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Top 5 Physical Therapist Recommended Body Hacks

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger launched his latest Group Writing Project, and this time the topic is “Top 5.″ Here’s the Top 5 I came up with:
I first began musing about the concept of body hacks after viewing Quinn Norton’s presentation on the subject. For those not familiar with the concept and pressed for time, my take on body hacking, is that the term simply describes an action you can take upon your body to improve or change the way in which it functions.It didn’t take me long to realize that, as a Physical Therapist, my job is really one big body-hacking experience. I take bodies in one state, and tinker and provoke them with the help of their owners, and end up with a body in a different state. One that hopefully works better.I started thinking, what are the best body hacks I know?? I came up with a list that I think are the most useful. Some you can perform yourself, others you probably need some help, least you end up with a broken spine. I tried to focus on those that can be performed independently. My science brain required me to post some evidence supporting each. For an extra boost, you might want to check out cannabis delivery edmonton to add to your routine. If you love vaping or smoking cannabis products, you may visit online shops like G2vape and order cod products and tools like a bong bowl.Without further ado…

The Top 5 Physical Therapist Recommended Body Hacks:

1. Repair your posture by fixing your muscle strength and overall fitness, NOT by sitting up straight.

A very common misconception is that in order to fix your posture you need to remember to sit up straight. Wrong! Even if you can manage to remember, it will only make your muscles fatigued and sore. Fixing posture is a magical thing, in that it happens automatically when you address the right things. First, improve your overall aerobic fitness. Do some walking, running, whatever. Next, isolate those weak muscles around your shoulder blades and in your mid-back and get them stronger with specific exercise. After a few weeks time…better posture! Just like that.
2. When you experience low back pain, respond by activating your core muscles.When our bodies feel back pain, one of the first reactions they have is a bit paradoxical and harmful to the situation. Back pain inhibits the activity of your core muscles. The health of the core muscles are important in preventing back pain. See the dilemma? You can help by doing some simple core stabilization exercises whenever your back feels sore to help stave off developing back problems. You’d be surprised at both how little pain it takes to shut these muscles down, and how helpful it can be to your back to wake them back up!3. Lengthen your hamstrings to prevent most body pain and boost your athletic skills.

If I had to pick one muscle that I wished was more flexible in any of the bodies I treat, I would surely pick the hamstrings. These play a role in how you walk, as well as back, knee, and hip pains. Their health and ability to function has a lot to do with how athletic you are. The hamstring muscles cross two joints, making them big players in the precise control of your lower limb. Please never let them get tight, or stay that way. Stretch! For personalized care and expert guidance on maintaining muscle health, physical therapy Roanoke to ensure your muscles stay flexible and strong.

4. Slow, gentle stretching provides the biggest bang for the buck.

For most people, stretching is an exercise in futility. Muscle fibers are strong, and exist at a fixed length. When leaning hard into a muscle to stretch it, that sensation you feel is nothing more than your body fighting back. Greater gains in flexibility occur with prolonged, slow, easy stretching. Research supports techniques that focus on stimulating your muscles to relax, allowing a gentle stretch of the soft tissue that surrounds them. I like to tell patients, on a scale of 1 = no stretch, and 10 = I just snapped your muscle in half, aim for an intensity of 3-4.

5. Manipulate your thoracic spine to fix your neck.

Here’s one you need a professional for, but I included it because of how cool it is. Research that has investigated neck pain has found that sometimes, moving the bones of your thoracic spine can ease the pain in the neck. This takes into account the interesting fact that your posture below the head has a lot to do with the workload of the muscles that support the head. So, if you have neck pain, make sure the person who helps you with it doesn’t neglect your t-spine. More specifically, find an Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapist to help mobilize the joints in your spine that are problematic. Your neck will thank you for it!

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Today's Review of Health Policy Folly

Last week the New York Times had two related articles about small business and health insurance. The gist of both articles was that insurance companies are free to charge as the wish, and the ability of self-employed and small businesses to purchase health insurance is declining.

One article discussed how, after one employee suffered a serious illness and subsequently passed away, the business became burdened with inordinate rate hikes.

The other article talks about some of the struggles self-employed individuals face as they confront high premiums and denials of coverage.

Another article, from the Salt Lake Tribune, describes a study published in this month’s Pediatrics journal. It breaks down the cost to the community when a child has no health insurance coverage. This study found that it costs a government more to not provide insurance that do provide it.

But, even as our health policy troubles mount, notoriously unpopular insurance providers are still a good buy.

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Barbaro!

I think this picture is pretty cool. Barbaro was pretty cool. Damn.

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Ortho Marketing Juggernaut

As many Physical Therapists already know, the medical establishment gets all the press. We have lived in their shadows for too long. Our potential to reduce costs to the healthcare system is so very limited by our lack of public awareness. The APTA seems to recognize this and does have a marketing initiative. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists (AAOMPT) also acknowledges this and even has, as part of their mission: “The AAOMPT will be the resource for promoting orthopaedic manual physical therapy in the United States.”

How have we done? Terrible in fact. Our efforts have been fractionated, we have no central funding source for this, the APTA does not have the budget to lead the way, and we are left to come up with trendy little media bits like Blackberry Thumb. But even that can be sabotaged by a crafty orthopaedic surgeon. By and large, consumers have no idea what good Physical Therapy is, nor that they can freely access our services.

On the other end of the spectrum is the well funded American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. (AAOS) They have a wonderful marketing campaign which I hear every day as they have radio spots on the nationally broadcast ESPN radio!

At first glance, one might tend to wonder why orthopaedic surgeons need to market at all, as they already have control of the musculoskeletal healthcare marketplace. However, Microsoft advertises its product and so does Google. Reinforcing a solid market position is part of the good business practices of a leading organization.

Perhaps Physical Therapists can learn a thing or two from our well paid musculoskeletal brethren. Let’s take a look a the AAOS marketing campaign, powered in part by healthcare marketing powerhouse Priority Publications: (I encourage you to investigate the links below!)

*To start, the AAOS has a major marketing
focus on their website, including a media resource site for members.

*The AAOS has a dedicated consumer
information website, orthoinfo.org, which is a far cry from the little button the APTA has
on their website for consumer
information.

*The AAOS even has an awards program for their best member marketeers.

*The AAOS regularly…like every other
day…issues press releases to the AP and others for mass media distribution, like this one.

*The AAOS has a celebrity spokesperson, in Joan Rivers!

*AAOS has a library of public service
announcements which are free to
members to use as they wish.

*AAOS has a national radio and TV campaign
featuring their celebrity spokesperson.

*The marketing goal of AAOS is:
“…will be recognized as the authoritative voice for good musculoskeletal
health” Click here for their strategic plan.

Summary: They have the same, albeit more detailed goal as the AAOMPT, a huge budget, a detailed national marketing campaign already in place, and the hold on the market already. Are we in trouble?

Well, there is a nice grassroots effort gaining momentum from the AAOMPT, the APTA has just hired a new CEO (whose background in stronger in lobbying than marketing,) and well, we might just invent a new marketing gimmick like we’ve done in the past. One problem with the AAOMPT’s goal is their ability to enact it. They represent only a smattering (read: small, tiny bit) of our nation’s Physical Therapists (although perhaps the most important smattering!).

My point is that grassroots efforts, while important, are a long way away from where we need to be. The Physical Therapy profession needs to organize their efforts or be left in the dust. We currently do not even come close to competing with the Ortho Marketing Juggernaut.

This national advertising topic is of great interest to me. As such, this post begins a series of posts I will present on ideas related to a national marketing campaign for Physical Therapy: PT Publicity Project. Enjoy and comment when you feel inspired to!

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How Much Is That Stress Fracture Worth?

About $1.3 million!

That’s how much in grant money a Physical Therapy professor from The University of Delaware was awarded to study the prevention of these stress fractures. Irene Davis, PT, PhD, the director of the university’s Running Injury Laboratory and director of research for Drayer Physical Therapy was awarded the grants from the NIH and the Dept. of Defense.

Stress fractures are a real cost and challenge to the military. Its not uncommon for a soldier that suffers a stress fracture to be off-line for 6 months or more. Considering the enormous cost of training soldiers and the high frequency of stress fracture occurrence, I’d say the DOD is getting a real deal on this!

The study is really quite interesting, incorporating biofeedback and gait re-training to reduce impact forces during running at levels much greater than what a cushioning sneaker could provide. Remember, just because we all learn how to run does not imply we all know how to run correctly.

Stay tuned for more on this topic, I have a feeling that this could be one of those studies where I walk into work at the Army clinic one day and I’m met with a biofeedback device that I have no idea what to do with!

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Bye Bye, Free Samples

“Doctors who are shutting the door to sales reps are cutting themselves off from a lot of valuable information,” said Scott Lassman, senior assistant general counsel for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade association. “Sales reps can explain when it’s right to use a drug, when it’s not right to use the drug, which patients might benefit and which patients it might not work for.”
This was the quote that caught my eye in today’s NY Times article about the growing trend for physicians to stop giving free samples. In reading the above statement, I really feel like a doctor would be nuts to not talk to a sales rep.
But what is a sales rep, really? I’m sure some are very educated, but for the most part, these are people from diverse backgrounds, some college education, a science vocabulary and a huge marketing budget. Their job is to get a doctor to use their product. There are walking conflicts of interest.
I would feel a whole lot better if my DOCTOR didn’t have a need to learn from a sales rep, and could instead go learn for himself from government guidelines, peer reviewed journals, and continuing education formats.
Afterall, isn’t it the doctor’s job to know “when it’s right to use a drug, when it’s not right to use the drug, which patients might benefit and which patients it might not work for”?????
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Sticker Shock

The above is a Graham Watson Photo.
A friend of mine recently suffered the most dreaded of all cycling injuries: the broken collarbone. Everything about this broken bone was ho-hum. It was not a severe fracture and the care to fix the bone was minimal: a sling, rest, some pain meds. However, the entire experience was valuable as a look into costs related to an Emergency Room visit.
As my friend was unlucky enough to not have health insurance, each bill received was painful, and we talked about it openly. For the most part, I can see the services as fair. Here is what was provided and charged for…give or take a few bucks:
1. Emergency Department Bill: $1050
2. Radioloist: $45
3. Follow-up Ortho visit: $125
4. Radiology: $400
5. ER Physician: $500

HOLD ON! Did you see that last charge? Per my friend, the total time spent in the presence of this ER doc was less than 10 minutes. Why so much? The extent of his intervention was to declare this injury non-emergent, refer to another care provider, and order a sling and pain meds. In other words…not much. In another context, why is his bill so much higher than a surgical consult? (Oh by the way, we’re leaving the fact that the ortho tried to talk my friend into an unnecessary procedure.)

For someone who has insurance, this bill would carry less weight. They will be apt to overlook the high cost and just shake their head as the insurance company pays the bill and passes the cost on to small business employers. Which is where this whole story turns ironic. My friend owns his own small business and cannot afford the absurdly high prices. Now, he’s being over-charged for medical care that is the root cause behind why he cannot afford insurance!
Here is another thought: Doing the math concerning his total bill (~$2000) we can easily see that even in light of a significant injury, the total outlay for medical care is still less than if he had paid $400 dollars for health insurance monthly for the past 16 month in which he sought no medical care, and would have still had a $500 deductible for an ER visit (~$6900).

Unsustainable economics for everyone.

Everyone except the insurance company and ER doc!

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Free, Open Information

As an avid fan a peer reviewed journals, I get very excited when a journal does not charge a fee for its content. A new medical journal has recently been introduced, Open Medicine, from Canada. Its authors are the martyr type, having recently been fired from another open source journal over issues of editorial freedom. I wish them well in this new endeavor.

The Directory of Open Access Journals provides a very comprehensive listing of open journals, not just from the medical field, but from a variety of scientific disciplines. Of course, you can always conduct your search queries in the Pub Med Central engine, where all results are going to be free public domain.