower risk of any type of stroke and those who walked two or more hours a week had a 30 percent lower risk of any type of stroke.

• Women who typically walked at a brisk pace had a 68 percent lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke and those who walked two or more hours a week had a 57 percent lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke.

• Women who usually walked at a brisk pace had a 25 percent lower risk of ischemic stroke and those who usually walked more than two hours a week had a 21 percent lower risk of ischemic stroke — both “borderline significant,” according to researchers.

“Physical activity, including regular walking, is an important modifiable behavior for stroke prevention,” said Jacob R. Sattelmair, M.Sc., lead author and doctoral candidate in epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Mass. “Physical activity is essential to promoting cardiovascular health and reducing risk of cardiovascular disease, and walking is one way of achieving physical activity.”

More physically active people generally have a lower risk of stroke than the least active, with more-active persons having a 25 percent to 30 percent lower risk for all strokes, according to previous studies.

“Though the exact relationship among different types of physical activity and different stroke subtypes remains unclear, the results of this specific study indicate that walking, in particular, is associated with lower risk of stroke,” Sattelmair said.

Researchers followed 39,315 U.S. female health professionals (average age 54, predominantly white) participating in the Women’s Health Study. Every two to three years, participants reported their leisure-time physical activity during the past year — specifically time spent walking or hiking, jogging, running, biking, doing aerobic exercise/aerobic dance, using exercise machines, playing tennis/squash/racquetball, swimming, doing yoga and stretching/toning. No household, occupational activity or sedentary behaviors were assessed.

They also reported their usual walking pace as no walking, casual (about 2 mph), normal (2.9 mph), brisk (3.9 mph) or very brisk (4 mph).

Sattelmair noted that walking pace can be assessed objectively or in terms of the level of exertion, using a heart rate monitor, self-perceived exertion, “or a crude estimate such as the ‘talk test’ – wherein, for a brisk pace, you should be able to talk but not able to sing. If you cannot talk, slow down a bit. If you can sing, walk a bit faster.”

During 11.9 years of follow-up, 579 women had a stroke (473 were ischemic, 102 were hemorrhagic and four were of unknown type).

The women who were most active in their leisure time activities were 17 percent less likely to have any type of stroke compared to the least-active women.

Researchers didn’t find a link between vigorous activity and reduced stroke risk. The reason is unclear, but they suspect that too few women reported vigorous activity in the study to get an accurate picture and/or that moderate-intensity activity may be more effective at lowering blood pressure as suggested by some previous research.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death and a leading cause of serious disability in the United States, so it’s important to identify modifiable risk factors for primary prevention, Sattelmair said.

An inverse association between physical activity and stroke risk is consistent across genders. But there tend to be differences between men and women regarding stroke risk and physical activity patterns.

“The exact relation between walking and stroke risk identified in this study is not directly generalizable to men,” Sattelmair said. “In previous studies, the relation between walking and stroke risk among men has been inconsistent.”

The study is limited because it was observational and physical activity was self-reported. But strengths are that it was large and long-term with detailed information on physical activity, he said.

Further study is needed on more hemorrhagic strokes and with more ethnically diverse women, Sattelmair said.

The American Heart Association recommends for substantial health benefits, adults should do at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity or a combination.

Co-authors are: Tobias Kurth, M.D., Sc.D.; Julie E. Buring, Sc.D.; and I-Min Lee, M.B.B.S., Sc.D.

The original article can be found at here

Being able to stay in their homes and remain independent is a daily struggle for many older adults. As we age we tend to lose our flexibility, our connective tissue tightens and we have prolonged reaction times. Problems with vision, including depth perception, all increase the likelihood of falling. When a child falls it may result in a few bumps and bruises.

However, the older we get, the more the ramifications of a fall escalate including being the leading cause of injury deaths in older adults and the most common cause of non-fatal injuries and hospital admissions. According to Val Walkowiak, medical integration coordinator for Loyola Center for Fitness, exercise plays a major role in preventing falls.

“Improving posture and balance helps strengthen weak muscle groups in the back, core, hips and legs. This improves mobility, which limits the fall risks,” said Walkowiak. “Maintaining upright posture is vital for daily living and function.”

For instance, it can seem that older adults are shuffling instead of walking. This is actually a way to compensation for lack of balance and poor posture. They take shorter strides, have a wider gait and tend to look at the floor to try to avoid tripping.

Working on posture, such as sitting up straight in a chair and holding abs in can strengthen key muscles groups helping to create a more normal walking gait.

Improving static balance, which is the ability to control postural sway while standing, is key to preventing falls.

“We naturally move a lot. When you stand still you actually aren’t still. Your head moves and your body moves with it to keep inline with the head,” said Walkowiak. “As we age it is important to train our brains to quickly activate the right muscles to anticipate and respond to changes in our environment such as stepping up on a curb or into a bath tub.”

Some of the exercises Walkowiak uses to stimulate brain and muscle control are marching in place, heel walks, working on ankle flexibility and quick steps with sudden stops to help increase reaction times.

“So many of the everyday things we take for granted can be more difficult as we age. Cardiovascular endurance, strength, balance and flexibility training are all needed to help a person stay independent. But balance, staying away from falls, seems to be what matters most to seniors,” said Walkowiak.

Walkowiak leads a class specifically aimed at meeting the exercising needs of older adults in a land-based setting. The class doesn’t require getting up and down off the floor. Strength training is done with wrist and ankle weights so people with arthritis don’t have to use handheld weights. Most exercises are done in a chair or standing up. Many seniors are drawn to aquatic classes because of arthritis or lack of flexibility, which Walkowaik thinks is great. Still, she encourages seniors to get out of the water.

“We don’t live in water. It is important for seniors to perform exercises on land to increase bone density, help improve balance and simulate the functional movements we perform each day during our daily tasks,” said Walkowiak.

After taking the class seniors have found that they don’t rely on others as much. Seemingly simple tasks, such as lifting a grocery bag, that once caused difficulty now come with ease. One woman said she was able shovel her whole driveway and not feel muscle pain the following day.

Exercising is not only good for the body it stimulates the mind, improves hand and eye coordination and is an excellent social outlet.

“We have a great time together. Strong friendships have formed and it’s hard for me to get the class started because everyone just wants to talk about what’s happening in their lives. It’s so great to see these people bonding, helping each other and staying healthy,” said Walkowiak.

Based in the western suburbs of Chicago, Loyola University Health System

Source
Loyola University Health System

View full article here

Short bursts of physical activity can ease fibromyalgia symptoms. Researchers writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy have shown that encouraging patients to undertake ‘Lifestyle Physical Activity’ (LPA) can markedly increase the average number of steps taken per day and produce clinically relevant reductions in perceived disability and pain.

Kevin Fontaine, from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, worked with a team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center campus to investigate the effects of 30 minutes of LPA, five to seven days a week, on physical function, pain and other measures of disability in 84 fibromyalgia patients. He said, “Fibromyalgia is estimated to occur in 2% of the U.S. general population, affecting about eight times more women than men. Although exercise has been shown to be beneficial, the symptoms often create obstacles that deter many from exercising consistently enough to derive benefits”.

LPA involves moderate-intensity physical activity based around everyday life such as taking the stairs instead of using an elevator, gardening and walking. In this study, participants were taught to perform LPA intense enough to cause heavy breathing, but not so heavily that they could not hold a conversation. During subsequent sessions participants were taught self-monitoring of LPA, goal setting, dealing with symptom flares, problem solving strategies to overcome barriers to being more physically active, as well as instruction in finding new ways to integrate short bouts of LPA into their daily lives.

At the end of the study, the participants randomized to LPA increased their average daily steps by 54%. Compared to the controls, the LPA group also reported significantly less perceived functional deficits and less pain. Speaking about these results, Fontaine said, “The nature of fibromyalgia’s symptoms, the body pain and fatigue, make it hard for people with this malady to participate in traditional exercise. We’ve shown that LPA can help them to get at least a little more physically active, and that this seems to help improve their symptoms”.

Notes:
Effects of lifestyle physical activity on perceived symptoms and physical function in adults with fibromyalgia: results of a randomized trial
Kevin R Fontaine, Lora Conn and Daniel J Clauw

The original article can be found here

Source:
Graeme Baldwin
BioMed Central

Acupuncture has long baffled medical experts and no wonder: It holds that an invisible life force called qi (pronounced chee) travels up and down the body in 14 meridians. Illness and pain are due to blockages and imbalances in qi. Inserting thin needles into the body at precise points can unblock the meridians, practitioners believe, and treat everything from arthritis and asthma to anxiety, acne and infertility.

As fanciful as that seems, acupuncture does have real effects on the human body, which scientists are documenting using high-tech tools. Neuroimaging studies show that it seems to calm areas of the brain that register pain and activate those involved in rest and recuperation. Doppler ultrasound shows that acupuncture increases blood flow in treated areas. Thermal imaging shows that it can make inflammation subside.

Scientists are also finding parallels between the ancient concepts and modern anatomy. Many of the 365 acupuncture points correspond to nerve bundles or muscle trigger points. Several meridians track major arteries and nerves. “If people have a heart attack, the pain will radiate up across the chest and down the left arm. That’s where the heart meridian goes,” says Peter Dorsher, a specialist in pain management and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. “Gallbladder pain will radiate to the right upper shoulder, just where the gallbladder meridian goes.”

Many medical experts remain deeply skeptical about acupuncture, of course, and studies of its effectiveness have been mixed. “Something measurable is happening when you stick a needle into a patient—that doesn’t impress me at all,” says Edzard Ernst, a professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter in England and co-author of the book, “Trick or Treatment.” Acupuncture “clearly has a very strong placebo effect. Whether it does anything else, the jury is still out.”

Even so, the use of acupuncture continues to spread—often alongside conventional medicine. U.S. Navy, Air Force and Army doctors are using acupuncture to treat musculoskeletal problems, pain and stress in stateside hospitals and combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Delegations from Acupuncturists Without Borders are holding communal ear-needling sessions to reduce stress among earthquake victims in Haiti. Major medical centers—from M.D. Anderson in Houston to Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York—use acupuncture to counteract the side effects of chemotherapy.

The most common uses are for chronic pain conditions like arthritis, lower back pain and headaches, as well as fatigue, anxiety and digestive problems, often when conventional medicine fails. At about $50 per session, it’s relatively inexpensive and covered by some insurers.

It is also generally safe. About 10% of patients experience some bleeding at the needle sites, although in very rare cases, fatalities have occurred due to infections or injury to vital organs, mostly due to inexperienced practitioners.

Most states require that acupuncturists be licensed, and the Food and Drug Administration requires that needles be new and sterile.

Diagnoses are complicated. An acupuncturist will examine a patient’s tongue and take three different pulses on each wrist, as well as asking questions about digestion, sleep and other habits, before determining which meridians may be blocked and where to place the needles. The 14 meridians are thought to be based on the rivers of China, and the 365 points may represent the days of the year. “Invaders” such as wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness factor into illness, so can five phases known as fire, earth, metal, water and wood.

“It’s not like there’s a Merck Manual for acupuncture,” says Joseph M. Helms, who has trained some 4,000 physicians in acupuncture at his institute in Berkeley, Calif. “Every case is evaluated on an individual basis, based on the presentation of the patient and the knowledge of the acupuncturist.”

Dr. Helms notes that Western doctors also examine a patient’s tongue for signs of illness. As for qi, he says, while the word doesn’t exist in Western medicine, there are similar concepts. “We’ll say, ‘A 27-year-old female appears moribund; she doesn’t respond to stimuli. Or an 85-year old woman is exhibiting a vacant stare.’ We’re talking about the same energy and vitality, we’re just not making it a unique category that we quantify.”

Studies in the early 1980s found that acupuncture works in part by stimulating the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals, much like vigorous exercise does. Now, a growing body of research suggests that it may have several mechanisms of action. Those include stimulating blood flow and tissue repair at the needle sites and sending nerve signals to the brain that regulate the perception of pain and reboot the autonomic nervous system, which governs unconscious functions such as heart beat, respiration and digestion, according to Alejandro Elorriaga, director of the medical acupuncture program at McMaster University in Ontario, which teaches a contemporary version to physicians.