Why it's important. Stretching keeps the muscles flexible, strong, and healthy, and we need that flexibility to maintain a range of motion in the joints. Without it, the muscles shorten and become tight. ... Healthy muscles also help a person with balance problems to avoid falls.

Decreased stress
Chronic stress can produce a number of undesirable responses in the body, including increased feelings of anxiety, fatigue and tension. Regularly stretching has been shown to reduce mental tension and, when combined with mindful breathing techniques, may also help to decrease anxiety and depression..

Reduced pain and stiffness
Excessive muscular tension can increase discomfort throughout the body. However, studies have shown that regularly performing static stretching can help to decrease stiffness, reduce pain levels (especially in individuals with chronic neck or low-back pain), and may even reduce the frequency and severity of muscle cramps.

What is postural syndrome?
Postural syndrome is an umbrella term for condition where pain can be felt in several common locations all the way from the lower back to the neck and shoulders. Even hands and upper limbs and the feet and lower limbs can have pain that is directly or indirectly related to postural syndrome. For example direct pain would be trigger points and ischaemic pain in the buttocks or posterior thigh from prolonged sitting, whereas indirect Lower limb pain may include adaptive shortening/tightness in the hip flexors giving anterior hip pain or even referring pain down the ITB region and lateral knee.

In a typical (and early) Postural Syndrome there is no significant damage or trauma to tissue. Patients with postural syndrome only experience an ache or pain during activities placing sustained stress on normal tissue.

The mechanism of pain onset in postural syndrome can be demonstrated by gently bending your index finger backwards until you feel a stretch. At this point there is no tissue damage or pain, however, if you maintain this position for long enough, your finger will gradually become painful or ache. Postural syndrome in the spine occurs in a similar fashion and typically occurs due to sitting or standing in poor positions for prolonged periods of time.  

Far too many people are unaware of the major benefits of physical therapy. While people are uneducated as to what all physical therapy can help treat, they opt to other remedies or treatments that are not nearly as helpful.

While so many people turn to physical therapy for the obvious ailments such as sport’s injuries etc., a decent amount of people are unaware of the benefits of physical therapy for other diseases and conditions. Keep reading to learn about the conditions that physical therapy and rehabilitation in Arlington can help treat that you perhaps didn’t know about.

Meniere's disease is an inner ear disease that typically affects one ear. This disease can cause pressure or pain in the ear, severe cases of dizziness or vertigo, hearing loss and a ringing or roaring noise, also known as tinnitus. Although Meniere's disease can affect people of any age, people in their 40s and 50s are much more likely to experience it. This condition is considered to be chronic and there is no cure, but there are various treatment strategies that will minimize the effect on your life and relieve symptoms.

People with Meniere's will have sudden dizzy spells after experiencing tinnitus or muffled hearing. Symptoms vary from person to person, and some will experience many attacks over a period of several days, and others will have an isolated attack every once in awhile.

Potential Causes or Triggers
Although there is no exact cause of Meniere's, scientists believe that it has something to do with high pressure of the fluid in part of the inner ear. Passages and cavities connect throughout the inner ear, also called a labyrinth. The outside of the inner ear is a bone structure, while the interior is a soft membrane. This part of the ear contains tiny sensors that resemble hairs and respond to the movement of fluid, or endolymph, through the area. Potential causes or triggers of Meniere's disease include:

What You Need to Know
•    Radiculopathy describes a range of symptoms produced by the pinching of a nerve root in the spinal column.
•    The pinched nerve can occur at different areas along the spine (cervical, thoracic or lumbar).
•    Symptoms of radiculopathy vary by location but frequently include pain, weakness, numbness and tingling.
•    A common cause of radiculopathy is narrowing of the space where nerve roots exit the spine, which can be a result of stenosis, bone spurs, disc herniation or other conditions.
•    Radiculopathy symptoms can often be managed with nonsurgical treatments, but minimally invasive surgery can also help some patients.

What is radiculopathy?
Your spine is made of many bones called vertebrae, and your spinal cord runs through a canal in the center of these bones. Nerve roots split from the cord and travel between the vertebrae into various areas of your body. When these nerve roots become pinched or damaged, the resulting symptoms are called radiculopathy.

Definition
Your foot is an intricate network of bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles. Strong enough to bear your body weight, your foot can be prone to injury and pain.

Foot pain can affect any part of your foot, from your toes to your Achilles tendon at the back of your heel.
Although mild foot pain often responds well to home treatments, it can take time to resolve. Your doctor should evaluate severe foot pain, especially if it follows an injury.

Causes
Injury, overuse or conditions causing inflammation involving any of the bones, ligaments or tendons in the foot can cause foot pain. Arthritis is a common cause of foot pain. Injury to the nerves of the feet may result in intense burning pain, numbness or tingling (peripheral neuropathy).

If you live with arthritis, chances are you feel the painful effects in your feet. “Feet are tremendously affected by arthritis,” says Vinicius Domingues, MD, a rheumatologist in Daytona Beach, Florida, and medical advisor for CreakyJoints.

Indeed, osteoarthritis (OA), the most common type of arthritis, affects the feet of one in six people over the age of 50. With rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the most common type of inflammatory autoimmune arthritis, more than 90 percent of patients develop symptoms in the foot and ankle over the course of the disease. In about 20 percent of RA cases, foot and ankle symptoms are even among the first signs of the disease.

It’s not surprising that you can feel arthritis in your feet: The disease predominantly affects your joints, and your foot contains more than 30 joints.

Low Back Pain Facts

•    Low Back Pain also called Lumbago

•    More than 3 Million U.S. cases per year

•    Low back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide.

•    Back pain is one of the most common reasons for missed work.  In fact, back pain is the second most common reason for visits to the doctor’s office, outnumbered only by upper-respiratory infections.

•    Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on back pain.

Bursitis is a painful condition that affects the joints. Bursae are fluid-filled sacs that act as a cushion between bones, tendons, joints, and muscles. When these sacs become inflamed it is called bursitis.

It is a relatively common condition, but many people treat it at home and do not see a doctor, so it is hard to know how common it is.

There are over 150 bursae in the human body. They cushion and lubricate points between the bones, tendons, and muscles near the joints.

The bursae are lined with synovial cells. Synovial cells produce a lubricant that reduces friction between tissues. This cushioning and lubrication allows our joints to move easily.

When a person has bursitis, or inflammation of the bursa, movement or pressure is painful.
Overuse, injury, and sometimes an infection from gout or rheumatoid arthritis may cause bursitis. Tennis elbow is one type of bursitis.

Just as your favorite pair of jeans can become worn and threadbare in the knees, your tendons can also develop chronic injury through wear-and-tear.

 There are 3 tendons that connect the hamstring muscles (in red) to the sit bone in the pelvis.

Why does chronic tendinopathy occur?

There are 3 tendons in the back of the thigh that connect the hamstring muscles to the ischial tuberosity (the sit bone) in the pelvis. When people engage in sports or activities that subject these tendons to repetitive motions, the elastic collagen proteins in the tendon become injured and start to break down, causing degeneration of the tendon.

What is the labrum?
The hip is a ball and socket joint. The ball is made up of the top end of the thigh bone or femur. The socket is made up of the pelvis bone and is called the acetabulum. The labrum is a fibrocartilaginous structure on the rim of the socket which attaches in continuity with the articular cartilage of the socket.

 

What is the function of the labrum?
The labrum contributes to hip stability by deepening the socket and provides a seal of the hip joint.

Can physical therapy help with diabetes?
You probably know someone with diabetes. It always hits the top list of conditions that affect both children and adults across America. Most people know that medication can help diabetes, but a less known fact is how physical therapy can help manage it. Here is a few things PTs can do to help not only manage but improve a diabetic condition.

What is diabetes?
Diabetes usually falls into 2 categories: Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus or Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. The difference between the two is the way the body produces and responds to a hormone called insulin. Insulin is important because it is responsible for helping the body absorb sugars. In type 1 diabetes the body is not able produce insulin, but this type is not as prevalent. In type 2 diabetes the body makes insulin, however the body can’t use nor respond to it normally. In either condition, without your body’s ability to use sugars and other carbohydrates, your organs and vital body processes cannot function well.