Neck Pain!!!

Neck pain!!!   Neck pain!!!   Neck pain!!!

Neck pain is one of a very common ailment. Neck pain was commonly seen in older age group but due to today’s lifestyle it is one of a leading reason of discomfort and pain in younger generation too.

There are many reasons for neck pain. The most common reasons are…

• Prolapsed Intervertral disc commonly called as sliped disc
• Spondylosis (मानेचा संदिवाद )
• Muscle sprain/Injury etc.

There are other reasons with brain origin, spinal cord (मनका ) origin. 

As in any condition, the root cause of pain has to be found. For this certain tests are conducted while examining neck. If required investigative modalities as X-rays, MRI, CT-Scan etc is used.

The usual symptoms in neck pain are

• Pain during movements of neck
• Tingling in both or 1 hand (हातात मुंग्या येणे ; ज़ुन्ज़ुनाहट , करंट  की  तरह )
• Numbness in 1 or both hand (हात सुन्न होणे )
• Giddiness (चककर )
• Difficulty to lie down because of neck pain (सरळ  झोपायला त्रास होणे )
• Difficulty to get up from sleeping position etc.

In this post I am going to discuss physiotherapy predominantly for 2 common causes

• Cervical spondylosis
• Postural- Mechanical pain

Consider Mr. Painbole

He is a 32 yr old IT professional. He has a sitting job where he is in front of laptop for hours at times which are usually continuous for 4-5 hrs. So due to work he has developed a habit of maintaining a position for very long time. Maintaining  position for long time causes lots of problems in body tissues.

Picture below has schematic representation of neck bones and surrounding muscles.

Mr. Painbole sits with slouched back and forward neck. Such a posture causes strain on surrounding muscles especially in neck area.

 Slowly muscles and other tissues start getting weak which loads on bones. This leads to degenerative changes in bones leading to early spondylosis. 

How physiotherapy can help you??

Physiotherapy aims at,

1. Reducing pain
2. Bringing movements to normalcy
3. Improving strenght of muslces
4. Ergonomic advice

Pain is reduced with help of modalities as TENS, Hot water fermentation, Ice therapy,  SWD, Mulligan-Pain relief with movements etc.  Along with pain relief neck, Shoulder girdle etc movements are improved slowly. Static exercises are started early on and are main component of exercise program  for neck.

Ergonomic advice goes hand-in-hand with the remaining treatment. If the required changes and modification are not done in posture, Mr.Painbole will have repeated pain occurrences. 

(For details Contact Rehab World Physiotherapy Clinic)

Physiotherapy in दमा (Breathlessness) - Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Many times patient come to mi complaining that “मला दम लागतो”, मुझे दम लगता है ”, "मेरी सास फूलती है ”, "I get breathless"....

The reason for this breathlessness can be many. It can be because of less haemoglobin, it can be because of lung problems, it can be because of heart problems, it can be because of muscle problem etc.  A good physician will find the root cause of the problem.

This post is on breathlessness because of lung problems and how physiotherapy can help in lung conditions.

There are many lung conditions as Asthma, COPD, Bronchiectasis Cystic Fibrosis etc. These conditions lead to symptoms as cough, breathlessness, fatigue etc.

Lungs are the organ in our body through which oxygen is given to body and carbondioxide is removed from our body.

With damage to this  exchange system at any stage of the  above cycle, appropriate amount of oxygen can’t reach body parts as brain, muscle etc.

The movement of oxygen is hampered. So as our motto says “ Keep moving for healthy living”, physiotherapy helps movement of oxygen such that adequate amount reaches body parts. 

Physiotherapy helps at two levels

1^st - at level of lungs

2^nd- at level of muscles

1^st – at level of lungs

Due to the disease activity in lungs, various symptom’s appear as,

• Increase in cough (खोकला, ख़ासी )
• Thick sputum (बल्गम)
• Breathlessness (दम)
• Wheezing (श्वास घ्यायला कठिन होणे , स्वासाचा आवाज़ येणे) etc.

With the help of physiotherapy, these symptoms are relieved. Physiotherapy uses various methods as,

 

• Different kinds of breathing exercise.
•  Positioning of body such that it helps drain excess mucus (बल्गम) out
• Improving mobility of chest so that movement of lungs improves
• Improves strength of muscles of respiration
• Relaxation (specific to lung condition) etc.

2^nd- at level of muscles

Physiotherapy focuses on improving muscles in such a way that they can do there maximal activity with minimal oxygen. This means that muscle are improved so that they will require less oxygen.

For this various exercise of upper body and lower body are done. But in Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Upper body is focused as upper body is close to lungs which helps lungs to function better.

These exercise includes stretching, aerobic exercise, strength exercise etc.

During the whole course of Pulmonary Rehabilitation, care is taken that the present symptoms are not aggrevated.

In this way Physiotherapy will help in lung condition to reduce the damage to the lungs and help to cope with the symptoms of the condition.