Critical observations of health, science, and the physical therapy profession.
There were travel issues yesterday. I never thought I’d get stuck in Augusta due to snow. Leave it to their airlines.
They were even nice enough to offer me a re-scheduled flight taking off 180 miles from my home, which subsequently was cancelled when Boston-Logan shut down. Oh well, who has plans anyway?
I work hard to make a blog entry just about every day. About half of what I write gets posted to the Metro Spirit Blog. Please make sure you link there for updates as well. For convenience, I placed a widget on this page’s sidebar to show recent posts in the Metro Spirit Blog, so you can check there as well.
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Thanks for Reading!
Labels: misc.
I am a big fan of the Back to the Future movie series, having seen the first one in a theater on opening night. One of my favorite scenes in when Doc comes back to get Marty at the end of the first movie and goes rummaging for trash to put into his “Mr Fusion” appliance. This trash into energy thing always seemed to me like a cool idea.
The US Army commissioned this project at Purdue University. The result is this device which takes trash of all sorts and reduces it, in the process, producing 90% more energy than it consumes. The resulting energy is used to power a generator. That sounds a bit like old Doc Brown’s Mr Fusion to me. 2015 here we come! Now, who is working on the Hover Board?
Labels: environment, misc.
Last year, a Whippet named Vivi, got loose and ran away after the Westminster Dog Show while getting ready to board a plane at Kennedy Airport. She had won an Award of Merit at the show. She, presumably, was in desperation mode trying to avoid the plane flight home as these can be very stressful to dogs. She succeeded, but in the process was lost. Vivi was last seen doing 25mph down runway 16. She was wearing a sweater, and many people looked, but no one has found her. The reward is up to $20,000.
The Purpose:
Astute readers will notice, the Tag Line for NPA Think Tank has changed. I decided to change this in order to truly reflect my purpose in writing. I hope you enjoy!
And…The Load: The BackTpack.
The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) sent a press release telling all about their endorsement of this oddly designed and named backpack. I went to the homepage to look into what sort of research this backpack went through to gain the endorsement of a professional organization such as the APTA. Obviously, not much. In fact, the designer even included a personally conducted survey that is not published anywhere but her own site in the “research” list.
I’m sure the design is fine, and indeed seems to make sense biomechanically. However, at a time when the Physical Therapy profession is striving for autonomy and basing the argument largely on our ability to practice based off solid scientific evidence, an endorsement by the APTA of this product seems out of place. I do think children should not be required to carry ANY heavy loads, especially home-work.
Finally, I pretty sure no kid I know would wear this.
Labels: back pain, current press, physical therapy
I found this on the Freakonomics Blog, well worth republishing:
This stuff breaks my brain. Check out this link here, and a bio page. The beginning of the monster that is Google. I wish I knew that guy…
Labels: misc.
Since bird conservation has unintentionally become the story of the day, here is a good one.
I love the underdogs. Most interesting about this article is than in less than 1 week, hatchling #15 was able to find safety in a flock of similarly behaved birds. Quite intelligent and very different from the human tendency to hide and become recluse when on your own. Which brings me to tomorrow’s topic…
Labels: current press, misc.
Labels: misc.
Here is an example of good press for the Physical Therapy profession:
Take your pain to the pros
Salem Statesman Journal, OR – Feb 5, 2007
And you do not always need a referral from a physician to get physical therapy. The American Physical Therapy Association’s Web site provides enormous …
Labels: current press, physical therapy
Of course back pain is a complex issue and there really is no golden egg of knowledge that can cure everyone’s back pain. But, since most of us have it at some point in our lives, it seems a good subject to get rolling on.
Fact: Most Back Pain gets better on its own. Really.
Fact: Almost 20% of spinal fusion surgeries, a rather common procedure aimed at reducing back pain, need to be re-done. This is 1 in 5. This is according to a study recently released in a leading peer reviewed journal, Spine. Read the abstract here.
The recommendation of the authors of this study, which looked retrospectively at more than 24,000 cases is that surgeons must tell their patients the high likelihood of needing a second surgery in the next 11 years (random time frame, I know). It seems spinal surgery may not be the fix it is made out to be.
So, the one thing you need to know is this: Back pain often gets better on its own and aggressive interventions like surgery are not always the solution. Explore less invasive treatments for your back pain and learn what your options are.
Part II: Less Invasive treatments for low back pain…coming soon!
Labels: back pain, current press, Metro Spirit, physical therapy