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Our expert team of physical therapists at Wells PT share some of the newest research on physical therapy and total joint replacements in this recent podcast. We include studies from premier publications like Lancet, Hospital for Special Surgeries, and JAMA. Our primary focus is on Total Knee replacements, but many principles like “pre-hab,” or exercises before surgery, and post-surgical physical therapy for other joints apply.
GLP Inhibitors have been all the rage this past year. These medications offer people significant weight loss, which can help them get off medications and feel better. You can also lose bone mass, but don't stress -- we PTs at Wells PT can help prevent this!
Our Doctors of Physical Therapy in Naples, Ponte Vedra, and Palm Coast offer our clients a holistic treatment for arthritis that includes exercise, dry needling, and nutrition education. Call us today to schedule a PT evaluation or dry needling session!
Exercise like strength training, balance, high intensity cardio, can help delay Parkinson’s disease progress. Our DPTs can help design a custom program for you or your loved one with Parkinson’s.
A recent client called our practice to get PT because of long wait times with insurance based clinics. Don’t delay your care because of insurance — this can cost you progress and more money! Call us today to book a cash based, private, concierge physical therapy session.
We are here to provide the best PT to Naples, Bonita, and Ponte Vedra after Hurricane Ian!
Congrats to Dr. Otto for earning his Certificate in Dry Needling. He is the only mobile dry needling physical therapist in the Naples area.
Wells Physical Therapy offers a guarantee for its physical therapy services in Ponte Vedra, St Augustine, and Palm Coast: better in 3 or it’s free!
Recent research shows exercise may help reduce pain. But how and what exactly is pain?
Telehealth is a great option for those with chronic pain, such as chronic low back pain. Our team of doctors of physical therapy can help you during the Corona outbreak…
Arthritis of the knee, hip, and back are common ailments seen in our St. Augustine physical therapy location. Arthritis, also known as osteoarthritis (OA), occurs when a joint is painful and limited in motion…
The Corona virus (COVID-19) has effectively shut down many businesses. Bars, movie theaters, and even many physical therapy operations have shut their doors. Physical therapy often requires manual work, close contact for cuing during exercises, and close eyes to spot for problems and other issues. COVID-19 may have limited some of these capabilities of your local physical therapists, but there’s hope if you are struggling with some recent back pain or joint problem. Below we are going to offer 3 tips on how you can effectively manage your pain and issues from home with physical therapy and exercise.
If you have a standing relationship with a local PT in Naples or St. Augustine, call them and ask them to help you. Many PTs have transitioned to tele-health and virtual consultations. A phone conversation can help the PT create a history and offer a chance to screen for other major medical issues. A virtual consult can provide the PT a “visual” of how you are moving and what your condition looks like. Moreover, a virtual session can offer a PT a chance to implement exercises, which a PT can correct thanks to the visual feedback. If you are needing manual therapy such as massage, joint mobilizations, or manipulations, a PT can also guide you through your own techniques to reduce your pain with your own hands. It may not be the same as how your PT does it but it is better than not getting the skilled advice at all. When going this route expect for the PT to still bill your insurance or ask for cash payment (depending on the practice). Also, be aware that sessions are usually capped at around half an hour, so don’t expect long calls or virtual meetings.
Did you already have that achy knee or low back pain several months ago? The best advice most PTs will offer you is to restart your home exercise program (HEP). Many patients will often backslide or regress when they stop doing their exercises, so ultimately the most logical step would be to start exercising again! Dust-off that HEP and get moving. Start basic and focus on movements that are pain-free. Simple walking, basic strength movements with body weight, and light stretching can often be the home-based cure for many PT ailments! This is likely rare, but worth stating: if you are in severe pain or have markedly limit motion, call your PT first before starting your program again.
Were you on a treatment plan after your total knee replacement or back surgery but had to stop going to therapy because of the Corona virus? You likely have been doing your HEP religiously but have been feeling “stuck” or noticing some of the pain coming back. Your best bet is to progress your routine slightly. One easy way to progress is to add a few more repetitions to an existing movement. If you’ve been doing 10 squats, progress to 15; push 15 band rows to 20 rows. Another method is to increase your weight with a movement: increase your upper body weight by 2-5 lbs or lower body weights by 5-10 lbs. This can be tough at home if you don’t have weights but don’t stress. Most people have soup cans, detergent, gallon jugs of water or milk, and suitcases. Here’s a sample of what these weigh:
16 oz soup can = 1 lb
2 liter of soda = ~4 lb
Gallon of water = 8 lb
150 oz of detergent = 10 lbs
You can use the suitcase to load items in it for more weight or to better customize to your needs. Adding weight takes some creativity but can be fun. Lastly, adding more exercises can also help you progress your routine. Many of our patients have been using Nike Training Club app ,HEP2Go, and similar programs to get useful ideas for new movements. Recall the movements should be pain free, fun, but challenging. Ultimately if you aren’t certain about adding exercises or are having severe pain or problems, call your PT!
Be safe, stay moving, and eat well!
Drs. Wells, Lauzon, and Otto
Image source: Marco Verch, no changes made, CC BY 2.0.
Keywords: physical therapy, home, naples, st augustine, ponte vedra
Corona virus has affected all of us. How does it impact physical therapy in the Greater Naples area and where you can get reliable local information?
Dry needling is coming to Florida. What is it, what does the research say, and are physical therapists safe to perform it? We answer this and more…
Physical therapists (PTs) are doctors with many specialties like exercise, manual therapy, modalities, and anatomy. PTs take cadaver-based anatomy next to MDs and PAs in school. Acupuncture schools typically... click here to go to my blog for full story:
In a recent study published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) found that early use of physical therapy for lower back pain can correlate to a a 10-15% reduction in opioid use. Such a study highlights the power of exercise, manual therapy, and some of the evidenced-based modalities PTs can use, such as dry needling.
With such promising evidence, why aren’t patients seeking physical therapists (PTs) for many orthopedic and pain issues? First, many patients don’t realize that they have direct access to PTs. This means they can go straight to their PT and skip the medical doctors “Rx” or referral. Second, physicians often like to prescribe medications first before recommending other therapies; medical doctors are specialists in medicine and they receive little training and education in exercise and nutrition. Third, only about 10-20% of patients that are actually referred to PT choose to go! Perhaps these individuals have had bad experiences with PT or feel that PT was a waste of time in prior ailments. Such feelings can be understandable given the insurance industry has squeezed PTs into forming factory-like practices and limiting sessions/visits.
The amazing thing is that our practice offers you an actual solution. Having a cash-based, concierge practice, our team offers direct access with little to no restrictions. Our appointments can be fulfilled quickly and we can work on a variety of issues with various treatments without insurance squeezing our time or scrutinizing our methods. More importantly: the client pays for what they get! Providing our level of service, if patients don’t get better, then they don’t pay. How many insurance PT clinics offer this such guarantee?
The bottomline from this study is that if you have pain seek your PT and skip the pain killers.
Reference: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2718095
Have you recently been sent home from the hospital after an illness or surgery and received Home Health Care physical therapy? More often than not patients that receive Home Health Care physical therapy are short changed due to time constraints and productivity measures with physical therapist too busy with paperwork. As a result, therapy sessions are cut short and the time that is supposed to be spent on exercise is actually spent on paperwork.
Within the past couple years my team and I have been Consulting with Physicians and surgeons to provide an additional level of Home Health Care physical therapy gives the patient more exercise and additional oversight. We work with the existing physical therapists and their medical teams ensuring that rehabilitation exercise is delivered to the most. Often times we also serve as advocates for the patients and can catch early signs of issues when the Home Health Care team is discharged and move on.
Our personal training services give us the extra Edge to work with patients so it does not violate Medicare. We can also transition into maintenance physical therapy after Medicare PT exits the case.
If you are a physician or surgeon interested in our services, contact us through our contact page. if you're patient or a family member consider utilizing our services or set us up in advance to a surgery so that we can help you or your family member the most!
Do you check your phone often? Notice the burn in your neck or arm? Last year, I had a patient who had numbness down his left arm when he looked down at his phone or screen. Was this "text neck", the phenomenon of neck pain caused by frequent checking and texting from a mobile phone? Perhaps...it clearly was cervical radiculopathy, or a compressed/irritated nerve root in the neck. Fortunately my keen PT skills and few steroids later helped to get this patient back to work and pain-free neck movements. But it left me wondering -- did the phone lead to his issue?
A recent study done in Brazil puts into question whether "text neck" even exists. They took pictures of these kids as they looked at their phones, had experts analyze the pictures, and then cross-referenced the postures in the pictures with reported neck pain. This study did not show an association between text neck and neck pain in 18–21-year-old young adults. The findings challenge the belief that neck posture during mobile phone texting is associated to the growing prevalence of neck pain.
Obviously more goes into neck pain than simply posture: exercise status, nutritional care, psyche, medications, and more. Check out the article, pay attention to your posture (maybe), and contact us to learn more!
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00586-017-5444-5
More than 80% of older adults over the age of 65 have some form of osteoarthritis, also more commonly known as arthritis. In fact, arthritis has more than doubled in the last 50 years! How did we get to this point? Is it just a matter of better Imaging or are we actually seeing a change within our bony structures? More importantly what can we do to prevent the continual growth of osteoarthritis within our population?
The answer lies within several studies that were published recently. Epidemiologists and researchers going back and measuring our skeletons of our ancestors have shown that physical exercise and activity have been a integral part of our lifestyle and bodies. With modern technology and changes to our lifestyle we have become less agrarian and less active. As a consequence our bones and bodies have changed. We have gained a little bit more weight, or joints have not gotten used to not being used, and we suffer from other ailments related to changes within our diet. In a study just this year in the Journal of American Medical Association shows that weight gain and lack of physical exercise is probably the biggest driver for inflammatory arthritis.
Studies show that the current American diet promotes inflammation and can actually worsen arthritis. Several studies show that those that are on a plant-based Mediterranean style diet have less inflammation and are less likely to have osteoarthritis. From excessive fat, excessive meat consumption, and pro-inflammatory processed foods help to drive arthritis.
Some of the best things that we can do for arthritis include exercise and lifestyle changes. The exercise that can offer the best benefit typically involves strengthening the muscles around the joint. For example for knee and hip arthritis, exercises that strengthen the upper thigh muscles and hip muscles has been shown to improve strength, function, and pain. Another component that can greatly help physical therapists and patients alike, is a drastic change in Foods consumed. Adopting a plant-based diet will likely offer the biggest anti-inflammatory benefit for those with arthritis. In addition a plant-based diet will confer benefits for the heart, blood sugars. Diabetes, body weight, and mental health.
So, as you're considering getting a steroid injection, surgery, or even a joint replacement, consider that exercise and diet probably have a bigger role in treating your arthritis than the traditional medical model. Because in the end, with the exception of joint replacement, there are no other truly evidence-based treatments for joint arthritis. Contact us today to schedule a consult for our physical therapist to evaluate you and provide you with a maintenance Physical Therapy Program specific to your arthritis needs.
Source: https://www.villages-news.com/osteoarthritis-doubled-past-50-years/
Chronic lower back pain is one of the leading causes of permanent disability. Often people with chronic low back pain will try multiple forms of treatment including Physical Therapy, medications, and injection therapy. Once they've exhausted all these efforts, many resort to surgery as the answer for their pain. Unfortunately only 35% of these cases are successful, particularly when Fusion is involved. As such, a group of pain management specialist recently have begun to use the diagnostic "label" of failed back surgery syndrome, or FBSS.
In the article below you can read how many pain specialists feel adding this additional "label" as a beneficial step. I would partially agree that the "label" is beneficial because some Physicians and surgeons are in denial that back surgery can fail. Some surgeons see patients with continued back pain after surgery as fakers or addicted to pain medicine. Physical therapists, as well as modern educated surgeons and Physicians, know that surgery is not always the answer for chronic lower back pain. Moreover, I strongly feel that simply adding a label is not enough.
As a physical therapist, I argue that simply adding a label may not be as beneficial as what occurs in the next steps after a patient is diagnosed or labeled. A large majority of patients with chronic lower back pain never seek psychological counseling. Emerging pain science Concepts are beginning to show that many of these patients with chronic lower back pain, as well as other forms of chronic pain, have larger issues at play. Many of these issues include anxiety, altered pain responses, depression, and chronic systemic inflammation from poor nutrition and lifestyle factors. Physical therapist are being armed with the knowledge of addressing some of these psychological Concepts through cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques, modern pain science techniques, as well as nutritional counseling.
Our team at Wells Physical Therapy embraces many of these Concepts and can help you or our friend through chronic pain. Contact us today for a consultation and enjoy the below article.
