Physical Therapy in East Northport
Compartment Syndrome is a very rare condition, which sees less than 20,000 cases in the United States per year. Compartment Syndrome can be very dangerous and very painful. It happens when there is pressure buildup from internal bleeding or swelling of the tissues. A deeper look into what happens is that blood or fluid fills a compartment where a wall of tissue called the fascia struggles to expand because it isn’t meant to. In emergency situations, surgery is required to relieve the pressure buildup. Compartment Syndrome may be caused by a broken arm or leg or by the actual treatment of the fracture, whether it be the casting or the surgery itself.
Whether there is surgery involved or not, a physical therapist will play an important role. They will help you to regain your range of motions in your arm, leg, knee, or whatever else it is that has compartment syndrome. The physical therapist may help you gain strength in your core so that you are better stabilized as your arms and legs are in motion. The physical therapist may also use techniques such as massaging and may also use tools like ultrasound to help improve the flexibility of tissue and speed recovery.
If you are looking for a physical therapist on Long Island who can help you recover from your compartment syndrome, using Island Sports Physical Therapy is the right choice. Island Sports Physical Therapy has six locations in total, making it easier than ever to get to one of the branches. They have one located in each of Nesconset, Coram, East Northport, Huntington, East Meadow, and Glen Cove. The physical therapists at Island Sports Physical Therapy are top notch and will do everything they can to help you properly recover and excel after compartment syndrome surgery.
National Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month
July is here and it is National Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month. It is important to recognize that although arthritis is more prevalent in older adults, it afflicts people of all ages including children. Understanding the disease and including its’ symptoms and treatment options can be beneficial to the child in the long term.
Taking the proper precautions to help prevent arthritic symptoms in children, will make their prognosis more manageable. Keeping the child at a healthy weight by eating well and exercising will help reduce the intensity of flare-ups as well as promote overall health and well-being. Teaching your child safety when getting active and playing sports will help prevent potential injuries. Sports injuries are also a huge trigger of arthritis, so doing your best to prevent an injury will also help in reducing your chances of being symptomatic. For children who have not already been diagnosed with juvenile arthritis, an injury in childhood may lead to arthritis down the line. This is why it is critical to visit a physical therapist if you have an injury. A physical therapist will help optimally heal your injury that will help you avoid further complications down the line. In addition, a physical therapist will teach you exercises to relieve arthritic pain as well as strengthen the muscles around the afflicted area so that it takes the pressure off of that area.
The month of July is a great time to educate yourself on all things related to arthritis as well as help spread the word. Whether it’s due to an injury or genetic or environmental factors, Juvenile Arthritis is something to be concerned with. If you live in the Long Island area, Island Sports Physical Therapy has locations in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties to help you assuage arthritic pain as well the proper healing of various injuries. Call us today!
Cycling Safety
Cycling is a great mode of transportation if you are traveling locally; it is also a great form of exercise. Whichever reason you are cycling, it is good to practice safety methods because there are a lot of potential risks involved.
Cycling incidents often happen as a result of a crash with other cars on the road. Not being aware of your surroundings when driving can open you up to the possibility of potential injuries. Avoid wearing headphones as they inhibit your ability to react to changes in road conditions resulting from traffic. Cycling accidents are also caused by the conditions of the road including conditions due to weather. One of the other most important things to do when cycling is to wear a helmet at all times, this is a precautionary measure to take because if you do happen to fall or get in an accident you’ll at least have some protection of your head. Also one of the best ways to stay safe when cycling is to simply obey the rules of the road and avoid aggressive riding. If you need to cycle at night, make sure you are riding in properly lit areas as well as have reflectors on your bike. Wearing fluorescent clothing that is easily visible at night is also a great safety precaution.
Prior to cycling, it is important that you stretch. Dynamic stretches will prep your muscles for the tasks at hand. Whether it’s some jumping jacks or walking lunges, stretches will help warm-up your muscles and help you to avoid injury. If you notice any pain or discomfort during your bike ride it is important to seek out medical attention immediately. Often catching an injury early gives you a better prognosis in the long run. At Island Sports Physical Therapy, our physical therapists can help evaluate your pain and provide a course of treatment so that you can cycle pain-free.
Cycling is a great thing all around for your own health as well as creating fewer carbon emissions by not driving a car. As long as you respect the rules of the road and everyone else on it and take the proper precautions for protective equipment your chances of getting into an accident are greatly reduced and will be able to have the most enjoyable experience while cycling.
With 6 locations in the Long Island area in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties, Island Sports Physical Therapy is here to serve you. Contact us to make an appointment today!
Dangerous Workouts
Being in good shape benefits the human body not only physically, but mentally as well. Studies show that those who exercise regularly have better cardiovascular, metabolic, and mental health than those who don’t. However, it is important that you don’t push your body too far to the point where you are harming yourself more than you are benefiting yourself. Overtraining occurs when the body goes through physical trauma and stress at a faster rate than it can recover. It is important that you know the causes and symptoms of overtraining and how to adequately rest and recover from physical activity.
If your muscles are constantly sore, you find yourself tired even after adequate rest, you are irritable, or noticing returning bodily pain, you might be overtraining. In order to prevent this, experts suggest taking sufficient rest after working out and spacing out the days you work out. If this isn’t a viable option, it is important that you should incorporate active rest into the end of your workout in order to properly heal your body. One should also make sure that they maintain a balanced diet and consume enough calories to match what their body is burning, as well as vitamins and nutrients.
Island Sports Physical Therapy has six convenient locations on Long Island and has the knowledge, experience, and resources to maximize your physical performance. They strive on educating their patients along with individualized treatments in order to solidify the patient’s recovery and prevent re-injury for years to come. ISPT knows the benefit of hard work on their part combined with hands-on care in order to ensure maximum recovery for those they serve.
As physical therapists, they understand the benefits of working out and staying healthy and have the necessary training in order to ensure that your workouts are constructive and injury free. They can provide you with the best fitness plan available for your current needs. They cater to all ages and understand how beneficial exercise can be to older people and the steps and precautions that need to be taken in order to ensure total functionality and healthy aging.
Island Sports Physical Therapy has locations in East Northport, Huntington, Nesconset, Coram, East Meadow, and Glen Cove. They can be reached online at https://islandsportspt.com, or their administrative office can be reached by phone at 631-462-9595.
Common Causes of Carpal Tunnel Pain
Wondering what carpal tunnel pain is? Carpal tunnel pain is a numbing weakness that goes through the hand due to pressure on the median nerve in the wrist. This nerve controls the movement and feeling in the thumb and the first three fingers. The cause of carpal tunnel pain is the pressure on the median nerve that causes the nerve to swell. There can be a lot of factors why the nerve swells.
One factor may be an illness that contributes to arm pain, swelling in the joints and soft tissues in the arm to reduce blood flow to the hands. The illnesses or conditions that can cause these pains can include obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, diabetes, lupus, and hypothyroidism.
Broken wrist bones dislocated bones that cause new bone growth from the healing of bones or bone spurs takes up room in the carpal tunnel which puts more pressure on the median nerve.
Carpal tunnel pain can also be caused by work-related factors. Work-related factors could include repeated hand and wrist motions. Repeated motions cause the membranes around the tendons to swell. Other work-related factors that can contribute to pain are forceful or repetitive hand movements, hand-arm vibration, or working for long periods in the same or awkward positions.
If you think you are getting carpal tunnel pain, pay attention to your symptoms. If your hand feels numb or “falls asleep” often, that can be the first sign. If you have numbness, tingling and pain in strictly your thumb and first three fingers, that can also be a sign of carpal tunnel pain. Other symptoms would include burning pain that travels up your arm, wrist pain that interferes with sleep, or weakness in the muscles of the hand.
Curing carpal tunnel pain can be nonsurgical or surgical depending on the pain and symptoms. Nonsurgical treatment to avoid surgery would include avoiding positions that overextend your wrist, wrist splint that holds your hand in a neutral position during the day or night, pain medication to reduce inflammation, treatment of underlying conditions such as diabetes or arthritis, and steroid injections into your carpal tunnel area to reduce inflammation.
Before you let your body get surgery, you should listen to your body. If you feel pain, chances are there is something wrong. So exercise your wrists but don’t overextend it, make sure they’re comfortable when you’re sleeping, and get help by a physical therapist before you consider surgery.
Benefits of PT For People Over 65
Usually, when people think of physical therapy, they think of people addressing injuries they may have suffered through playing sports or rebuilding muscle tone after surgery. However, people ages 65 and older are starting to participate in physical therapy just to stay in shape, prevent diseases, and other medical ailments like arthritis, Parkinson’s, or to simply enhance balance and strength.
Geriatric Rehabilitation is booming as it is recommended by many to “fight aging”. Although no one can literally fight to age, geriatric rehabilitation definitely helps to make older people feel more nimble. It is said that by the age of 65, just about everyone has arthritis in their spine, it’s just a matter of whether they experience symptoms or not. With geriatric rehabilitation, seniors can combat this arthritis with the assistance of a trained professional, rather than medicinal methods which can be harmful to your body. Rehabilitation’s main focus is to allow the elderly to gain and maintain their independence as they can get around unassisted and take care of themselves. Life expectancy around the world is increasing due to geriatric rehabilitation. This is because it directly affects a person’s frailty, speed, and ability to live independently, which are all important factors in life expectancy, especially as one gets older.
The physical therapists at Island Sports Physical Therapy can help with geriatric rehabilitation, as they address the unique physical and medical problems associated with aging. The geriatric rehabilitation offered at Island Sports Physical Therapy helps blood-pressure control, diabetes control, enhancing muscle strength, enhancing balance, and the prevention of osteoporosis. Choosing Island Sports Physical Therapy would be a wise choice as they not only direct the geriatric rehabilitation, but they also incorporate aspects of teaching, prevention, fitness, and wellness into the geriatric rehabilitation program.
Golf Safety
With summer in full swing, everyone wants to get outside and hit the links for some leisure and some fun with friends. When out golfing it is important to practice safety strategies so that you can get through a full round of 18 holes without any negative side effects happening.
Most people would tend to think of golf as being one of the safest sports out there. For many cases, this may be correct. However, because of the physicality of the sport, injuries can happen and it is important to be proactive. Like with any sport, it is important that you have a thorough warm up before participating in it. In order to protect yourself from injury, doing dynamic stretching is important to getting your muscles prepper for the activity ahead is beneficial. For golf in particular, focusing on the arms, shoulders, and abdomen is the correct first step.
It is also a known fact by many health professionals that carrying a golf bag that is too heavy can lead to back problems such as poor alignment. Leaving your golf bag on a golf cart or using a push cart is a safer method. If you have tension in your back before you even start the game you can be further injured when swinging the golf club.
Another thing to be on the lookout for while on the course is stray golf balls. Not everyone who is playing golf on your course is a seasoned golfer and sometimes people hit their ball array. Also if you do shank your ball, make sure to yell fore so fellow golfers know to take cover: It is proper etiquette and is a safe method. Another thing to be aware of is the weather, many golf courses like the beautiful golf courses in Smithtown, New York such as Smithtown Landing are open courses which leave you unprotected from the sun. Staying hydrated and wearing a proper hat and sunscreen will protect yourself from potential heat illness or sunburn.
Golfing is a great sport and is a fun and social activity to enjoy with friends or work colleagues. It is a great way to get outside and enjoy the weather as well as get some exercise. By practicing good safety techniques, it will allow you to have the most enjoyable experience possible for games to come.
Lyme Disease Prevention
Lyme disease is a common worry during the late spring and summer months. Living on Long Island, especially out on the east end where it is heavily wooded in many areas, the concern of a rogue tick leaching itself onto you, or even your child is very real. Residents in the Northeastern states, the Mid-Atlantic states and in the upper midwest region are at a greater risk than any other region of coming into contact with Lyme disease.
Island Sports Physical Therapy (ISPT), serving the residents of Nassau and Suffolk counties since 1985 wants you to be prepared this summer to avoid getting Lyme disease. Some of the symptoms associated with Lyme disease fall under flu-like symptoms, red expanding skin rash, Bell’s Palsy (facial muscle weakness), severe headache and nerve stiffness, fainting, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, shooting pains, pain/swelling in large joints, and light headedness.
According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) in Atlanta, about 300,000 infections of Lyme disease occur each year. Lyme disease is spread through the bite of one infected tick. The tick that is most commonly associated with spreading Lyme disease is called the black legged tick.
The black legged tick is most commonly found anywhere through the eastern seaboard and like many ticks, can be found in humid environments with thick vegetation.
It is almost summer time and odds are you want to be spending the majority of your time outdoors and enjoying Summer activities and long nights outside around a campfire. So what are some steps that you can take to make sure you can avoid getting a tick bite? For starters, the CDC recommends that you use repellent that contains 20% or more DEET (diethyltoluamide) the most common, active ingredient in insect repellent. When applying insect repellent, focus it more on your legs and clothing. Do not get it on your hands, face or in your eyes.
You should also perform daily tick checks at the end of every day or outdoor activity on yourself and children. Areas you want to pay close attention to are under the arms, in and around the ears, inside the belly button, back of the knees, in and around all head and body hair, in between the legs and around the waist.
If you are hiking, playing in the backyard, or in an area with thick vegetation, try and avoid walking through bushes or grass that is above ankle height. If you do, a good technique is to wear your socks around your pant legs or pull them all the way up to your mid-calf section. As much as we want to wear flip flops or sandals during the summer month, it is always a good idea to wear sneakers with socks when doing outdoor activities to avoid a rogue tick attaching itself to you.
ISPT wants you to have a happy, healthy and safe summer. So start your summer off right, avoid any risk of coming into contact with Lyme disease and take the necessary precautions in order to assure you or your children do not develop the risk of Lyme disease.
Senior Physical Therapy
Fitness programming is a very important part of beginning a healthy lifestyle, it is especially important in the senior community. There are many benefits to fitness programming and there are many things that can contribute to help a fitness program such as physical therapy and resistance training.
In terms of creating a program of resistance training with physical therapy, you have to be sure to make a fair decision of where you are dividing your time as well as what should be focused on more. For seniors, it is best for seniors to focus on full body strengthening with an emphasis on balance. When working with a physical therapist, seniors can reduce the chance of falls significantly, while also help reducing pain and increase mobility. This will allow seniors to gain some independence back, safely and effectively.
Many seniors suffer from osteoporosis, so this is why it is a good idea to have some resistance and strength training into the fitness program so that they can increase bone mass and density as well as alleviate arthritis. With all these added health benefits, psychological and emotional benefits also increase. Having a better sense of independence leads seniors to have a better sense of confidence and just overall living a better lifestyle. Learning the different movements in physical therapy can also be beneficial in that they can teach things that can alleviate the discomfort that they are feeling at home if they can’t make it into the office or to a gym. Just a few simple activation exercises or even some easy everyday activities with some added resistance to them can mean the world of difference.
Fitness programming is something that should be looked at by every age bracket to improve his or her physical fitness and health but is something that someone living in the senior age bracket should consider a necessity. When looking at all the health benefits of a good fitness program with a trained physical therapist. it is an absolute no brainer for any senior to improve their lifestyle and lead a longer life.
Avoiding Heat Exhaustion on Long Island
With summer approaching, there are many fun outdoor activities to participate in. Although everyone will be itching to get outside and have fun it is important to do everything you can to avoid heat exhaustion during outdoor activities. Heat exhaustion happens more often than some people may think but it’s also easily avoidable as long as you follow some simple guidelines.
One of the most important things to do is to make sure that you stay hydrated; this means drinking water at regular intervals even when you aren’t particularly thirsty. It is recommended that while participating in outdoor activities that you should drink 2 to 4 glasses of water every hour, you can even mix in a sports beverage instead of water in order to replace the salt that your body loses. When it comes to drinking fluids make sure you are not drinking beverages with alcohol in them because this can lead to becoming dehydrated even quicker. If you must drink, alternating between nonalcoholic beverages can help keep your body hydrated. Another thing to make sure of is that the beverages you are consuming aren’t too cold because this can lead to cramping. A precautionary method that can be taken to avoid heat exhaustion is to limit your outdoor activity to the morning and evening hours this way it is still somewhat cool out. When you outdoors make sure to rest in shady areas regularly to limit yourself to exposure to the sun as well as to give your body a break. Make sure to also to wear protective clothing from the sun like a hat and sunglasses as well as to wear and reapply sunscreen throughout the day!
The summer months are always the best out of the year, which makes everyone anxious to get outside and enjoy them, this is why making sure you are taking the appropriate precautions to avoid heat exhaustion while performing outdoor activities is critical. Heat exhaustion is dangerous and not something to be taken lightly, but following these guidelines, you’ll be able to enjoy your summer the right way and heat exhaustion free.