Musculoskeletal conditions arethose conditions involving the muscles, the skeleton and the joints (including arthritis).
Arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions are a major cause of pain and disability, affecting around 6.1 million Australians. However, effective traetment and management can reduce the effects of these coinditions, and there is also potential for prevention. Arthritis is a group of musculoskeletal conditions in which there is wearing and inflamation of the joints, causing cronic pain, swelling, stiffness, disability and sometimes deformity.
Arthritis can be disabling because of restricted mobility from severe joint pain. Nearly 3.3 million Australians have a disability due to arthritis and related conditions, and more than half of these have cronic or recurrent pain.
The two most common forms of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatiod arthritis, but there are more than 100 known types of arthritis. Arthritis can result from injury, infection, accumulated wear, degenerative changes, metabolic disturbances, autoimmunity or other causes.
Children can also develop arthritis in a number of forms, which together are grouped under the name juvenileidiopathic arthritis.
The treatment of arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions is a core function of physiothreapy pratice. Patients with arthritis may benefit from joint mobilisation, electrotherapy, hydrothreapy and muscle strengthening exercises.
Physiotherapy can reduce arthritic pain and reliance on drug therapy. Unlike pharmaceuticals, physiotherapy has no side effects and no contraindications.
Musculoskeletal physiotherapy encompasses the majority of work done in private practice. Physiotherapists treat back and neck pain, muscle strains, spasams and contusions (bruising), joint injuries, tendinitis and bursitis, muscle imbalance or weakness.
Physiotherapy modalities are critical to the treatment and management of people with disabilities that have musculoskeletal elements. Quality of life is improved by therapy, education and prescription of aids (e.g. walking sticks) etc. Physiotherapists teach people with disabilities and their families how to improve mobility and teach carers how to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal injury.
Although arthritis is a cronic disease and there is no known cure, treatments and management techniques can help control and reduce the effects of the condition and prevent further deterioration, and may aid in prevention. There are a number of ways of reducing the risk of the onset of arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions:
Regular, moderate exercise aids in the prevention of musculoskeletal conditions and offers a host of benefits to people with arthritis and osteoporosis. Exercise can reduce joint pain and stiffenss, builds strong muscle around thejoints, and incerases flexability and endurance. Weight-bearing exercise assists in the maintenance of bone mass. Therefore, regular exercise shuch as walking, jogging, tennis or aerobic classes is recommended to help in the prevention of osteoporosis.
The highly skilled physiothreapists in our practice can design tailored exercise and aquatic programs to increase physical activity and function without aggravating any coexisting problems. We also provide realistic advice to encourage self-management and build self-confidence to allow patients to make decisions in coping with their condition.
If you have any further questions or require preventative Physiotherapy for DVT, please feel free to contact Scott at Sumner Physiotherapy on (07) 3279 3871.
You will need Adobe Reader to open our downloadable files.